Contextual Homiletic in the Patristic Age free essay sample

We find several instances in the Old Testament where praising God was done using musical instruments, songs, and sometimes even with dances. These songs are confessions about the greatness and power of God (e. g. Moses, Miriam, David etc. ), in other words demonstrating in a unified sense that contents and form, cognitive and affective parts are closely related in the sense of homiletics. Singing, as a form of preaching, still strongly tied to the Jewish heritage, is found also in the New Testament, especially in connection with the stories of the birth of Jesus. Mary and Zachariah praise the Lord with a song, as a response to the prophecy of the angel about the coming of the Messiah. On the sacred night of the birth, a choir of angels sing and glorify God. In the patristic period, following the primeval church, the song, as metaphor, originates mainly from the mythic anthropological images of the pagan world. This had an important effect both in preaching and in the cultivation of apology. Later the Christian kerygma, effected by the entering of the Hellenistic world took on the form of eloquence, which defined through several centuries its mainly deductive understanding and explanatory system. After this we find  »preaching in song « in the era of the reformation. Martin Luther, in particular, was the great master of this, able to interpret theological concepts by song. (Luther’s preaching by song is discussed in detail by Professor Jan Hermelink in his keynote lecture, so I do not discuss this matter further to save space). Beside the interpretation of theology by oral means, its appearance in other arts (like literature, song, later theatre) has always been an exciting topic, in which the age of reformation produced outstanding results. Although functionally  »singing theology « was counted as the best method of learning in a society where most people could hardly read, we cannot regard it solely and exclusively as a conscious approach. Aesthetic values cannot be evaded when branches of art are combined with preaching. And is there any form of preaching which is not connected to some form of art? Asking this question is important, especially in the case of Hungarian homiletics. At the end of the twentieth century the problem of song and music appears in the discourses of homiletics, as a metaphor of an event, a sort of analogy, which assists preaching, aside of rationality, to become an eventful, intuitive experience. This tendency is prominent in the American New Homiletic movement, mainly in the detailed problems of combination of contents and form. First I try to examine the metaphorical approach of music and song in the patristic age through Clement’s Protrepticos on the basis of the so called Orpheus legend. Secondly I will introduce, through the metaphor of song/music the new aesthetical approach in postmodern age. Thirdly, I will discuss how the 20th century Hungarian homiletical schools relate to aesthetical homiletics, that I call the modern age. Aesthetical homiletics in the patristic age Orpheus, the mythological hero, is regarded as the symbol of music/song and the strength of love; as a result his person became the icon of music and love. According to the myth, which was formed in the 6th century B. C. Orpheus was a Greek shepherd in Thracia, and was favoured by the gods because of his singing and playing of instruments like the zither, and lyre. He enchanted birds with his voice, and tamed beasts. Nature was revitalized around him, trees and even lifeless objects like stones began to move when hearing his music. When his beloved Eurydice died, the gods allowed Orpheus to descend into the underworld and to bring back his love. Charon took him across the river of death, and under the spell of his singing, left the barge and followed him. Cerberos, the three-headed beast, affected by the music, stopped barking and became calm. The fiery wheel of Ixion came to a halt, and vultures stopped tormenting the liver of Tityus, the daughters of Danaos discontinued the useless carrying of water, Sisyphus sat down on his rock, Tantalos’ hunger and thirst ceased and the judges of the dead were in tears. In one of the vaults of the Domitilla catacomb in Rome one can see a portrayal of Orpheus. Surrounded by trees and beasts, he wears a Phrygian cap, in his left hand he holds his lyre, on his right hand there is the plectrum, a small stick, with which he plays the cords. There arises a valid question: how did a mythological hero get into an ancient Christian burial