Die kommunikatiewe struktuur in eietydse gereformeerde prediking – van liniêre na sirkulêre gang?

Abstract

Communicative structure in contemporary reformed preaching – from linear to circular process? Reformed preaching stems from a tradition in which Scripture has been viewed as the primary source for composing a sermon (the Sola Scriptura principle). In this tradition a sermon is composed starting with the exposition of the text, and then proceeding to the application of its message in the context of contemporary listeners. This process may lead to the perception that the communicative structure of this kind of preaching functions in a linear fashion. Since the second half of the twentieth century ever-stronger critical voices have surfaced against a linear communicative structure in preaching, and a tendency to emphasise listeners’ needs has manifested itself. Hermeneutical interchange between text and listener in the process of understanding has become the prime concern. The result of this new focus has been a growing trend among homiletical scholars to define and qualify the communicative structure in a sermon as a circular process. Taking note of critical voices against the traditional linear model, it is thus attempted to investigate the possibility of a third way – a way in which the authority of the message of the biblical text with the unchanging truth that proceeds from it, as well as the unique- ness of the situation of contemporary listeners is fully taken into account. The point of departure is taken in a spatial model in which the simultaneous action of listening to the text as well as to contemporary listeners is anchored in an underlying depth-structure, that is, the pneumatological anchoring of faith in the living Christ.