Theology Is for Proclamation
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Theology is not meant to glorify library-bound scholars--its purpose is to enable proclamation! Gerhard Forde hits this home in this easy to read and wonderfully insightful book. Frequently using down-to-earth illustrations, he states his case with elegant simplicity. Regardless of your religious tradition, this book will enrich your understanding of God--guaranteed. You'll love it!
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The author is a professor at a Lutheran seminary in the USA. His great virtue is that he is a faithful expositor of Martin Luther's brilliant insights into Christian theology. His vice is that, like his mentor, he has a polemical disposition. Forde is quick to deride perceived opponents, to the point where he can be inconsistent in his judgments. I would rate this book as worthy of three and a half stars, but with the caveat that readers should look out for occasional inconsistencies. Forde provides an excellent explanation of Luther's doctrine of the Word. The Word is the divine Logos, second person of the Holy Trinity. The Word will reveal God, regardless of any scientific or historical discrepancies in the words written by humans about God that the church has assembled into the canon of books that comprise the Bible. This distinction between the Word of God, and the words of humans about God was made by Augustine in his Homilies on John's Gospel. Forde also gives a good presentation of Luther's teaching regarding the revealed and hidden God, and the lesser-known distinction between the preached and unpreached God. The omnipotent God controls the universe, therefore God is ultimately responsible for all evil. That is the God we cannot fathom, the "unpreached" God. But God also becomes a baby born in squalor in the first century, lives a humble life, and then dies a horrible death at our hands - for us. That is the "preached" God, the revealed God from whom we receive the gift of life. After explaining Luther's doctrine of the Word, however, Forde rejects John's Gospel as inconsistent with his theory of the mechanics of proclamation (which he largely borrows from Willi Marxen), because in John's Gospel Jesus claims divine titles for himself, and Forde finds this is unacceptable. That is a limited view. Surely the Word of God speaks through John as much as the Word speaks through Paul, and was not the compilation of the canon inspired by the Holy Spirit? Brevard Childs has reminded us that we must take each portion of the Bible as part of a collective witness to Christ, intended as such by the church when the canon was settled. And, when Forde vertures out of his area of immediate expertise, he can make some gauche remarks. For example, Forde makes a sarcastic reference to the Eastern tradition of having an icon of Christ seated on his throne of judgment (o Christos pantokrator) in their church buildings, but elsewhere Forde indicates that he favors the Alexandrian Christology that regards the Logos as having suffered while incarnate. Does Forde know that icons of Christos pantokrator always show Jesus with the stigmata? Far from being stupid, they portray an entirely biblical image (see Revelation) and are quite consistent with the Christology that Forde favors. Forde makes one significant reference to Karl Barth, but it is dismissive. Oddly, in his book Homiletics, a version of which first appeared in English in the 1960's, Barth says that all theology is a prelude to preaching, which is precisely the theme of Forde's book. Notwithstanding these occasional defects, this is a very helpful book that emphasizes important principles involved in the task of proclaiming the gospel. The most important of which is that we must remember what are human words and what is God's Word, and that preachers must humbly use their human words to set the stage for God's Word to enter the hearts of their hearers.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Bridging the gap between Proclamation of the Word, and administrating the Sacraments
September 13, 2010
Format:Paperback
Any Pastor who is interested in improving his sermons will be enriched reading this book. Gerhard combats the tendency for a sermon to become a lecture on theology with no real proclamation of salvation. He distinguishes between 1st order 2nd order discourse. one way to think about his is talking about the Gospel, rather than proclaiming the Gospel. One can talk about the Gospel without ever applying the Gospel to those who are listening. The Sermon never gets around to "for you." Perhaps this is a due to a timid pastor who doesn't want to step on toes so talks about sin in the abstract without convicting one of it, and therefore than talking about the gospel in an abstract manner. Of course reformed are ever hesitant to get around to the for you, because they aren't sure. Limited Atonement makes it impossible for the preacher to say with any certainty that Jesus died for you, that Jesus forgives you. But this is the wonderful thing about the Gospel, objective justification manifests itself in subjective salvation. Jesus died for the entire world (John 30)therefore he died for you, therefore your sins are forgiven, yes your sins.