site? The answer is as follows: Orpheus is Christ. Christ is the symbol of the animating singing, Christ is New Song. According to the Greek myth, despite his endeavours, Orpheus could not bring his beloved back from the underworld, but in early Christian symbolism the descent into the inferno and the momentum which changed everything there was sufficient imagery for him to be regarded by the pagan world as the precursor of Christ in preaching. In the syncretic practice of religions in the Roman Empire several gods and religions communicated with one another, sometimes these gods and beliefs even merged. Often it happened that gods or ceremonies from other religions were adapted in the other’s practice, or the older gods were identified as the new ones and their characteristics were united. Early Christian art did not exclude former pagan symbols from its practice. Thus, early Christian painting included both elements of pagan visual art as well as the then existing fashionable styles of painting. (e. g. emphasis of the head and eyes indicates influence from the East. ) In Greek mythology Orpheus was depicted as a Greek youngster, with a lyre, in a green, flowery background, or sometimes later in the underworld in front of Eurydice. On the frescoes of various representations of Christ one can observe clearly the influence of style and dressing of the given age. On one of these for example Christ appears as a young man in Roman clothes, with fashionable curly hair, without beard, with a plectrum, when resurrecting Lazarus. This Jesus is the same as Orpheus used to be, he revitalizes the dead. In theological terms Jesus descended onto earth, that means into the world of the dead, even died himself (descended into hell) to give those men who obediently listen to his singing, eternal life. Let us observe in a few citations how Clement of Alexandria Protrepticos (it means: exhortation) allegorizes this Orpheus-symbol in his work Exhortation to the Heathen. In this work we can encounter the characteristic contextual theology of the 2nd and following centuries, when he introduces Christ-Orpheus, as a new bard to the Greeks. The church in this era uses pagan images of their mythical anthropology to attract people to Christ. They tell by these images that our Christ is the marvellous lyre player, of whom you talked in the times of your myths. It alone has tamed men, the most intractable of animals; the frivolous among them answering to the fowls of the air, deceivers to reptiles, the irascible to lions, the voluptuous to swine, the rapacious to wolves. The silly are stocks and stones, and still more senseless than stones is a man who is steeped in ignorance. As our witness, let us adduce the voice of prophecy accordant with truth, and bewailing those who are crushed in igno rance and folly: †ºFor God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham†¹ [†¦] Behold the might of the new song! It has made men out of stones, men out of beasts. Those, moreover, that were as dead, not being partakers of the true life, have come to life again, simply by becoming listeners to this song.  « Christ’s preaching, and indeed the incarnation, according to Clement, is a new song. This is such a metaphor in his draft, which succinctly, but still easily explains to us that preaching is nothing else than a song of joy. This joy expands the dimensions of life for those who listen to it. Such songs do not want anything else but to make people free for a new life, which the Master of Life presents to them. Such songs give possibilities to blind, deaf, lame, straying, disobedient people, and even murderers to start a new life.  »What, then, does this instrument – the Word of God, the Lord, the New Song – desire? To open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf, and to lead the lame or the erring to righteousness, to exhibit God to the foolish, to put a stop to corruption, to conquer death, to reconcile disobedient children to their father. †¦] And do not suppose the song of salvation to be new, as a vessel or a house is new. For †ºbefore the morning star it was†¹ and †ºin the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. †¹ Error seems old, but truth seems a new thing. [†¦] Well, inasmuch as the Word was from the first, He was and is the divine source of all things; but inasmuch as H e has now assumed the name Christ, consecrated of old, and worthy of power, he has been called by me the New Song. Later Clement says:  »This is the New Song, the manifestation of the Word that was in the beginning, and before the beginning.  « And at the end of his work we read:  »Ã¢â‚¬ ¦this is symphony, this the harmony of the Father, this is the Son, this is Christ, this the Word of God.  « What is therefore the meaning of the metaphor song/music/tune in the second century, as well as in today’s homiletic terminology? The song penetrates the depths of the soul. It not only enters the brain, not only transfers knowledge, but touches the psyche and has influence on the body too. These last two effects bind men to the whole creation. Redemption has influence on the whole creation,  »Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God « says the apostle Paul in Romans 8 (NRSV). This is how early Christians regarded Christ, and interpreted Christ-Orpheus who, at the fullness of time will equalise this world subject to corruption and inequality, and fulfils the perfect peace as prophesised. Every sermon has the aim to declare and sing this Good News. If not in completeness, but at least the beginnings of this eschatological peace is already present where the song of the gospel is heard, it creates a large space ( »wide place « in Psalm 18) of protection, in which people learn how to live in peace, how to encourage one another, how to wipe out tears, how to laugh and weep together. Where this new tune of preaching is heard, there is no further need for the culture of violence, there will be no more persecution and captivity, dictating and intimidation, the presence of menace and fear. In the  »broad place « of the new song there is no domination over others, only love and its consequence: freedom. From the point of preaching we must see, that God’s own soul provides through people the liberating tunes of the new song, the tune of life and hope. Thus, the lyre in the hand of Christ-Orpheus is in fact the body of Christ. As He appeared once in body during the course of history, he is present ever since in the body of the community of believers. According to Ignatius of Antioch, the Christian church recites this new tune in history. The plectrum, on the other hand, is the Holy Spirit, which touches the members of believers and makes them resonate and create the tune of the new song.  »And He who is of David, and yet before him, the Word of God, despising the lyre and harp, which are but lifeless instruments, and having tuned by the Holy Spirit the universe, and especially man, – who, composed of body and soul, is a universe in miniature, –makes melody to God on this instrument of many tones; and to this instrument – I mean man – he sings accordant: †ºFor thou art my harp, and pipe, and temple. [864] – a harp for harmony – a pipe by reason of the Spirit – a temple by reason of the word; so that the first may sound, the second breathe, the third contain the Lord. A beautiful breathing instrument of music the Lord made man, after His own image.  « Of course, Clement does not write homiletics, but an apology against pagans. However it is shown here how import ant is the new tune produced by Christ. This new song shows God as a power who induces amazement and attraction opposed to powers which create fear. This is Christ’s new song, this was Jesus’s preaching, and any Christian sermon must conform to this new tune of Christ. This new tune resonates in people who vibrate together with the liberating movement of the Spirit, and who convey the vibration of this new tune both in contents and form. Also in the theology of the reformation, this foundation of homiletics is important, meaning that the preacher does not simply talk about God, does not objectivise Him, but that he allows God himself to sing through him, in other words, God should speak in the sermon. As Jesus as Lord was revealed by his incarnation, now the Lord wishes to sing this new tune in body. In other words, God does not wish only to teach people, but wishes to be present, together with his people, so that they can experience His presence. The preacher therefore can achieve most if he does not merely talk about God but allows the liberating tune of God to be heard, and provides the new song through the presence of the Spirit. Aesthetical homiletic in postmodern age In the following section I try to examine how the movement of New Homiletic uses the metaphor of song/music in the formation of its homiletic messages. The first step was taken by Craddock in his work As One Without Authority, in which he calls into account the prevailing homiletic theories, that if the Bible provides such a wide range of forms of expression, why are the 20th century preaching theories so much attached to the forms of classical rhetoric. Research