We face a spiritual crisis

According to the Surgeon General.

So how do we preachers awaken the church to this crisis and rally them to the cause?

Epistemic capture of one field vs. epistemic clarity in another

So while several important voices are calling for medicine to escape the epistemic capture of the sciences, here is my old, unassuming dissertation on The Homiletical Kierkegaard and his view of Preaching in Light of the Epistemic Spheres ...

Can Kierkegaard's biblically derived understanding of understanding help preachers — and perhaps even scientists — develop eyes to see? This was not written with science in mind, except to some extent "dogmatic science." But you never know what lights may come on if folks read outside their guild.

Avoiding the oppositional tone ...

Here is a snippet of the great Sinclair Ferguson warning preachers against using an oppositional tone in their preaching. He has a valid point. Sometimes what is intended as encouragement and grounds for hope comes across as judgment, and righteous indignation on behalf of one's congregation comes across as anger at them.

If I may be so bold, however, Ferguson uses such a horrific analogy to describe the effect of this oppositional tone that, in his own address, he basically replaces an oppositional tone with a destructive image. Ferguson knows his Bible. I wonder how he would square, e.g., Stephen's sermon and its fallout in Acts 7—8 with his characterization of oppositional preaching. All of which is to say that the challenge for preachers to use the right tone and image at all times, in every sermon, never goes away, no matter how much experience we have or how conspicuous and prestigious our platforms. 

Johnson hearings

Posted with no further comment:

https://x.com/SenRonJohnson/status/2104614515392577579?s=20

Two more reasons to read Oecolampadius' Sermons on the First Epistle of John

  

Cloth w/ DJ                                      Kindle                                      Paperback

(1) Oecolampadius has replaced Zwingli as the most important first-generation (Swiss) German Reformer. In case you missed it, Yale professor Bruce Gordon, in his recent biography of Zwingli, pronounces Oecolampadius the stronger theologian. Sadly, in recent centuries, English-speaking heirs of the German Reformed tradition — "German" referring to the language the first Swiss Reformers spoke; their reforming work, by and large, was not done in Germany per se, but in the Swiss cities and cantons along the Rhine — have been cut off from the tradition's most important founding father. But just last year several seminal works of Oecolampadiana (in addition to my own) appeared: a translation of his piece critiquing "the Paschal laughter" (i.e., preachers clowning it up in the pulpit), the complete collection of his correspondence with Zwingli, et al. Oecolampadius studies is a burgeoning field and not a moment too soon. (See below.)

(2) The Sermons on the First Epistle of John (preached in Advent 1523, published in the spring of 1524) represent the evangelical movement (i.e., early 16th c. Protestantism) at its most unified. Although the first-generation Reformers would gradually come to some strong disagreements over the sacrament of the Lord's Supper (1525-1528), resulting in a rupture at Marburg (1529), there was a time when the Lutherans in Wittenberg were applauding the Reformer of Basel for his lectures on Isaiah and his Sermons on 1John (both unfolding in 1523-24). There had even been talk of hiring Oecolampadius to join the faculty at Wittenberg. The cracks would begin to appear in late 1524 with debates over Karlstadt's tracts criticizing Luther on the sacraments, but those would take some time to develop.

These days, my social media feed is awash in attacks on Calvinism. Many of these are likely from bots, others from those who have little understanding of Reformed theology. I also see many good-hearted souls rushing to its defense. 

Behind Calvinism, of course, are not only the Westminster Standards, but Calvin himself and the Institutes. Behind Calvin himself (a second-generation Reformer) stands the first generation of Reformers, and prior to the disagreements that beset the first-generation at Marburg, the evangelical movement looked with unanimous approval on this "Handbook for the Christian Life." In many ways, the series on the First Epistle of John represents the most mature distillation of the Gospel from a unified evangelical movement: from Oecolampadius as the chief expositor of the (Swiss) German Reformed, with the unanimous endorsement and congratulations of the Lutherans in Wittenberg. It was a moment of notable Christian unity marked by the Spirit, when the Gospel was clearly distinguished from the corruption of the Roman church at the time. 

There is a lot to be said for going back to the source material, especially this source material, which epitomizes the very best of the Protestant tradition (no less than one third of the global church). More than that, it represents the critical moment when, homiletically speaking, the Reformation grasped the baton from the ancient church (from Chrysostom, in particular)—the Eastern and evangelical movements connecting for a brief moment to jolt preaching itself back to life. And yet, this pivotal series has only been available to English-speaking readers since 2017. 

Laffer Curves across the map

Surely every field, every discipline, every profession will, at some point, demonstrate some corollary to the Laffer Curve. Art Laffer's famous napkin sketch (basically a frowny face) doodled for President Reagan describing how there is a tax rate above which revenue decreases rather than increases, i.e., becomes counterproductive—I assume—applies broadly, across the map. In my own area of homiletics, one often hears the objection that a sermon exceeding the attention span of most hearers will "tax" them overmuch, and instead of inspiring them will make them restless. What about your field, your experience, your congregation, your constituency?

Lord willing, I hope my sermon this morning does not run too long. I would much rather be greeted with smiles.

The Allison Inquiry

I wonder how many social justice preachers will be mentioning the Allison Inquiry in their sermons this week. I'll wager zero.

UPDATE: "Light will prevail over darkness. Good will prevail over evil."

ANOTHER UPDATE: A YT playlist for the Allison Inquiry.

Imago Dei

"Imago Dei" is an old track, one of my oldest. It was written and recorded in Andy Thornton's Jump Studio in Glasgow in the late summer of 1993 and debuted as a Late Late Service (LLS) track in the Rolling Magazine Tent at the Greenbelt Festival in the last week of August that year. Andy did the engineering and mixing and added just what was needed, the compelling ambient speech track that runs through the whole thing. What a gift. With no objection from LLS leaders at the time, it was later added as a bonus track to my 1991 record, A Soundtrack for the Close of the Age. Having reached its 33rd birthday, it seems like it is old enough to have its own video.