The primary purpose of this dissertation is to present a Christ-saturated approach to expository preaching. To accomplish this goal, I evaluate the hermeneutics and homiletics of Christ-centered approaches to preaching. In doing so, Christ-saturated preaching has all of the strengths of Christ-centered preaching while resolving some of the inherent hermeneutical and homiletical difficulties in prevailing models of Christ-centered preaching. Chapter 1 explores some confused and complicated definitions of Christ-centered approaches to preaching, examines the current hermeneutical and homiletical issues of Christ-centered approaches to preaching, and states the necessity to present an alternative approach to preaching Christ. Chapter 2 traces the history of Christ-centered preaching back to the controversy between the exemplaristic preaching and redemptive-historical preaching that raged in the Netherlands in the 1940s. At the same time, this chapter explores how redemptive-historical preaching influenced the American pulpit through Geerhardus Vos, Edmund Clowney, Dennis Johnson, Sidney Greidanus, Graeme Goldsworthy, and Bryan Chapell. Chapter 3 examines various definitions and justification of Christ-centered approaches to preaching. This is an essential step toward evaluating the hermeneutics and homiletics of Christ-centered preaching in chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 analyzes and evaluates the hermeneutics of Christ-centered approaches to preaching by comparing and contrasting their interpretive methods and ways to find the meaning of the text, the author’s intent, and Christ from every text through Christ-centered biblical theology. Chapter 5 explores the homiletics of Christ-centered preaching, focusing on the ways of finding Christ or a connection to Christ and of applying the text and its significance to the audience. In addition, the homiletics of Christ-centered preaching is evaluated, determining whether or not Christ-centered messages satisfy the pastoral context and the needs of the audience. Chapter 6 suggests some disciplines of a Christ-saturated approach to expository preaching, which satisfies the pastoral context and the needs of the audience as well as the author’s intended meaning and his theology. This chapter concludes that Christ-centered preaching not only neglects the unique features of the text and the author’s intent and theology, but it also ignores the context of the audience. Christ-saturated preaching can be an alternative to preaching the Word of God while still respecting the text and the context of the audience.

A TEXTUALLY-ARRANGED, GENRE-SENSITIVE, RHETORICALLY-INFORMED HOMILETICAL APPROACH Michael Douglas Williams, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2015 Chair: Dr. Robert A. Vogel Chapter 1 introduces the subject of this dissertation, which deals with the relationship between a biblical text’s substance and structure to that of a sermon’s substance and structure from that text. After stating the thesis of this dissertation—that expository preaching considers the arrangement of the text, is sensitive to the genre of the text and aware of the rhetorical impact of the text in order to faithfully and effectively communicate the Word of God—the introduction outlines the approach that this work follows. Chapter 2 begins by exploring the origin of inspiration as that of both divine and human. B. B. Warfield refers to this divine-human cooperation as the Spirit of God working confluently through the work of men. The chapter emphasizes how this divine-human cooperation came through a verbal-plenary view of inspiration. If inspiration extends to not only the writer’s thoughts but also his words, then the literary forms in the Bible are equally inspired. Therefore, the extent of the doctrine of inspiration to that of genre is of great importance to this dissertation. Chapter 3 describes the importance of hermeneutics and genre. I state my presupposition for authorial intent and single meaning of the text. Upon this authorial intent and single meaning foundation, I discuss principles for hermeneutics in general. More specifically, I establish the crucial role of literary sensitivity in the hermeneutical task. Essential in understanding the genre is an awareness of surface and notional structures, as well as what the author is doing (speech act) through that particular genre (structure). In short, to ignore literary form, as D. A. Carson insists, is to fall prey of two dangers: to insist that Scripture is saying what in fact it is not saying or to indeed miss what Scripture is actually saying. The chapter provides interpretative guidelines for genre sensitivity by exploring five primary genres found in the Bible. Chapter 4 discusses the aim of rhetoric and, in particular, the significance of the canon of arrangement on a given discourse. After discussing the aim of rhetoric and homiletics as that of persuasion for maximum impact, this chapter focuses upon the canon of arrangement and, thus, the reality that structure argues. The chapter then offers similarities and differences of the canon of arrangement with that of expository homiletics. Chapter 5 synthesizes a textually-arranged, genre-sensitive, rhetorical-informed homiletic. The chapter explores two areas of relevance for preaching: the need for head and heart and the need for textual sermonic structure. In particular, the first section deals with the primacy of preaching holistically. The second section addresses the necessary importance of textual sermonic structure around the consideration of biblical genre. The section offers sermonic examples from five genres, considering generic structures and rhetorical aim. The section concludes with a structural analysis of two sermons. In conclusion, chapter 6 presents a restatement of the thesis and summary of my arguments. The chapter urges expositors to faithfully and effectively preach the Bible by considering the structure of the text, being sensitive to its genre, and being aware of its rhetorical impact.

