aBeLOG
Welcome to the aBeLOG, a series of (hopefully!) fortnightly posts on all matters homiletical. I intend to touch on whatever grabs my attention regarding preaching—issues contemporary and ancient, ideas hermeneutical and rhetorical, personalities conservative and liberal, publications antiquarian and avant-garde. Essentially, I’m going to follow my own homiletical olfactory instincts up rabbit trails and after red herrings. Comments are always invited and appreciated.
On Commentaries … and a New One
I’m frequently asked by my students about commentaries I employ in my preaching prep.
The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly. The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd. But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.
Ecclesiastes 12:10–12
Qohelet notwithstanding,
Preaching is Ecclesial
The Bible is, without doubt, the church’s book and, therefore, the arena of action of its exposition is the congregation of God’s people of all time, the church, “the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). Thus the primary locus for the preaching of Scripture is the church, the assembly of God’s people, a setting that provides the direction and thrust for its interpretation.
Then Ezra the priest brought the law before
Preaching is Communicational
The reading of the law in Neh 7:73b–8:12 is considered one of the oldest descriptions of the formal, liturgical employment of Scripture in the gathering of the people of God (which happened sometimein the 430s B.C.E.). This event forms the climax of the Ezra-Nehemiah books, and the missions of the two protagonists, Ezra and Nehemiah, converge precisely within this enterprise: for the first time they are mentioned together in this section (Neh 8:9).
My Definition of Preaching
Welcome to the “reincarnated” aBeLOG. In its previous existence, this name served, for five plus years, as the label for a weekly devotional (that one now has been baptized as RaMbLeS—also located on HOMILETIX). The new aBeLOG is intended to serve as a preaching blog.
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching. 