Patristic Principles for Post-Christendom Preaching: An Example of the History of Preaching in Service to the Church‪.‬

Connecting scholarship in the field of homiletics and the mission of the church is not rocket science. Every book in the field must include what one homiletician calls "the 'So What and Why Should I Care' chapter," (1) which considers how the scholarly endeavor plays out in the preacher's life and offers constructive proposals for preaching. The more removed the scholarly enterprise is perceived to be from Sunday preaching, the stronger this chapter needs to be. This is perhaps nowhere more true than in the sub field of the history of preaching. Scholars study great preachers and preaching traditions from the past in order to learn more about preaching for their day. Their questions concern homiletical-rhe-torical method, sermon form and content, hermeneutics and theories of interpretation, theologies of the act of proclamation and as sermon content, and pastorla core. (2) From my perspective, the greatest contribution that scholarship in the history of preaching makes to the ministry of the church is that it assures preachers that "what has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun" (Ec 1:9). Preachers who went before us faced the challenges we face and leave us their wisdom on how we might "proclaim Christ crucified, ...Christ the power of God and the wisdom of Gof" (1 Cor 1:23-24).