This dissertation examines the preaching ministry of John Newton as a model of biblical exposition that was guided by a gospel-centric, pastoral homiletic. Chapter 1 defines the thesis of this dissertation , introduces the subject of this dissertation by surveying the scholarly work that has concentrated on Newton’s life and ministry, and demonstrates the lack of focused study on Newton’s preaching. Chapter 2 is a biographical survey of Newton’s life and ministry. Chapter 3 serves as an introduction to Newton’s preaching by surveying Newton’s sermons and demonstrates that Newton’s preaching should be regarded as expository. Attention is also given to the eighteenth-century historical context in which Newton preached. Chapter 4 argues that Newton’s high view of Scripture served as a foundation of his ministry and preaching. Chapter 5 is a discussion of Newton’s Christ-centered piety with regard to its impact on his life, ministry and preaching. Chapter 6 maintains that Newton’s Christ-centered spirituality is evident in his gospel-centric preaching and the homiletical methods that guided him. Chapter 7 examines Newton’s preaching and his commitment to pastoral ministry. It argues that Newton’s preaching rhetoric was a function of a pastoral homiletic that was deeply concerned with the spiritual welfare of his hearers. The final chapter summarizes the major points of dissertation and reflects on the importance of the use of historical models like Newton for contemporary preaching.

This dissertation examines sermon application in the doctrinal preaching of John Piper. The work argues that Piper’s use of application is characterized by multifaceted purpose and the qualities of consistency, creativity, clarity, recurrence, cumulative and/or climactic effect, and contextualization. The critical model utilized involves three primary components: quality, purpose, and doctrine. A representative sample of 700 sermons is analyzed, spanning Piper’s thirty-plus years in the pulpit. Chapter 1 clarifies the thesis, presents an overview of the dissertation’s methodology, and provides research delimitations and background information. Attention is given to the motivations behind the research and the importance of the study. Chapter 2 presents biographical material so that the reader may better understand and appreciate Piper’s practice in the pulpit. His identity as a person, pastor-theologian, and preacher is explored. Chapter 3 addresses the process of study, surveying selected literature on doctrinal preaching and sermon application. Key terms such as doctrinal preaching and sermon application are defined. Moreover, the vital connection between doctrinal preaching and sermon application is demonstrated. Chapter 4 discusses the study’s methodology and describes in detail both the object and method of analysis. The critical model employed, which guided the research, is thoroughly discussed, including the six qualities of sermon application (consistency, creativity, clarity, recurrence, cumulative and/or climactic effect, and contextualization), the four purposes of sermon application (duty, character, goals, and discernment), and the doctrines applied. Chapter 5 presents a segregated analysis of Piper’s preaching utilizing the critical model described in chapter 4. Research findings are thoroughly discussed, in terms of the six qualities, four purposes, and doctrines applied. Chapter 6 presents an integrated analysis of Piper’s doctrinal preaching. Patterns of quality, purpose, doctrine, and co-occurrence are emphasized. Also, the interplay of quality, purpose, and doctrine is demonstrated. Furthermore, development over time and across select sermon series is assessed. Chapter 7 concludes the project, presenting a summary of findings, key insights, major implications, and suggestions for future research. Defining characteristics of Piper’s method are outlined, specifically in terms of the six qualities, the four purposes, and the doctrines applied.

