Abstract
When it comes to debating the background of this article, the matter of preaching to people in a post-pandemic postmodernist world is standing central. One should always acknowledge that listeners do not listen with their ears only. In their quest of listening to sermons, people are looking for meaningfulness. In the act of listening, listeners’ senses are optimally utilised because, in the active listening process, they start to listen along with seeing and feeling, as they are being introduced to the feelings or emotions that emanate from a particular message. It is the authors’ objective to pay attention to listeners that are seeking to embrace the truth. Therefore, the sacramental essence of transform people’s lives, and for them to look in the right direction for answers in their search, and that cannot be underestimated. This article delineates the idea that preaching the gospel amounts to more than a mere stirring up of emotions. In fact, in a post-pandemic postmodernist world where listeners yearn for answers amid afflictions, profound preaching requires a renewed interest in the feelings emanating from the text itself. Our research question phrases the matter as follows: Does preaching to post-pandemic postmodernist people centre on an emotional tone of speaking, or does it, instead, centre on the feelings evoked by the text itself? This question is addressed by adhering to Dingemans’ visualisation of a research project that reckons with descriptive, normative and strategic perspectives. We, as the authors, aim to indicate the result of this investigation in the following manner: Although emotional manipulation may be a pitfall, one cannot ignore that persuasive preaching is intentional and aims to move listeners to find delight in the emotional appeal made by the passage in the gospel. Viewed from a Reformational viewpoint, this research could better illuminate the challenges preachers face in communicating to listeners in a postmodern post-pandemic world.Contribution: This article contributes by offering homiletical perspectives to two waves that have an interplay, namely postmodernism and reality within a post-pandemic world. Preaching the gospel that deals with the feelings in the text could provide an impetus to this kind of praxis.
Highlights
Alvin Toffler’s book, The future shock (1980), remains influential
The intention is to suggest that preaching to listeners in this challenging time is not something that requires a new fashion of preaching, but rather to reflect on the importance of preaching the emotional appeal of the passage from the gospel
A message in which the cognitive aspects function at the expense of emotional appeal could lead to a praxis in which only one sense, namely hearing is integrated
Summary
Alvin Toffler’s book, The future shock (1980), remains influential. In this book, Toffler (1980:23) is alerting people that the danger of experiencing too much too soon has the potential to confront people with an information overload. Descriptive analytical perspectives on the new normal of the post-pandemic postmodernist Van Huyssteen (2004:88) underlines the important idea that people want to relate with reality through their interpreted experience. Kandel (2006:16) builds on this idea and reflects on people’s memories, which enable them, to remember important past events, and to recall the exact emotion or feeling in the present This is even more relevant when preaching to listeners in a post-pandemic postmodernist world in which feelings and experiences stand central. In accordance with the visualisation of the methodological insights of Dingemans, as described at the beginning of this article, the present section will provide perspectives on how preachers should concentrate on the rhetorical movement and feelings in a text in order to guide listeners to experience these. Note: Compare with: Wiersbe, W.W., 2006, Preaching and teaching with imagination, pp. 41–55, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI
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