A tale of two roads: Homiletics and biblical authority

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 2000 by Allen, David L

Back to the slippery, sloping ground. Johnston then notes that "the truth of our preaching is not dependent on our rational ability to uncover and dispense the gospel."44 I am rather uneasy at this point, for it appears to me that Johnston, by the use of the codeword "rational," is making the subtle but usual point against propositional revelation in the Bible. He relieves my anxiety a bit when he notes that more is necessary for the truthfulness of preaching "than when it corresponds with the experiences of listeners"45 (disagreeing with the claim of one of his co-authors that a preacher's statements are true when they are verified by what really happens in the world). But in the final paragraph of this section, he ultimately remains in Derrida's grasp when he asks, "Will truth remain simply an object, something that we can be certain about, some `thing' that we can study at the center of our finite systems, or will truth be understood as an active subject-God on the move."46 The truth of Jesus Christ "undermines our notions of security and would, by mysterious means, transform our experience of all that is."47

Johnston uses a favorite word of deconstructionists: "mystery." It and its cognates occur four times in his discussion. I am reminded of the cogent warning of Roger Lundin's critique of the Derridian carnival that "Christians may find themselves especially beguiled by the blandishments of deconstruction if they confuse poststructural indeterminacy with the idea of mystery."48 The Biblical concept of mystery is "predicated upon a belief that all truth is eschatological . . . In the New Testament, the kerygma of the gospel announces the mysterion, which is the eternal counsel of God. . . . The full disclosure of the mystery awaits the parousia of Christ. The indeterminacy promoted in poststructuralism is a very different thing from a biblical sense of mystery."49 Somehow I think Johnston's idea of "mystery" is Derridian at its core, even if he does not accept a Mark Taylor-reading of Derrida.

This work by Allen, Blaisdell, and Johnston reveals the encroachment that postmodern deconstruction is making (or they hope will be making) in homiletics. There is a clear rejection of anything resembling evangelical theology (they usually refer to it as "fundamentalism"). Preaching must be more "humble," less assertive of hard and fast truths. Objective truth revealed in the words of Scripture is eclipsed, and the entire focus is on the subject-God on the move, bringing a truth at the outskirts of our structures. I wonder what the apostle Paul would say about all of this?

IV. BACK TO THE ROAD WITH RICOEUR: REALITY THROUGH METAPHOR AND NARRATIVE

Fortunately, not everyone in this postmodern age is taken with the Derridian approach. In philosophical hermeneutics, a more balanced pose is struck by Paul Ricoeur. It would be difficult to overestimate the profound influence the work of French phenomenologist Ricoeur has exerted upon hermeneutics, Biblical studies and theology. Ronald Allen suggests that Ricoeur's hermeneutical theory "is becoming as canonical to the present generation of Biblical scholars as was the demythologizing program of Rudolf Bultmann a generation ago."5 His three-volume magnum opus Time and Narrative (1984-1988) sets forth his own thinking in this area. In the summary toward the end of his third volume, Ricoeur concludes that the way human beings conceive of their identity is primarily through narrative. Furthermore, it is narrative which provides the primary signs and symbols through which meaning is appropriated in human experience.51