WRESTLING WITH THE WORD:
Preaching Tricky Texts
Edited by Kate Bruce and Jamie Harrison
SPCK. 159 pages. £12.99
ISBN 978 0 281 076 482
Produced to celebrate 150 years of ‘Readers’ in the CofE, this symposium of sermons from 18 very varied contributors, along with perspectives drawn out by the editors, seeks to grapple with the challenges of preaching in our contemporary culture. It is largely generated out of Durham University and especially Cranmer Hall, which hosts ‘a research centre on engaging faith in digital culture’.
The opening chapters seek to wrestle with contemporary criticisms of preaching and to establish some theological principles on how to preach ‘tricky texts’. These are texts judged to be beyond human experience, or which are violent, terrifying, strange or abrasive and the wide intention is to help Bible readers and preachers. The book ends with perhaps its most instructive chapter, by David Day, on what he calls ‘the Application Emphasis’.
Recognising that how we regard the Bible must affect our use of it, the Scriptures are described as ‘God-breathed conversation partners’. There are helpful spin-offs from this concept, such as the need to listen carefully to the text, along with useful reminders about Scripture i l l u m i n a t i n g Scripture, and respecting genre. However, many of the examples seem to regard both ‘sides’ of the conversation as possessing equal importance or authority, which inevitably leads to a particular type of preaching.
The Bible is the accepted starting-point, but the preacher is in the driving-seat of the sermon, wrestling with a tricky text which he or she wishes were different, or even not there. In trying to dialogue with a more liberal theological position, this broadly evangelical apologia seeks to defend Scripture by wrestling it into a more readily acceptable presentation. The question remains, however, as to whether this ‘wrestling’ has subdued the text to become the servant of the preacher, rather than the other way round. The symposium is not short of interesting and stimulating ideas, but will there not necessarily be something of a spiritual vacuum at the heart of any sermon where the Bible is not unapologetically driving the content?
