The Puritan Preachers' Hermeneutic for Preaching

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The Puritan Preachers' Hermeneutic for Preaching

Author: Dae Ryeong Kim Published on: January 10, 2005 Related Subject(s): Not Indexed

My most recent article(s) that you might also find interesting: The Implication of the Puritan Theology for Theologizing in Postmodernity Theological Understanding of Knowing for Christian Epistemology The Postmodern Condition that Challenges the Christian Mission

The Puritans wanted to convert the Church of England; they sought after the Church that is theologically orthodox, spiritually alert, and joyously sure of salvation. In addition, they believed in integrating into their lives the Christian faith. For them, there was no distinction between the sacred and the secular. They wanted godly society and acted for it—family worship and schools for the poor are some of the good examples. Comparing to modern mission, theirs was close to the holistic mission.     Puritan movement was more than a geographical advance of the Christendom. While the movement saw missionary thrust into non-European regions, it is highly marked by the renewal and transformation it brought—in church, society as well as individual life—in a nominally Christian society. Their goal of the mission was the conversion of the soul. In this regard, a significance of the movements was their missionary thrust into the souls and minds of the people.     Thus, in Puritan mission theology their mission field was not exclusively foreign lands. But during the period of modernity the European Christendom was not seen as a mission field. But as the postmodern epoch approaches, missiologist along with a group of church leaders have begun to speak about missiology to the West. This would mean, then, that the Puritan heritage is still meaningful for the mission of the Church in the 21st century. The Puritan theology is not an old theology, but the theology that becomes anew in every age, and especially in our time of cultural transition from modernity to postmodernity.     The movement saw the flowering of expository preaching. The Puritans devotedly dig into the profound meaning of the gospel message in the well of the Bible. Equally true was that the Puritans excelled in preaching in a practical way as their sermons reflect it. By doing so, they made the Word of the Bible relevant to the people of their day. Here one finds a good example of making the Bible relevant to the audience. The liberal theologians in the 19th century also worked for the relatedness of theology to culture. But as Barth found during his early ministry years, the liberal theology was not relevant to the people in their life situation.     The Puritans believed in 'plain, direct, experimental, saving preaching’ Preaching was to be simple, earnest, and faithful (Lloyd-Jones 1987:284-285). For the Puritans the end of preaching is to make manifest to the unlearned stranger the things of his own heart. It is to obtain “an admirable plainness and an admirable powerfulness.” That must be plain by which an unlearned man is enabled to perceive his own faults. That must be powerful which moves the unregenerate conscience to exclaim, “Certainly God speaks in this man!" (Haller 1957:130). This is in sharp contrast to what the 19th-century theologians did. They targeted the intellectual people, but their philosophized language failed to communicate their message to both learned and unlearned people. No wonder, then, that like the Puritan preachers believed in the simplicity of preaching. .     The Puritan preachers asserted that only so much doctrine was important to be understood by men of least knowledge and capacity. What is important for us is, then, not what the learned doctor's doctrine was—not how they argued among themselves—but what it meant and did to the common public. Thus, the Puritan preachers labored earnestly to make themselves understood by their audience (Haller 1957:131). This is again comparable to the homiletics of Barth who entered into the situation of his audience.     As Packer remarks it: "Puritans preached the Bible systematically and thoroughly, with sustained application to personal life, preaching it as those who believed it, and who sought by their manner to make their matter credible and convincing, convicting and converting" (Packer 1994:280). This homiletics of the Puritan preaching is comparable to that of Barth who emphasizes the unity of 'exposition' and 'application' in preaching.     The Puritan method of 'opening’ a text was first to explain it in its context; next, to extract from the text one or more doctrinal observations embodying its substances, and then to amplify, illustrate, and conform form other Scriptures the truths thus derived; and finally, to draw out their practical implications for the hearers (Packer 1994:284). In other words, the Puritan preachers read the Biblical text in light of the biblical context and reread it in the situation of the audience. And this is exactly what one finds again in Barth's homiletics.     Puritan preaching was piercing in its application. The Puritan preachers trained their homiletical searchlights on specific states of spiritual need, and spoke to these in a precise and detailed way. Puritan pastoral preachers would speak half or more of their preaching time developing applications. Packer comments, "Strength of application was, from one standpoint, the most striking feature of Puritan preaching, and it is arguable that the theory of discriminating application is the most valuable legacy that Puritan preaching have left to those who would preach the Bible and its gospel effectively today” (1994:286-87). To put it in the language of Barth's homiletics, the Puritan preachers were faithful both to the biblical text and to the modern context.     Moreover, the Puritans maintained the harmony of explication and application in plain speech. The calculated effort to appeal to the popular audience affected the structure as well as the style of the sermon. The preacher carried into the pulpit, as a rule, little more than the heads of the discourse he was to deliver. This method of preaching, as prescribed by Perkins, required first that the preacher read the text out of Scripture and then explains or 'open' it in its context. He should then proceed to collect a few and profitable points of doctrine out of the natural sense. Finally he must apply the doctrines rightly collected, to the life and manners of men in a simple, plain speech. These were called 'the uses' (Haller 1957:134). Thus, the renewal of preaching was the spiritual dynamics of the Puritan movement.

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