The primary aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate that Jonathan Edwards's "sense of the heart" as a principle of a new kind of perception or spiritual sensation given by the Spirit of God in regeneration, in which a believer tastes or sees God's beauty, can provide expository preaching with a meaningful direction for the restoration of religious experience. Chapter 1 focuses on the disappearance of religious experience in contemporary expository preaching and introduces, by illustrating the debate between the Old and the New Light in the First Great Awakening, an uncomfortable phenomenon in expository preaching that polarizes affectionate religious experience and cognitive-propositional truth. It argues that expository preaching should aim at affectional application because application is possible only when the listeners' fundamental affections are reoriented. Chapter 2 examines Jonathan Edwards's spiritual epistemology by analyzing Edwards's concept of the sense of the heart, through which the saints can experience God's beauty. The sense of the heart enables the saints to obtain a new habit or the heart that brings about new affections. The chapter contends that experiencing God's beauty through the sense of the heart is central to all genuine religious experiences. Chapter 3 defines the nature of Edwardsean religious experience as a spiritual-linguistic approach in the sense that the Spirit is the producer of genuine religious experience and the word of God illuminated by the Holy Spirit enables people to experience God's beauty and glory. It argues that expository preaching should create an experience for the listener, in Edwardsean sense, assuming that the conviction of the authority of the word of God and the encouragement of religious experience are completely compatible. Chapter 4 presents a homiletical analysis of Edwards's affective preaching. The chapter offers a comprehensive analysis of two of Edwards's sermons, as prime examples of his rhetorical strategies, to demonstrate how vivid and dramatic images are used in his sermons. The chapter suggests that expository sermons should pay more attention to language, just as Edwards recognized that the power in the sermon lies in the masterful use of language. Chapter 5 provides helpful implications for contemporary expository preaching. First, the chapter proposes preaching as a persuasion by illustrating Paul's use of rhetoric. Second, it indicates Edwards's power of imagination and suggests that expository preachers should pursue affective preaching by the use of their imagination and imaginative language. Third, it examines the implication of Edwardsean piety for expository preaching. Fourth, it offers preaching as a means of experiencing God's beauty. Chapter 6 summarizes the overall arguments established in the previous chapters. The goal of our preaching should be to touch the affections of our listener's hearts to bring them beyond a merely theoretical knowledge of spiritual realities.

The primary purpose of this dissertation is to study the necessity of genre consideration in the three important sermon-making process--exegetical, theological, and homiletical--and propose a holistic preaching methodology for the lament psalms with genre-sensitivity. Chapter 1 discusses the definitional nature, criteria, and communicational function of genre and examines the current defective and deficient preaching method with genre-sensitivity, and also indicates the lack of concern of the lament psalms in biblical preaching. Chapter 2 examines a holistic exegetical method for preaching a lament psalm by emphasizing the necessity of the analysis and appreciation of the mood of the text based upon the interlocking nature of genre-based textual elements (the message, medium, and mood of the text) and genre-based contextual element (the purpose of the text). This chapter provides a step-by step holistic procedure for preaching a lament psalm with genre-sensitivity. Chapter 3 investigates the necessity of genre consideration in the theological process. This section emphasizes that consideration of the genre characteristics is an essential process for discerning a timeless theological implication and communicational impact of a lament psalm. This chapter suggests a step-by-step holistic theological procedure for preaching a lament psalm with genre-sensitivity. Chapter 4 discusses the necessity of a genre-sensitive homiletical method that reflects the genre-based essentials into the sermon-making process. This section emphasizes the necessity of a holistic integration of the genre-sensitive homiletical components for preaching a lament psalm. This chapter presents a step-by-step procedure for a holistic homiletical method for preaching a lament psalm with genre-sensitivity. Chapter 5 analyzes Psalm 31 as a case study of a genre-sensitive methodology for preaching a lament psalm proposed in the previous chapters. This chapter elaborates and verifies the twelve steps for preaching a lament psalm with genre-sensitivity. Chapter 6 concludes that biblical preachers need to preach the lament psalms with genre-sensitivity by honoring the message, medium, and mood of the text throughout the entire sermon-making process in pursuit of honoring the authority of the Scripture and remodeling the relevance of the biblical communication.

ABSTRACT THE USE OF IMAGINATION FOR EXPOSITORY HERMENEUTICS AND HOMILETICS Barnabas Youn Soo Kim, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2014 Chair: Dr. Robert A. Vogel The purpose of this dissertation is to discover the value of imagination for expository preaching. The thesis of this dissertation is that a rightly developed evangelical theory and use of imagination will improve the practice of expository hermeneutics and homiletics. In the introductory chapter, the challenging nature of imagination is examined. Despite its subjective challenging nature, imagination is an important subject for expository preaching. Imagination is necessary in order to improve both hermeneutics and homiletics. The second chapter provides an overview of expository preaching. Essential elements of expository preaching, author-centered hermeneutics and audience-focused homiletics, are discussed to form the backdrop against which imagination is to be examined. Second, the concept of imagination is introduced and explained. Chapter 3 demonstrates how the New Homiletic methodology deals with imagination in preaching. After a brief introduction to the basic philosophy of the New Homiletic, the work of two new homileticians, Paul Scott Wilson and Thomas H. Troeger, is discussed. They are important, because they were one of the first to devote an entire work to imagination and preaching. This chapter concludes with a critical evaluation of their methods in light of evangelical expository preaching. Chapter 4 presents suggestions for the use of imagination in expository hermeneutics. In particular, the role of imagination in specific steps of the exegetical process is explained. Furthermore, boundaries are discussed that ensure imagination is used in way that is faithful to the biblical text and the author's intention. Chapter 5 suggests how imagination can be used in homiletics. Committed to a hermeneutic that is faithful to the text and the author's intention, preachers can find in imagination a rich resource to convey God's truth to people.

