FROM COGITO TO VIDEO TO SENTIO ERGO SUM:
Have Cultural Transitions Impacted Preaching?
Dr. Al Fasol
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
This paper provides a perspective on the current "worship wars" and asks what impact recent transitions in our culture have had on preaching, if any. The three major sections of the paper are divided into a brief summary of the cultural context, and then a brief summary of the preaching of each era.
The first era begins in 1945. Major social changes occurred at the end of World War II and those changes have had repercussions to this day, including contemporary worship wars. Television and rock and roll music hit the national scene.
The preaching in this era was also in transition. The older preachers of that day were still caught up in a source-oriented oratorical style. The younger preachers, having experienced the social levelling experiences of the war, were more receptor oriented in their more conversational style.
The second era began in 1963. The cultural changes of the sixties were born in the seed beds of the fifties. An emphasis on individuality and personal gratification replaced an emphasis on personal responsibility. Civil unrest related to race relations and to the war in Viet Nam. Television gave major exposure to both of these issues. Rock and roll music became the primary way to express discontent with society in general, and began to be the folk music of the younger generation. Respect for most forms of authority was undermined, including ecclesiastical authority.
Preaching became heavily receptor oriented. The conversational style of preaching paralleled the informal atmosphere of this era. Sermon structure, however, remained much the same as in the previous era.
The third era began in 1980. A swing back to conservative thinking brought more order after the disorder of the sixties. An emphasis on national defense, a strong economy, and personal financial gain characterized the 1980s. Some historians have already labeled the eighties as a decade of American greed.
Preaching in this era was challenged by Craddock and others to break away from formal, deductive, outline-structured sermons. The form of the sermon, however, seems to be much the same as it has been for several decades. Is the rhetorically outlined sermon the best way to preach? Is the outline used for the edification of the congregation or for the convenience of the preacher?
From Cogito to Video to Sentio Ergo Sum:
Have Cultural Transitions Impacted Preaching?
The relationships between preaching and culture are interesting and complex.
They always have been and certainly are now. Preaching is intrinsically
involved in culture, yet preachers often consider culture as extrinsic
to their calling; preaching is an enemy of culture, preaching is an ally
to culture; preaching is often welcomed by culture, preaching is often
disdained by culture; preaching brings out the best in culture, preaching
brings out the worst in culture; culture brings out the best in preaching,
culture brings out the worst in preaching. This Dickens-esque analogy
could be prolonged, but that would be unacceptable, at least according
to the dictates of contemporary culture.
Talking about the relationships between preaching and culture is similar
to describing the speaking process. When we speak, many things are happening
at the same time and each is interdependent on the others. In this paper,
I hope to simplify our study by focusing on the historical context for
how cultural changes have affected contemporary worship and thus contemporary
preaching. I will also limit the study by concentrating on Southern Baptist
preachers and preaching. We will look at three eras covering the last
fifty-five years: 1945-1963 which I label the Cogito Ergo Sum era; 1964-1980--the
Video Ergo Sum era; and 1980-2000--the Sentio Ergo Sum era. These labels
are meant to be representative. If we involve ourselves in all the intricate
exceptions, our study would be like tracking the structure of a spider's
web, we will find ourselves covering strands which all look alike but
keep on leading us in different directions until we become hopelessly
enmeshed.
We will also limit our analysis of the various communication theories
to Encoding-Decoding/Frames of Reference, and Receptor Orientation. Encoding
and decoding have to do with how to word, and therefore to shape the thoughts
of, a sermon. We choose words we feel are understandable, non-technical,
and are neither "upper garble"or "lower garble".
This process of choosing words is encoding. During the encoding process,
we select words based on how we think the congregation will understand
them. When the congregation does hear the words, they are decoding. Obviously,
we want to encode in such a way that their decoding leads them to understand
the sermon clearly.
Encoding and decoding are done in the context of what communication strategists
call frames of reference. This simply means we bear in mind the "world
view" we think the congregation may have. This world view is shaped
by their many and diverse life experiences. For example, on my first trip
to Alaska, I asked for background information on the congregations to
whom I would be speaking. I was told, among other things, it would not
be good to describe Jesus as "the Lamb of God", or about Jesus
as the true vine. The frames of reference of the people to whom I would
be speaking could not conjure a picture in their mind of a lamb or of
a vine. I could speak about the light of the world or the salt of the
earth or the bread of life, but not of lamb or of vine because they were
outside of their frames of reference. We do the same thing with our congregations.
