Abstract
South African homiletics is in a crisis and it has – contrary to our expectation – nothing to do with either the presence or the influence of the great 19th-century theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher. In fact, this article shows that his absence stretches even deeper and wider than is often assumed. What makes this state in scholarship even more strange and remarkable is that the practice of preaching played an immense and crucial role in Schleiermacher’s own life and theology. By coming to know how this famous theologian as a preacher embodied the blending of different voices – preacher, church, Scripture and the Triune God – into the mystery of the one living voice of the gospel that speaks to us in the preaching event, this article tries to show why it is necessary and relevant to engage with Schleiermacher as a preacher who primarily thought about himself as a servant of the Word. Reading one of his sermons on sermons may stimulate theological thought beyond the borders and confinements of discipline and context.
Highlights
In most of the circles within Reformed theology and churches in South Africa, preaching is often described as being in some kind of state of emergency
Bethel Müller (2011:338), in what was probably one of his last academic writings, mentions that they (Coenie Burger, Dirkie Smit and himself) started in the mid-1970s with the influential and well-read series Woord teen die Lig, because they experienced such an emergency in preaching back. Is that he thinks that, despite their influence and good work done in and through this series, we are again there there! This line of thought resonates very strongly in the work of Johan Cilliers when he continues to comment on the similarity between the volks preaching in the Dutch Reformed Church during the years of apartheid (1960–1980) and the current state of preaching and how much of the moralism and pietism back is still present in the kind of religious activism heard in many sermons nowadays
We have a crisis concerning the state of preaching in many of the Reformed churches in South Africa, and this has nothing to do with either the presence or the influence of Schleiermacher’s theology or preaching in our history!
Summary
In most of the circles within Reformed theology and churches in South Africa, preaching is often described as being in some kind of state of emergency. We have a crisis concerning the state of preaching (and worship!) in many of (at least) the Reformed churches in South Africa, and this has nothing to do with either the presence or the influence of Schleiermacher’s theology or preaching in our history!
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