Christ-saturated preaching: a hermeneutical and homiletical analysis of Christ-centered preaching and its implications

Abstract

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.