The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 64, No. 1 – Fall 2021
Editor: David S. Dockery
By Michael Pasquarello III. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020, xxx-iv+254pp., $26.99
Michael Pasquarello is an experienced preacher, academician, and author who occupies the Methodist Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School. He believes, “The Beauty of Preaching is an invitation to ‘see’ afresh the heart of the church’s vocation of preaching: to know, love, and enjoy God in all we think, say, do, desire, and suffer” (p. 24). He brings to light “the ‘ugliness’ of preaching that exchanges the love of God for the love of ourselves, the praise of God’s glory for the glory of praise” (p. 22). The preaching of preachers that incessantly attempts to be relevant “quickly become[s] preaching that has lost its capacity to speak of God’s truth, beauty, and goodness” (p. 10). To this end, Pasquarello directs the preacher to behold the beauty of Christ in the gospel we proclaim and to “show that theological and aesthetic considerations in preaching are inseparable” (p. xviii).
One observes Saving Beauty (ch. 1) in the beautiful feet of the gospel messenger, “The beauty is in the nature and purpose of the messengers’ words, the joy of proclaiming a message that delights our heart and stirs our desire” (p. 33). The chapter concludes with a thought-provoking section on the poor widow who gave out of her poverty (Mk 12:41-44). Seeing Beauty (ch. 2) is a reflection on the unnamed woman of Mark 14:1-9 considering the “beautiful thing” of anointing Jesus and, like her, discerning how to preach beautifully as an act of devotion to God. The next two chapters cover Augustine’s salvation (A Converting Beauty) and him as a preacher (A Spoken Beauty). His conversion was from a love for the praise of people to a love for the praise of God (xxvii). For Augustine, as a preacher, “The eyes of his heart were enlightened to see Beauty in the Word made flesh” (p. 96) and his “new desire, then, was to allow the Word to do its work” (p. 97).
A Simple Beauty (ch. 5) highlights the preaching of John Wesley, for the beauty of Wesley’s preaching is “not found in its eloquent, elaborate, or entertaining oratory, but rather in the breadth of its reach ad populum” (p. 140). Wesley’s homiletical aesthetic is, “Proclaiming the gospel … a work of great beauty that makes known the glory of its true subject and object; the God of infinite love” (p. 159). Finally, A Strange Beauty (chapter 6) examines the preaching of Martin Luther. For Luther, “The proclamation of the gospel sparkles with the beauty of Jesus Christ” (p. 164) and “this “strange beauty” is perceived in the deformity of Christ, through whom God absorbs the ugliness of sin and shares his beauty with sinners” (p. 168).
The significant positive of this work is that it consistently points our preaching to the beautiful proclamation of the redeeming work of God in Christ. A few concerns: (1) this work is dense and sometimes labor intensive (copious footnotes, block quotes), (2) while he states, “I’ve written this book for preachers and students of preaching from both mainline and evangelical churches” (p. 19), its trajectory is more mainline (liturgical language, egalitarian view, slightly ecumenical), and (3) at times Pasquarello makes hay out of straw, i.e. “The unnamed woman’s act is a sign of the transformation affected in preaching when the Spirit ‘breaks open’ what is concealed to make known the glory of Jesus in human words” (p. 75). Despite these concerns, this book will still prove helpful for those concerned with God’s glory/beauty in preaching.
Sermon preparation and delivery are not the aims of this book, like Augustine, Pasquarello “offers us a vision of the wisdom of preaching that serves the church on pilgrimage toward its final completion in knowing, praising, and loving God” (p. 135). While limited in audience, it will challenge students of preaching on a graduate or doctoral level. After one accomplishes some heavy-lifting from Pasquarello, they may want to peruse John Piper’s Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching as Worship (Crossway, 2018) or A. T. Robertson’s classic The Glory of the Ministry: Paul’s Exultation in Preaching (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1998 reprint [1911]). The beauty of preaching to which Pasquarello calls us to is not in the messenger, but in the message, so may our preaching be like Zion, “The perfection of beauty, [where] God appears in radiance” (Ps 50:2).
