Every leading homiletician is known for a particular slant on preaching: Haddon Robinson advocates the “big idea.” Bryan Chapell looks at the “fallen condition focus.” Fred Craddock touts induction. Eugene Lowry structures sermons along the “homiletical plot.” Paul Scott Wilson deserves to be included on this short list with his emphasis on theology and “putting God at the center of the sermon.” He does this by preaching from “trouble to grace,” a modification of the old law-gospel homiletic.
To be sure, other preachers have been decrying anthropocentric preaching that lacks a vision of God, but Wilson has been leading the chorus for more than a decade. He wants to set sermons on fire by calling us to “proclaim” and not simply to “teach.” Without a doubt teaching is vital. But when it does not lead to proclamation, according to Wilson, it is like a car fuelled and ready to roll but parked in the driveway. In Wilson’s parlance, teaching explains doctrine and its implications for Christian living, while proclamation kindles faith. Here’s a visual comparison:
| Teaching | Proclamation |
| Talks about the gospel | Offers the gospel |
| Hearing about God | Encountered by God |
| Commentary on the text | Personal address from God |
| Didactic Prophetic | Rational Emotional |
| “Sin separates us from God” | “You have sinned” |
| “Forgiveness is possible” | “I [God] forgive you” |
| “Christ’s resurrection brings hope” | “In Christ, you can start anew” |
When the flint of teaching strikes the steel of proclamation, God sets our words on fire. The result is preaching that produces conviction, repentance, lament, prayer, comfort, praise, and hope. Wilson’s theory of preaching is grounded in theology—the belief that God’s words are creative forces. After all, God said, “Let there be light,” and “there was light.” He sees words not as mere markers that substitute for things, but as speech-acts with performative, or illocutionary, force—words actually do things. This commitment is important, because Wilson explores nine genres or “subforms” of proclamation, showing exactly how words act.
Setting Words on Fire ranges far over the landscape of scholarship, but the final stop is always praxis. This is one of the reasons I appreciate Wilson’s writing. He speaks as a practitioner who wants to renew the ailing church, particularly the mainline church, through preaching. To equip readers he advocates imitation, an ancient and honorable method of learning, providing scores of sermon excerpts from Chrysostom, Augustine, Wesley, and dozens of other preachers. An audio CD accompanies the book with readings that illustrate all nine subforms.
Wilson’s heartfelt, well organized, and original theory of homiletics would be even stronger if he had a more consistent view of authorial intent and the unified message of the Divine author within all of Scripture. He implies at times that the intention of the human author is dispensable as we sift the text to hear the voice of God. Hearing that voice depends mainly on the reader’s response to the text (guided by rigorous study), but his stance is not entirely consistent. While Wilson is thoroughly convinced that “meanings are not limited to authorial intent and include what the words generate in the eyes and experience of the beholder,” he also warns about “unwarranted speculation on the text.” He assumes that “in our postmodern era, preachers understand that biblical texts have as many meanings as there are perspectives we bring to them.” But sometimes he muddies the water by affirming that “the Bible accounts must be allowed to speak for themselves as much as possible.”
That said, for Wilson, letting the Bible speak for itself is especially crucial when it comes to the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. Wilson wants us to believe what the authors plainly wrote: that Jesus rose bodily. He challenges theologically liberal colleagues by quoting with approval Luke Timothy Johnson, “It makes a great deal of difference whether you believe someone is alive or dead.”
In the final analysis, Setting Words on Fire is a great addition to the preacher’s library. It will help you put God at the center of the sermon and, through the Spirit, teach and proclaim with power.
—Jeffrey Arthurs is dean of the chapel and professor of preahing at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts.
Copyright © 2010 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