We select our illustrations, our vocabulary, and shape our thoughts carefully
to fit the frames of reference of the congregation.
Receptor orientation has to do with how messages are received. Educational
programmers have concluded listeners can be described in four different
ways: auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile. (Tactile learning is
minimal to non-existent in preaching so we will not included it in our
study.) One of these ways is dominant in each of us. The first way is
auditory. Auditory here is in reference to information. The auditory likes
explanation of the text because it involves information. The auditory
is likely to sit towards the back so as to minimize the relationship to
the speaker and concentrate on the information. The auditory likes to
listen to all news stations. The auditory is easily distracted and sometimes
the auditory will sit at the front instead of the backso as to eliminate
those distractions.
The visual likes explanation by illustration or application by illustration.
The visual usually sits on the far sides, center. They like explanation
of the text, but will tell you they do not "see" what you are
saying until you illustrate. They do like visual aids, but at a minimum
they feel they need at least one analogy for every major thought in the
sermon.
The kinesthetic likes application of the sermon. Information is acceptable,
the illustrations are helpful, but the kinesthetic tunes in when you tell
them this is what it means to them here and now. The kinesthetic likes
to sit at the front in order to feel a sense of participation in the sermon.
Just thinking about the sermon seems idle to them. (Predictably, the kinesthetic
does not know what is meant by a rhetorical question.)
In addition, I would like for us to note how the rhetorically outlined
sermon structure has stayed with us over the years, and whether this is
good or bad or not relevant.
I had planned to concentrate on the challenges of preaching in 2001 by
relating current communication theory to homiletics. I noticed in the
roster of speakers and titles for the various papers scheduled for this
conference that I would be overlapping a little on several preachers.
That is why I decided to give us some historical context while continuing
to relate current theories of communication theory to homiletics. These
observations will be drawn from listening to sermons since 1946 when my
parents were converted, and from nearly thirty years of teaching preaching
at Southwestern.
1945-1963 The Cogito Ergo Sum Era
Cultural Frames of Reference
The end of World War II brought a domino effect of social changes which
reverberate to this day: the social readjustment of veterans, and of female
civilians who were no longer so eager to resume full time housewife roles;
the sudden rise of university enrollment as veterans took advantage of
the GI Bill; the sudden rise of the housing industry as men and women
married or resumed their marriages, which led, of course, to the prolific
rise in the birth rate. This rise in the birth rate was quickly noted
by "Madison Avenue". (By 1945, "Madison Avenue had long
been recognized as a synecdoche for the advertising industry.) The term
"baby boom" probably began in Advertising Age, a trade journal.
Hygeia, a magazine for new mothers, placed an ad in Advertising Age delineating
the birth rate from 1941-1946. (Advertising Age, 21 April 1947). "Madison
Avenue" took note of the all time high rate for '46, tracked the
rate for another year, and then announced to the nation we were in the
midst of a baby boom.
Commensurate with the baby boom were a number of other social factors
which affected culture, and, eventually to a lesser degree, preaching.
Heavy emphasis was placed on formal education. The adults of the '40s
had survived a debilitating and prolonged economic depression as well
as a war. They saw advanced education as a way to prevent both calamities.
Well meaning parents put a lot of pressure on their children to become
"educated". By education, most of them meant the accumulation
of information, not knowing from first hand experience that education
was much more than the mere memorizing of facts. Personal responsibility
was extremely important to the parents of baby boomers. Tom Brokaw, for
example, quoted WWII veteran Charles Brisco: "If you have a job,
there is a way to do it. As a farm kid, I didn't have anyone to ask; I
just had to figure it out. The kids nowadays, their parents buy them fancy
cars and depend on someone else to keep them running." (Brokaw, 95)
He also quoted World War II veteran Wesley Ko: "Everything comes
too easy. Nowadays you just don't make the effort. I learned to be self
sufficient. When my business failed, (I took another job and paid my debts
rather than declare bankruptcy.)" (Brokaw, 44) Self responsibility,
however, was dichotomized when it came to sexual morality. Females were
to hold to a strong moral standard, but males were expected to sow some
"wild oats".
Two other factors came on the scene in a powerful way in this era: television,
and the popularization of rock and roll music. The impact of both were
to hit with much more intensity, however, in the next era.
Preaching
The preaching of this era had nearly as much source-oriented, oratorical
preaching as it did receptor-oriented, conversational preaching. The source
oriented, oratorical preacher put more emphasis on making an impressive
presentation, and less emphasis on being concerned if the congregation
received the message clearly. The receptor oriented, conversational preacher
gave more attention to the how sermon was being received.
