Training Preachers

A Guide to Teaching Homiletics

Scott Gibson

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781683592075
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Ministro del culto cristiano

There is a difference between knowing how to preach and knowing how to communicate that knowledge to others. Drawing from the wells of pedagogy and theology, Training Preachers shows teachers of homiletics how to educate preachers to skillfully and effectively present God's word to their congregations. Training Preachers presents the classroom-tested insights of several seasoned homiletics professors whose goal is to share their knowledge with preaching instructors ranging from novices to veterans. Expertly edited by Scott M. Gibson, this is a textbook on teaching preaching that is informed by Christian theology as well as cutting-edge pedagogical practices. The book enables those who teach preaching to holistically prepare to teach this subject to groups, conference gatherings, and classes in Bible colleges and seminaries.

1

The Place of Preaching Professors in Theological Education

SCOTT M. GIBSON

Theological schools are ideal settings for teaching, and the Christian tradition is a teaching tradition.1

The teaching of preaching has been part of the landscape of theological education since the establishment of formal theological training in North America. In this chapter, I will show that homiletics has its forebears in tributaries from various forms of practice, yet all underscore the important place of homiletics instruction.

This chapter focuses on the developing historical position of homiletics in the framework of theological instruction, which I will address first. Then, I will explore the contours of what the training of preachers has looked like from the past to the present. Next, I will focus on the education of teachers—the education of teachers of preaching. As a result of this study, I will list some challenges facing the present field of homiletics and what the implications might be for the future, as well as provide some suggestions for addressing the challenges.

THE PLACE OF PREACHING IN AMERICAN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

SURVEY OF HOMILETICS IN SEMINARIES

Harvard College was founded in 1636, not only to prepare ministers for the burgeoning Puritan colonies but also to prepare students in leadership for the various aspects of colonial society.2 By 1805, the Harvard faculty was persuaded to embrace Unitarianism and voted to appoint Henry Ware, a self-proclaimed Unitarian, to the Hollis Professorship of Divinity. This led some to break with Harvard and found Andover Seminary in 1808, which was based on orthodox Trinitarian theology.3

What is striking about the founding of institutions like Andover and other seminaries that followed is the primacy of preaching in the theological curriculum. Unlike the British universities like Oxford or Cambridge where clergy were trained and where preaching was not part of the curriculum, their American counterpart theological schools placed preaching in the forefront, moving it into a distinct academic discipline.

Even in Britain, however, there were notable exceptions to the prevailing model. Philip Doddridge, for example, led an academy where practical studies like preaching were taught to every theological student.4 Additionally, continental theologians like J. J. Van Oosterzee advocated for the “idea and importance of homiletics.”5 Van Oosterzee demonstrated high regard for homiletics in the theological curriculum, its place as a distinct discipline. He urged:

Christian Homiletics is that part of Practical Theology which describes the nature of and requirements for the preaching of the Gospel in the congregational assemblies of the Christian Church, with the definite object of training by this method well-qualified heralds of the Word of Life. As such it displays—however closely allied to the domain of art—the unequivocal character of a science, and one for the future minister of the Gospel absolutely indispensable. As such it is opposed only by ignorance and prejudice, although powerless in itself alone to form living and life-awakening witnesses of the Salvation in Christ.6

Andover Theological Seminary established the Bartlet Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric in 1808, provided by William Bartlet of Newburyport, Massachusetts.7 The catalogs of Andover Theological Seminary from 1819 to 1830 demonstrate the key role of homiletics in the curriculum, with students’ final year focusing on sermon development and the practice of preaching. Later, the 1850 catalog includes “Homiletics” and “Sermonizing.”8

Princeton Theological Seminary, founded in 1812, appointed Samuel Miller in 1813 as the Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government—“church government” meaning practical theology, including preaching. Miller lectured to third-year students on the practice of preaching.9 The Princeton faculty considered pulpit eloquence so important that as early as 1858 the teaching of speech was added to the curriculum to supplement the teaching of preaching.10

Harvard established its Divinity School in 1815, and by 1830 announced the funding of the Professor of Pastoral Care and Pulpit Oratory, teaching students the composition and delivery of sermons. Students at the school were exposed to the value of preaching in the curriculum for the churches they would serve. The catalog states:

A religious service, with preaching, in which one of the students officiates, takes place twice a week, and is attended by the Professors and all the members of the school. Also once a week there is an exercise in extemporaneous preaching, in the presence of one of the Professors, by the students of the two upper classes in rotation. Students take their turns in performing these exercises with the first term of the middle year.11

Another example of the prominent role of homiletics in the theological curriculum is Yale Divinity School, founded in 1822. By 1817 an informal divinity school was already functioning at the college with a few graduates who remained to study divinity. Yale’s commitment to preaching is indicated as early as the appointment in 1817 of Chauncey Allen Goodrich as professor of rhetoric and oratory.12 Then, by 1822 fifteen students of that year’s graduating class requested to study divinity following graduation. Professor of divinity Eleazar T. Fitch supported their request to the administration to be formed into a regular theological class, thus providing the impetus for the founding of the divinity school.13 The chair of homiletics was filled from 1822 to 1852 by Fitch, the Livingston Professor of Divinity.14

