Faith, Work, and Economics
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 59, No. 2 - Spring 2017
Managing Editor: W. Madison Grace II
A Vision for Preaching: Understanding the Heart of Pastoral Ministry. By Abraham Kuruvilla. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015. 214 pages. Paperback, $22.00.
Professor and author Abraham Kuruvilla has a vision for preaching. His latest work, A Vision for Preaching, is his effort to elucidate his conception of preaching in an ideal sense. He outlines his vision with the following sentence:
Biblical preaching, by a leader of the church, in a gathering of Christians for worship, is the communication of the thrust of a pericope of Scripture discerned by theological exegesis, and of its application to that specific body of believers, that they may be conformed to the image of Christ, for the glory of God— all in the power of the Holy Spirit (1).
Each chapter of the book is dedicated to unfolding one facet of this vision, phrase by phrase. One might say that this work presents Kuruvilla’s answers to the who, what, where, why, and how of preaching.
For those who have read Kuruvilla’s 2013 volume, Privilege the Text, much of this work will strike a familiar chord. These echoes strengthen the book. Kuruvilla calls once again for preachers to focus on authorial intent in the biblical text, to determine the thrust of a given pericope, and to communicate what the author is doing in the text, while also offering concrete application in harmony with the thrust of the pericope. Through obeying the divine demand in the text, people are conformed to the image of Christ, fulfilling God’s predestination program in Rom 8:29, and God is glorified in it. There is a significant distinction to be made between preaching that explains what the biblical author is doing with what he/she has written, and simply explaining what has been written. Kuruvilla rightly emphasizes the former over the latter.
In spite of this significant strength, the book suffers from some weaknesses. Kuruvilla asserts that he has purposefully avoided branding his work as a definition (10), yet his vision statement is phrased in terms of a definition. Kuruvilla’s statement “More proximally, my aim is to give future pastors . . . a better conception of what it means to preach” only further obfuscates his purpose (12). Moreover, each chapter title predicates something of preaching. Each chapter title begins “Preaching is . . .” If Kuruvilla does not intend his work to be a definition, his vision statement, commentary, and chapter titles are rather confusing.
In the first chapter, Kuruvilla argues rightly that preaching should be biblical, based on the authoritative nature of Scripture. Yet, his definition of what it means to be biblical goes too far, leaving little to no room for preaching larger swaths of text (25). On the other hand, his definition does not go far enough. He contends for letting the biblical text mold a sermon’s “content and purpose,” but stops short of saying that it should also form its structure (26).
While chapters 4 and 5 are the strongest of the book, chapter 3 is arguably the weakest. Simply, it seems unnecessary. Here Kuruvilla argues that preaching is a sacrament like baptism and the Lord’s Supper and, as such, it belongs primarily in the “assembly of God’s people” (58–59, 66). Regardless of whether one agrees with his position on preaching as a sacrament, including this as part of a proposed “vision” for preaching seems superfluous. Does anyone allege that preaching primarily belongs elsewhere? It seems odd to include this as part of a goal for preaching when the goal has already been reached (11).
Chapter 7 raises some questions and potential problems. Kuruvilla argues that each biblical pericope presents a facet of the image of Christ and a divine demand (136). Yet, this claim is problematic when scrutinized. For example, what would be the image of Christ presented in a genealogy? What would be the divine demand? Perhaps Kuruvilla would argue that a genealogy does not constitute a pericope, but the term is not well defined.
The deficiency in this theory is heightened when viewed through the lens of a New Testament epistle. Saying that there is a divine demand in every text, when some texts contain only indicative statements, may undermine other texts containing explicit imperatives. The semantic weight of the imperative seems to drop a bit when the indicative nearby may be considered its equal.
In the end, despite some weaknesses, Kuruvilla’s vision for preaching is a vision worth catching. His vision is to move preachers closer to the text, to honor and communicate what the biblical author is doing with what he/she has written in order to help people become more like Christ and thereby glorify God. Kuruvilla is right. This is what preaching should do.
