Can Preaching Be Taught?

Abstract

Preaching—defined as sermon writing, exegesis, or discursive skill—appears to be teachable. On the other hand, is preaching, defined as announcing the gospel, hence the mysteries of God and God's redemptive work, teachable? Preaching the gospel embodies and, at the same time, transforms the three primary features of aesthetic art: creativity, emotional world-engagement, and imagination. If these artistic features are gifts prior to any teaching, then we may doubt that pedagogy can facilitate preaching the gospel. At the same time, however, teachers of preaching can identify students' artistic powers, stir them up, and expose alien paradigms and rhetorics that divert preaching from the gospel, redirecting them toward those that embody the gospel's true aims. In this sense, preaching can be taught.