Other established seminaries later followed suit.15 The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, and moved to Kentucky following the Civil War.16 From its founding, John A. Broadus taught New Testament interpretation and homiletics. He is the author of On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons (1870), one of the most influential trans-denominational textbooks on preaching in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.17 In addition to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Garrett Theological Seminary (1853), Rochester Theological Seminary (1850), Crozer Theological Seminary (1866), Union Theological Seminary [New York] (1836), Union Theological Seminary [Virginia] (1812), the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church [New Brunswick Theological Seminary] (1784), Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia (1864), and Drew Theological Seminary (1867), among others, and more recently, Gordon Divinity School (1889), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (1897), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1908), New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (1917), Dallas Theological Seminary (1924), Denver Seminary (1951), Beeson Divinity School (1988), and George W. Truett Theological Seminary (1993) required courses in homiletics for students as they prepared for ministry.18

In his expansive study of theological education in America, Robert Kelly observed the following concerning the teaching of preaching in various theological schools:

Between these extremes of treatment, from the elementary one of method to the more profound one of thought and emotional expression, there are all kinds and quantities of work depending in some measure on facilities and size of staff. Among courses expressing current theory are the following: “modern preachers,” illustrated with examples and studies of preachers of the present day; “biography”; “doctrinal preaching” (Union College) “made necessary by the modern tendency to slight fundamentals in favor of matter of a more popular character”; “doctrinal and expository preaching” (Westminster Hall, Vancouver, BC); “preaching without manuscript”; “psychology of public presentation and adaptation to audiences, architecture and occasions” (Kimball School of Theology); “psychology of preaching” (Alfred Theological Seminary); “the preacher as a student” (Drake University College of the Bible); “sources of sermon material” (Evangelical Theological Seminary, Naperville, Illinois); “public prayer and public reading of the scriptures” (Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh); “addresses of Jesus, Peter, and Paul,” “social teachings of Amos,” “conversations of Jesus” (Newton Theological Institution). Union Theological Seminary begins brief sermons for second-year students only and goes on to six courses in doctrinal preaching and six in expository preaching. The Biblical Seminary in New York teaches homiletics in Italian for Italian students. Concordia Theological Seminary, Illinois, requires the preparation of some of the sermons in German. Suomi Synod requires that part of the work be in Finnish.19

Like the theological seminaries, Bible colleges and Bible institutes in the United States placed notable emphasis on the instruction and practice of preaching.20 This brief survey indicates that from the beginning of theological education in the United States, homiletics served as one of the key components taught in the curriculum to strengthen a minister’s education.

PROFESSORIAL DESIGNATIONS

The professor of preaching had various titles depending on the institution and the changing times. Since Christian homiletics was birthed in Greco-Roman rhetoric by Augustine the rhetorician,21 rhetoric being one of the key components of learning (i.e., logic, rhetoric, and grammar), some institutions early on called their professor of preaching the “Professor of Sacred Rhetoric.” For example, Andover Theological Seminary established the Bartlet Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric in 1808. The designation was changed in 1896 to Professor of Homiletics.22 Similarly, Newton Theological Institution inaugurated the Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Duties, and in 1882 changed the title to Professor of Homiletics, Pastoral Duties and Church Polity. Nearly fifty years later, in 1929, the title then became Professor of Preaching.23 Presently, titles for professors include Professor of Preaching,24 Professor of Homiletics,25 Professor of Preaching and Rhetoric,26 Professor of Expository Preaching,27 Professor of Communication,28 Professor of Pastoral Studies,29 and Professor of Christian Preaching.30

THE TRAINING OF PREACHERS FROM PAST TO PRESENT

As for the training of ministers in the task of preaching, there appear to be at least two approaches: apprenticeship and formal college-to-seminary instruction.

APPRENTICESHIP

From the earl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface (Scott M. Gibson)
• Introduction to the Teaching of Preaching (Scott M. Gibson)
• Chapter 1: The Place of Preaching Professors in Theological Education (Scott M. Gibson)
• Chapter 2: An Apology for Learning Educational Theory (Patricia M. Batten)
• Chapter 3: Help from Educational Theorists for Teaching Preaching (Victor Anderson)
• Chapter 4: Teach so Students Can Learn: Teaching Preaching and Learning Styles (John V. Tornfelt)
• Chapter 5: What a Freshly Minted Preaching Professor Needs to Know (Part 1) (Tony Merida)
• Chapter 6: What a Freshly Minted Preaching Professor Needs to Know (Part 2) (Blake Newsom)
• Chapter 7: Developing a Syllabus for a Homiletics Course (Sid Buzzell)
• Chapter 8: Learning Levels and Instructional Intentions (Sid Buzzell)
• Chapter 9: The Value of Feedback: Speaking the Truth in Love (Chris Rappazini)
• Chapter 10: Teaching with Trajectory: Equipping Students for the Lifelong Journey of Learning to Preach (Timothy Bushfield)
• Postscript: You Are an Educator (Scott M. Gibson)
• Appendix 1: Sermon Grading Rubric
• Appendix 2: Sermon Rubric Explained
• Contributors
• Name and Subject Index
• Scripture Index