A helpful analogy he has in this book is that he writes of "two lovers conversing" what would your girlfriend make of it if when asking you if you love her, you said yes, I love the whole world, or started talking about what love is, but never getting around to telling her that you do love her, specifically. This is the rub. If we are to be spokesmen for God then we need to apply his love to those who are hearing not just talk about God's love in the abstract.
That is we can not give someone faith by talking about faith, but we give them something to believe in, Jesus Christ died for you. His contention ultimately is that our our gospel proclamation should be more in line with the way the sacraments are administered. The sacraments are the gospel in concrete, water is poured words are spoken, no one can debate, baptism has happened. It matters very little if you believe it, it has happened. The body is eaten, the blood is drunk, the Lord's supper has taken place, sins have been forgiven. It isn't open for debate. What is done is done. So our proclamation is to be Christ died for you, spoken in such a manner that it isn't opened for debate.
All theology is to be going to this point. It is to serve in making this point. your sins are forgiven. It is true whether or not you believe it. Only this approach keeps us from making faith our work something we add to our salvation, but something that merely grabs hold of our salvation and rejoices.
A helpful analogy he has in this book is that he writes of "two lovers conversing" what would your girlfriend make of it if when asking you if you love her, you said yes, I love the whole world, or started talking about what love is, but never getting around to telling her that you do love her, specifically. This is the rub. If we are to be spokesmen for God then we need to apply his love to those who are hearing not just talk about God's love in the abstract.
That is we can not give someone faith by talking about faith, but we give them something to believe in, Jesus Christ died for you. His contention ultimately is that our our gospel proclamation should be more in line with the way the sacraments are administered. The sacraments are the gospel in concrete, water is poured words are spoken, no one can debate, baptism has happened. It matters very little if you believe it, it has happened. The body is eaten, the blood is drunk, the Lord's supper has taken place, sins have been forgiven. It isn't open for debate. What is done is done. So our proclamation is to be Christ died for you, spoken in such a manner that it isn't opened for debate.
All theology is to be going to this point. It is to serve in making this point. your sins are forgiven. It is true whether or not you believe it. Only this approach keeps us from making faith our work something we add to our salvation, but something that merely grabs hold of our salvation and rejoices.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent Book for Bridging Systematic and Practical Theology!
I recently finished reading "Theology Is for Proclamation" by Gerhard Forde, and it was quite good! When I picked up this book, I was expecting a straightforward book on... Read more
Published on July 30, 2006 by Perry County Saxon
Less opacity, more clarity then Theology will really be for...
The first time I read Forde's book, I wondered if it had originally been written in English or if it was just a poor translation from another language. Read more
Published on November 18, 2001 by gayelle
Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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upward rebellion, vital proclamation, magnificent abstractions, upward fall, sheer gift, external word Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Preached God, Jesus Christ, Word of God, Son of God, The Hard of Hearing, New Testament, Christ Jesus, Old Adam, Slough of Despond, Holy Spirit, The God of the Scriptures, God's Word, Last Supper Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
upward rebellion, vital proclamation, magnificent abstractions, upward fall, sheer gift, external word Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Preached God, Jesus Christ, Word of God, Son of God, The Hard of Hearing, New Testament, Christ Jesus, Old Adam, Slough of Despond, Holy Spirit, The God of the Scriptures, God's Word, Last Supper Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
19
books
cite this book:
See all 19 books citing this book
- The Practice of Preaching by Paul Scott Wilson on 5 pages
- By Faith Alone: Essays on Justification in Honor of Gerhard O. Forde by Joseph A. Burgess on 5 pages
- Justification: What's at Stake in the Current Debates by Mark Husbands on 4 pages
- Clothed in Nothingness by Leonard Hummel in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Confessing Jesus Christ: Preaching in a Postmodern World by David J. Lose on page 183, page 224, and Back Matter
See all 19 books citing this book
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