Scottish Baptist College

John Howard Yoder

Presently reading and loving this book by Mennonite scholar the late John Howard Yoder.

There are a number of theologians and writers who often come of age and their significance is recognised after their deaths. I think that Yoder is one such writer. I also think that his contributions (critically appropriated) could help Baptists understand something of their own identity. 

Not all of his work is equally accessible but this is a good book which shows how Christian 'practices' such as Baptism, justified on the basis of their own internal consistency (for that is the correctr starting point), can in turn bear witness to wider society as an example of how life can be lived. Yoder rejects the idea of two 'kingdoms' asserting that Jesus Christ is Lord over all and that the Church should bear witness to not only how things can be but in fact will be for the Kingdom is coming.

Baptists ofen wonder how from a position of the separation of Church and State Christians can engage with wider society - Yoder is writer who charts that course and in this work helps readers see how that can be done.

(Stuart Blythe)

The dangers of deadly preaching...

Recently was doing some lectures under the title of Preaching as Theatres. Building upon my research interests into preaching 'as performance', for these lectures I decided to engage directly with the work of experimental British theatre director Peter Brook in his older but nevertheless still significant and influential book The Empty Space.

In this work Brook identifies a number of causes/features of what he describes as 'deadly theatre' and I suggest that these can also be applied to that which can create 'deadly preaching', other peoples of course! Some of these features are:

dwindling audiences

dullness elevated as quality because if it is dull it must somehow be worthy

the pressure of economics on performers, theatres, and expectations

unengaged audiences

a failure of performers, specifically those over the age of 30, either to develop their skills or equally as critically to develop themselves as human beings

the constraint on performances of established conventions and contexts

an overemphasis on the few exceptional examples that do exist

inadequate preparation

the failure of performers to be inspired or inspiring by rising to the challenges of their own age

a failure for performers to understand the nature of their means of expression

a retreat to old formulae, old methods, old jokes, old effects in order to regain an earlier liveliness

performances that fail to elevate, instruct, or even entertain

When Brook critiques ‘deadly’ theatre he does so as one who loves the theatre but who sees what it could be. In a quirky little quote he writes:

‘The problem of Deadly Theatre is like the problem of the deadly bore. Every deadly bore has head, heart, arms, legs; usually, he has a family and friends; he even has his admirers. Yet we sigh when we come across him – and in this sigh we are regretting that somehow he is at the bottom instead of the top of his possibilities. When we say deadly, we never mean dead: we mean something depressingly active, but for this reason capable of change’.

 

 

Anabaptist Preaching

Missed this book when it first came out but have just finished reading it. In a series of 14 relatively short chapters the authors engage with Anabaptist (read Mennonite) preaching. From their own christo-centric ('when two texts disagree Jesus is the referee') biblical, discipleship concerned, radical reformed tradition. In doing so their work is informed, if not at times derivative of the developments in homiletics (the practice of preaching) associated with the North American Academy of Homiletics. As a consequence such as Fred Craddock, Thomas Long, and Barbara Brown Taylor are cited among others, as issues of contemporary hermeutics and homiletics such as narrative, collaborative, and phenomelogiocal approaches to preaching are discussed. In addition to these streams of Mennonite practice, and current homiletical theory, the work also engages readily and explicitly with the post modern situation and here it is noticeable that Brian McLaren writes the foreword. This matrix of connections, tempered in the post 9/11 American context, (published in 2003) results in an interesting, informative, and in places practical aproach to preaching. Perhaps above all the value of this work is the strength placed upon the participative role of the congregation as the 'hermeutical community' whose participation goes beyond even attentive listening to active engagement in the Anabaptist tradition of 'Zeugnis' which refers to the practice of offering verbal response after the sermon. This approach ensures that preaching is given an important role in the worship of a congregation but that the preacher is not exalted as superior to the congregation among whom they serve. There is good stuff here for those willing to take on board and experiment with new ideas in relation to preaching in a post modern context while holding to a high view of Scripture, the work of the Spirit, the presence of Christ, and a practised doctrine of the priest hood of all believers.

Blythe