Preaching after Nietzsche
I have been sitting in on an existentialism class at the local university. The professor is a little too taken with critiques of religion, but other than that it's a good class.
Anyway, after reading and discussing Nietzsche, I think I know why I am uncomfortable with focusing on application in preaching. Nietzsche wants to rescue the individual from the herd mentality that he sees created in Christianity. He thinks Christianity creates weak people who are then controlled by "morality," "the good," etc. He desires, instead, that the individual be regained and empowered to critique, among other things, religion.
When I focus on application in preaching, what comes to mind is the herd mentality: one person directing a group of people how to live out (on a good Sunday) a biblical text. I think this falls into the trap of following not the Spirit, but the preacher--who may be a decent person, but who certainly doesn't have the corner on the Spirit. I have been trying, instead of applications, to offer implications of the text. What questions should I bring to the Spirit with regard to my life/character/choices in light of this biblical passage and its place in the shaping of God's people?
It's easy to think that people need more direction: they need a preacher to spell it out for them; they need to be led to the edge of the water. It's likely they do, but the role of preaching is limited. Pastoring will likely include some of this more applied direction, which is why I think Nietzsche's critique must be heard, but then overcome. This post is titled "Preaching after Nietzsche," not "Pastoring after Nietzsche."
Anyway, after reading and discussing Nietzsche, I think I know why I am uncomfortable with focusing on application in preaching. Nietzsche wants to rescue the individual from the herd mentality that he sees created in Christianity. He thinks Christianity creates weak people who are then controlled by "morality," "the good," etc. He desires, instead, that the individual be regained and empowered to critique, among other things, religion.
When I focus on application in preaching, what comes to mind is the herd mentality: one person directing a group of people how to live out (on a good Sunday) a biblical text. I think this falls into the trap of following not the Spirit, but the preacher--who may be a decent person, but who certainly doesn't have the corner on the Spirit. I have been trying, instead of applications, to offer implications of the text. What questions should I bring to the Spirit with regard to my life/character/choices in light of this biblical passage and its place in the shaping of God's people?
It's easy to think that people need more direction: they need a preacher to spell it out for them; they need to be led to the edge of the water. It's likely they do, but the role of preaching is limited. Pastoring will likely include some of this more applied direction, which is why I think Nietzsche's critique must be heard, but then overcome. This post is titled "Preaching after Nietzsche," not "Pastoring after Nietzsche."
posted by Aaron Perry at
2:39 PM
8 Comments:
Probably the most useful idea you have ever posted - nice work. I live the idea of implication rather than application. Good stuff.
I have abandoned trying to hard for practical application on a purely pragmatic basis - how do I tell 40 different people exactly how this applies to their life (although giving them an idea of the questions this requires us to ask is much more doable). Instead we use our weekly small groups as a place to work out the application the the truth from Sunday to our lives in community.
Yeah, I'm going to get in trouble. But implication/application is a distinction without a difference if you have been taught how to preach.
And AJ is right (yes, he is, at least in the second paragraph). What is commonly called application belongs in the home, for a pastoral visit or a small group to work out.
OK, shred away. I'm tough and can handle it.
Crusty
AJ: Thanks. But, I cannot take credit: the distinction is not mine, but Doug Pagitt's from "Preaching Reimagined." I think you are quite right about small group spiritual formation.
Crusty: Why would that put you in trouble? It's an jab at my professor(s) who (apparently) didn't teach me how to preach, and I'd affirm the more direct application prominent in the preaching of revivalist and pietist traditions, in which I find myself, but you've said nothing I'd want to "shred."
I don't like the herd mentality assumption in application either. I know that I, for one, don't want one man or woman preacher to pre-empt my right to interpret what "being led by the Spirit" means for me in my own unique life.
Crusty - I guess it depends on how specific you have been taught to be in your application. Implication is certainly different than application as I was taught it.
Preaching after Nietzsche -I just can't help but picture some sort of really really weird camp meeting where he and I are the "evangelists."
What do you do when the preaching lacks both?
Jo...I am trying hard to put "rights" language into a post on preaching! :)
Jon: Tough one! If the preaching is still biblical, then work through implications on your own and with friends. If the preaching is not biblical, then...well...it becomes even tougher. (And by not biblical, I don't mean, simply, "anti-biblical," or "unbiblical." I mean, it sparsely relies on the Bible or ignores it, for all intents and purposes.)
I'm really tempted to jump in on the rights debate. But nah. I may have rejected a whole bunch of pietism over the last two decades, but the camp-meeting challenge, "You surrendered your rights at the foot of the cross" still rings true.
Anyway, I wanted simply to say here that a strong dose of Calvin on the role of Institutes/ Commentaries/ Sermons/ Counsel (in that order) and a stronger dose of Barth (his lectures on Homiletics are excellent) may spare us from having to read the ravings of madman who lost his faith and then went nuts trying to find it again.
Crusty.
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