on the connection of contents and form soon arrived at the realization of biblical artistic forms. Thomas G. Long in his work Preaching and the Literary Forms of the Bible investigated the major artistic forms of the Bible. Mike Graves in his publication The Sermon and Symphony discusses the correlations between existing literary forms of the New Testament and forms of preaching through the metaphor of music, more precisely through symphony. Graves believes that the foundation of the metaphor becomes obvious when the preacher regarding the form of the biblical text poses three questions about the reading, and tries to formulate his sermon around the answers. First he examines what the text says, secondly what it does and thirdly he tries to show how his sermon can say and do these simultaneously. Just like the contents and tune of music together produce the effect to the audience, the unity of contents and form should appear in the sermon. Graves later explains the purpose of the sermon is not simply to present the contents or to accommodate it in the theological system, but to make the text an experience for the listener. To demonstrate this he uses the following analogy: when a musician wishes to compose music for a poem, he not only uses the meaning of the words, but also their mood, disposition, movement and occasion. When the orchestra plays, many instruments will be brought together, with their many different sounds, but still remaining in harmony, nevertheless several of these will become predominant in the symphony, and these together provide the experience for the audience. Thus, it becomes an event, a happening in the lives of persons present.  »The sermon as symphony, then, consists of an interpretation of a text, a searching for its mood and movement, an artistic blending of text and tune, a moving performance, and an acoustical event in which something happens. Thomas Troeger, a professor at Yale University used the metaphor of music in his works on homiletics – he made himself known by several publications on aesthetical homiletics. In one of his later works he devotes a separate chapter to the place of  »beauty « in preaching. A detailed investigation of the metaphor of music is found in his work entitled  »Imaging a Sermon «. Here he emphasises the musical characterist ics of speech, which is an acoustic phenomenon. He uses the example of the fact, that a recited text has its own musicality, and a deeply intuitive speech has its own tune. The physical properties of speech – its rhythm, pitch, volume, and inflection – are a kind of music that makes the imagination dance.  « According to Troeger the congruency of sound and words is a complex issue.  »It requires a spiritual, theological process of finding that place of the heart where the Gospel has touched the preacher’s own life. Nothing can replace speaking out of that spiritual center. It is the place from which the melody of redemption arises and permeates our voice. Naturally, the development of aesthetical homiletics can also be traced to groups outside America. Following the new turns in hermeneutics, distinguished experts of German homiletics also turned attention to the fact that aesthetics and homiletics are inseparable. Gert Otto emphasized this standpoint in the area of linguistics, while Rodolf Bohren and Albrecht Grozinger pointed out the importance of aesthetics from the standpoint of practical theology. Gerd Theissen writes in his work, that  »Religious texts [†¦] through their relationship to transcendence have an aesthetic quality. In addition, they share four qualities with poetic texts: by their nature they are poetic, pictorial, fictional, and form giving.  « The paradigm of aesthetical homiletics, which has a predilection for the metaphor of music in its terminology, attempts to emphasize the relation of preaching and beauty. It regards preaching as an art, which uses the revelations of other arts, and applies these in its own area. Brueggemann for example advocates that the preacher should also be a poet, who can unite sermon and poetry to oppose the narrowing tendencies of spoken language. Buttrick uses the art of motion pictures as the basis of composing a sermon as a sequence of moves, and applies the phenomenology of these moves by developing his homiletic theory. Jana Childers on the other hand mentions theatrical dramaturgy as an example to follow, which leads the tensions of conflicts to solutions. All these arts operate in different manner and visualise in different ways, but one principle is invariably there: the unity of form and