The primary aim of this study is to attempt to provide a means of restoring evangelical preaching in Xhosa churches. I will attempt to answer the question, How can the evangelical preaching be restored in Xhosa churches in the Western Cape? From personal observation, it is clear that in contemporary Xhosa evangelicalism, preaching is totally misunderstood. To put more bluntly, there are no clear criteria from biblical theology for preaching in Xhosa churches. Indeed so much is happening in the name of preaching that offers no substance whatsoever. In the first two chapter’s of this study, the focus is on the problem that the Xhosa church is experiencing and how preaching is understood and practiced in this community. Chapter three examines the causes of the problem and how to deal with those causes. On a practical note, it is shown that sermon analyses are inevitable for further consideration of the problem. Moreover, the chapter examines various attempts that have been made in response to the problem. In Chapter four, an investigation of the views of biblical theology on the subject of preaching is carried out. The chapter dwells into what the Bible offers on the subject of preaching and this is meant to serve as a foundation for the restoration of evangelical preaching in Xhosa churches. In the light of Chapter four, Chapter five argues for expository preaching as a possible means of responding to the crisis which the Xhosa church is experiencing. At the same time chapter five seek to state the case for expository preaching. Finally, Chapter Six provides the most effective material for Xhosa preachers in the process of exploring and constructing expository sermons. / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

This thesis employs a historical approach to practical theology in an effort to discover resources from past practices for critical reflection upon a current methodology with the intent of producing a revised practice. The following research question is pursued: How can the practices of patristic preachers enhance the current efforts of redemptive-historical preachers to preach faithfully the New Testament quotations of the Old Testament? Chapter One reviews literature from five major redemptive-historical theologians: Geerhardus Vos, Edmund Clowney, Sidney Greidanus, Bryan Chapell, and Graeme Goldsworthy. Five of the major shared characteristics of these authors are considered in light of their various contributions. Chapters Two, Three, and Four examine various patristic homilies, outlining practical considerations for a contemporary model of preaching. Chapter Two examines two early homilies, 2 Clement and Quis Dives Salvetur, noting the influence of the synagogue. Chapters Three and Four respectively examine the preaching of Origen and Chrysostom. Chapter Five outlines some major characteristics of patristic preaching discovered through a comparison of the findings of chapters Two through Four. Chapter Six provides a model for preaching New Testament quotations of the Old Testament that is consistent with the theological convictions of redemptive-historical homileticians and informed by the insights gained from reflection upon the practices of patristic preachers. This model makes an original contribution to knowledge by advancing the discussion of redemptive-historical preaching both through the application of the redemptive-historical approach to the New Testament quotations of the Old Testament and through the consideration of the relationship between redemptive-historical practices and patristic practices. / Practical Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)

This thesis employs a historical approach to practical theology in an effort to discover resources from past practices for critical reflection upon a current methodology with the intent of producing a revised practice. The following research question is pursued: How can the practices of patristic preachers enhance the current efforts of redemptive-historical preachers to preach faithfully the New Testament quotations of the Old Testament? Chapter One reviews literature from five major redemptive-historical theologians: Geerhardus Vos, Edmund Clowney, Sidney Greidanus, Bryan Chapell, and Graeme Goldsworthy. Five of the major shared characteristics of these authors are considered in light of their various contributions. Chapters Two, Three, and Four examine various patristic homilies, outlining practical considerations for a contemporary model of preaching. Chapter Two examines two early homilies, 2 Clement and Quis Dives Salvetur, noting the influence of the synagogue. Chapters Three and Four respectively examine the preaching of Origen and Chrysostom. Chapter Five outlines some major characteristics of patristic preaching discovered through a comparison of the findings of chapters Two through Four. Chapter Six provides a model for preaching New Testament quotations of the Old Testament that is consistent with the theological convictions of redemptive-historical homileticians and informed by the insights gained from reflection upon the practices of patristic preachers. This model makes an original contribution to knowledge by advancing the discussion of redemptive-historical preaching both through the application of the redemptive-historical approach to the New Testament quotations of the Old Testament and through the consideration of the relationship between redemptive-historical practices and patristic practices. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)