HOMILETICS A Manual of The Theory and Practice By PROF. M. REU, D.D. Give diligence to present CHICAGO WARTBURG PUBLISHING HOUSE 1922 A PREFACE PART from an elementary sketch by the late Dr. J. Fry, the Lutheran Church in America has produced no Homiletics, either in the English, German or Scandinavian tongue. And yet preaching is, and will always remain, a fundamental function of the Church; moreover, the distinctive character of our Church must express itself also in her preaching, so that the many valuable contributions to the subject by scholars of other American Churches cannot satisfactorily supply our need. This manifest and widely felt gap in our theological literature, the present volume seeks to fill. It is intended to serve as text-book in seminaries and as handbook in pastors' studies. The material printed in large type, at least, ought to be mastered by all candidates for the sacred office, while the material given in greater detail and printed in smaller type should be found of value even by the full-fledged preacher, provided he has not stopped growing. The sections in large type are so arranged that they form an independent and consistent whole, which may be read consecutively, and should indeed be so read, at least for the first time, in order to obtain a connected view of our treatment. To aid the reader, since these sections sometimes lie rather far apart, we have indicated at the close of each of them the page on which its continuation may be found. It may occasion surprise that so much space has been devoted to the first part, on the nature and purpose of the serIn English and American text-books it is customary to pass lightly over these subjects. This cannot but lead to mon. harm, for whatever is said in the later discussion concerning the subject-matter and structure of the sermon is necessarily determined by the underlying conception of its nature and purpose. Many homiletical aberrations might have been avoided if these fundamental matters had received at the outset the attention they deserve. For this reason, and also with the view of bringing out clearly the distinctive characteristics. of the Lutheran sermon, we have gone fully into these questions. In the second part, we were concerned particularly about two matters. We desired, first, to make it plain that, despite the inroads of modern criticism, which are by no means lacking in this country and which have wrought havoc in many quarters, the preacher may with a good conscience take as basis for his preaching the whole Scripture, the whole Gospel, Paul no less than Jesus, and the whole Jesus. This subject could not, naturally, receive adequate treatment in a volume on Homiletics. But we have indicated at least the principal lines along which the position of negative critics may be met from a scientific point of view, and we have referred the student to the literature in which these questions are fully discussed. The day is not far distant when the American Lutheran Church, also, will have to face this problem. Secondly, we wished to lay all possible emphasis upon the principle that all sound homiletical work must be based on thorough exegesis, and to show to some extent the nature of such exegesis and its relation to the sermon. It is unfortunately a notorious fact that many men enter the ministry with never an inkling of what exegesis really means. One has heard even of professors of exegetical theology who had no proper conception of the meaning of their department, who never advanced beyond the outworks of their science or else remained life-long slaves to the "annotation" method. Such exegetes will of course have little to offer the preacher. There can be, on the other hand, no sounder basis and no more efficient aid for preaching than an exegesis whose principal aim is to ascertain the main lines of thought in the sacred writings, as a whole or in part, and that makes all else tributary to this aim. A glance into current homiletical literature will reveal, alas! how broad a gulf yawns between homiletics and exegesis. The author of this text-book could wish for no finer reward than the consciousness of having helped in some degree to bring the two into closer relationship. While we have everywhere quoted liberally-some may think, too liberally-from the whole range of homiletical literature, so far as it was accessible to us, we have given preference, in the last part, to works by American authors. We have done this of set purpose, in view especially of the discussion of the style and structure of the sermon. While style has its universal laws, valid in all languages, it is also largely conditioned by the individual peculiarities of each language. Here English and American works will naturally serve best as our authorities. With respect to the structure of the sermon, we had another consideration in mind. In the transition from an old world tongue to the language of our country, the mistaken view frequently prevails that, while the traditional conception as to the nature and purpose of the sermon should be retained, the conception as to its structure may be abandoned not only with impunity but even with profit. Our numerous quotations from American homiletical literature are intended to show those laboring under this misconception that the best and soundest American homileticians apply to the structure of the sermon the same principles that have always been regarded as essential by their German and Scandinavian fellow workers. For these principles are inherent in the subject itself and are of universal validity. They have always and everywhere been ignored by immature and one-sidedly subjective spirits, but they are ac |