contents. This statement is not only accepted by theory (like linguistic philosophy) but in reverse, also by the applied principles of theology. In other words, preaching is not simply theory and abstraction, but at the same time a live phenomenon, and thus an event. This event is in all cases an integrated phenomenon, where contents and form cannot be separated. The starting point of traditional homiletics is just the opposite, that is the precedence of contents is at best followed by secondary criteria of form. Linguistic philosophy, which started during the Enlightenment but peaked in the 19th century, emphasized the priority of thought, its strength for creating reality, the relation between subject and object which formulates statements. The abstracting and summarising tendencies of linguistic thought unambiguously valued contents above everything else, and rendered to this culturally available formation systems, classical oratorical forms (polished over the ages) and its operating method: deductive argument. Aesthetical homiletics does not aim to reverse this order, – that is first form, then content second – but wishes to create an integrated union of the two. The principle is the same, and is as Paul Valery described: beauty cannot be summarized. (Rien de beau se peut resumer. As art explains and visualizes reality, in other words does not summarize or compress it, but rather opens it up for the recipient of artistic values, aesthetical homiletics can have only one aim, to expand and to lift the recipient, the listener to a  »broad place « (Ps 18,19). Zoltan Literaty [ 1 ]. Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, in: Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Ed. ), in The Ante-Nicene Fat hers, translation of The writing of the Fathers down to A. D. 325. Volume II. Fathers of the second century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus and Clement of Alexandria (entire). TT Clark and Eerdmans Publishing Company reprint 2001, 163-206. url: http://www. ccel. org/ccel/schaff/anf02/Page_i. html (Access: 23. 12. 2012. ) [ 2 ]. Ibid. , 172. http://www. ccel. org/ccel/schaff/anf02/Page_172. html. (Access: 23. 12. 2012. ) Or see in Greek: Protreptikos : . , , . url: http://www. perseus. ufts. edu/hopper/text? doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0555. tlg001. perseus-grc1:1(Access: 23. 12. 2012. ) [ 3 ]. Clement, 172-173. url: http://www. ccel. org/ccel/schaff/anf02/Page_173. html (Access: 23. 12. 2012. ) ? . url: http://www. perseus. tufts. edu/hopper/text? doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0555. tlg001. perseus-grc1:1 (Access: 23. 12. 2012. ) [ 4 ]. Ibid. 173. [ 5 ]. Ibid. , 205. url: http://www. ccel. org/ccel/schaff/anf02/Page_205. html (Access: 23. 12. 2012. ) [ 6 ]. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians, IV. 1. –IV. 2. url: http://www. earlychristianwritings. om/text/ignatius-ephesians-lightfoot. html (Access: 23. 12. 2012. ) [ 7 ]. Clement, 172. http://www. ccel. org/ccel/schaff/anf02/Page_172. html (Access: 23. 12. 2012. ) [ 8 ]. Fred B. Craddock, As One without authority, Chalica Press 2001. [ 9 ]. Thomas G. Long, Preaching and the literary forms of the Bible, Fortress Press 1988. [ 10 ]. Mike Graves, The Sermon as Symphony. Preaching the literary forms of the New Testament, Judson Press 1997. [ 11 ]. Ibid. , 16. [ 12 ]. Ibid. , 18. [ 13 ]. Ibid. , 19. [ 14 ]. Thomas Troeger, Wonder Reborn. Creating Sermons on Hymns, Music, and Poetry, Oxford University Press 2010, 3-28. And Preaching and Worship, Chalice Press 2003, 43-72. [ 15 ]. Thomas Troeger, Imagining a sermon, Abingdon Press 1990, 67-88. [ 16 ]. Ibid. , 69. [ 17 ]. Ibid. , 67. [ 18 ]. Ibid. , 75. [ 19 ]. Gert Otto, Predigt als Rede. Uber die Wechselwirkungen von Homiletik und Rhetorik, Kohlhammer 1976. And Predigt, als rhetorische Aufgabe. Homiletische Perspektieven, Neukirchener Verlag 1987. [ 20 ]. Rudolf Bohren, Dass Gott schon werde. Praktische Theologie als theologische Asthetik, Munchen, Kaiser Verlag, 1975, and different parts from Predigtlehre, Christian Kaiser Verlag, Munchen1980. 21 ]. Albrecht Grozinger, Praktische Theologie und Asthetik. Ein Beitrag zur Grundlegung der Praktischen Theologie, Munchen 1987. [ 22 ]. Gerd Theissen, The New Testament. A Literary History, Fortress Press, Minneapolis 2012, 3. [ 23 ]. Walter Brueggemann, Finally Comes The Poet, Fortress Press, Minneapolis 1989. [ 24 ]. David Buttrick, Homiletic. Moves and Structures, Fortress Press, Philadelphia 1987. [ 25 ]. Childers, Jana, Performing the Word: Preaching as Theatre, Abingdon Press 1998.