Preaching and the Use of the Bible in a Pentecostal Context
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58412/hyb.v4i1.55855Keywords:
sermon, pentecostalism, theologizationAbstract
The subject of this article is preaching and the use of the Bible in a revivalist Christian and Pentecostal context. My starting point is that preaching can be described, using a term I borrowed from Clara Nystrand, as "theologizing." This is because preachers do theology when they preach. In this process, biblical texts, theology, the contemporary situation, and the preacher's perception of the audience and their situation meet and are negotiated. A debated question is how these factors should be weighted against each other. I discuss this question based on two models for preaching. These models are presented using the metaphors "a bridge" and "a weave." The part of preachers' theologizing that interests me the most concerns the Christian life, how it can (should) be lived and how it can (should) be understood. I base the discussion of this theme on the now common assertion that both the Bible and theology, as well as individual Christians' interpretation of life, can be described in terms of storytelling. Given this perspective, I ask how these levels relate to each other in Pentecostal and charismatic preaching in what is sometimes described as the world's most secular country. A recurring pair of opposites in both the analysis of preaching and the use of the Bible, as well as in the discussion of Christian interpretation of life, is distance and closeness.
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