In either case, the sermon form was regularly three points, a poem, and
a sob story. The full time evangelists of the day generally followed this
pattern, but were allowed to ply the emotions of the congregation much
more than the "regular" pastor. Explanation, as a functional
element of preaching was used more than argumentation and application.
This followed the cultural dictate of the day that "education",
information, and knowledge collectively were the highest good. As in every
era, the sermons were to be biblical and this was largely measured as
to how the sermon affirmed the more!s and values of the day. Essentially,
sin and communism were bad. Sin was especially bad if it had to do with
sex or alcohol, and not quite so bad if it had to do with economic or
political injustice.
The influence of Greek and Roman rhetoric through Broadus was evident.
Every sermon was to be structured around major points, usually three.
Broadus allowed both for sermons without major points, and for sermons
with more or less than three points, but he made it clear, most of the
time a sermon should have points, and the most suitable number is three.
why (is it) sermons oftener have three divisions than any other number...a principal reason for it is...three divisions will give a goodly variety, without distracting attention, or burdening the memory. And in many directions we meet with similar or analogous facts. Thus one of the commonest schemes of discourse will naturally be, What? Why? What then? i.e., explain, prove, apply. Three gives the idea of completeness--beginning, middle, end. When men start a race, the signal is always,"One, two, three," neither more nor less. Phelps thinks that the threefold division was due (as in part no doubt it was)to a desire on the part of the mediaeval preachers to honor the Trinity. (Broadus, 284-7)
This plan was followed by Billy Graham, to a large extent by R. G. Lee, and by Herschel Hobbs. In a series of sermons from Matthew, Hobbs preached twenty-eight sermons. One sermon had four points, twenty-seven had three points. Billy Graham's sermons had many more illustrations and much more application than Hobbs. Lee used figures of speech more than anecdotes for his illustrative material, and he used lots of them. With the exception of Graham, most sermons in this era appealed primarily to the auditory portion of the congregation; that is, that part of the congregation who enjoyed receiving information. The emphasis was on explanation of the text. The popularity of television and of rock and roll music were beginning to have an impact. The influence of television was more powerful and led the way into. . .
1963-1980 The Video Ergo Sum Era
Cultural Frames of Reference
During the cogito ergo sum era, advertising began to focus on the baby
boom generation. One of the many strategies Madison Avenue employed was
the glorification of the youth culture. Tobacco, alcohol, clothing, and
automobile companies were especially keen on selling the idea of purchasing
products before you are too >old= to enjoy them. Television provided
a new, powerful way to communicate those ideas, and credit cards provided
a means of instant gratification (de-emphasizing the need for a later
accountability). Educational programmers touted an "open curriculum"
by rationalizing that "the children know better than adults what
they need to learn". Permissiveness, instant gratification, and moral
relativity were accentuated as the only "cool" lifestyle. Popular
music became almost exclusively rock and roll. Song lyrics and movies
became increasingly suggestive.
U. S. military intervention in Viet Nam provided a cause for a lot of
self-centered youth activism. The WWII/Korean War generation gave their
lives in defense of America and were reluctant to question the wisdom,
much less the purpose, of our intervention. The baby boomer generation
had not personally experienced WWII and were youngsters during the Korean
military action. The baby boomers had intellectual understanding of the
"Cold War", but had difficulty understanding that missiles thousands
of miles away were aimed at them. The WWII generation wanted the baby
boomers to carry and defend the flag as they had. The baby boomers had
another agenda and were not interested in giving their lives to fight
an "old man's war".
The civil unrest related to the war, paralleled racial civil unrest.
Respect for authority--governmental, parental, ecclesiastical--was undermined
and worse. One of the most telling slogans of the baby boomers was, "Don't
trust anyone over thirty years of age". The glorification of youth
had taken full hold among them. Rock and roll became their favorite way
to express their emotions. Their protests were made possible by the sacrifice
of the previous generation, and their financial security came from the
previous generation. Yet, some of the baby boomers still proclaimed "We
have dropped out of society!"
Not all dropped out, of course. Many were temporary, willing participants
in the protests of the day in many ways, but most pursued their education
and careers rather than dropping out. For those who "stayed",
and for their elders, this era was very much a visual era. Television
viewing claimed tens of hours per family week. People became accustomed
to actually viewing programs, as opposed to imagining them as in the days
of radio. Whereas, radio piqued the imagination and guided people into
thinking about what they were hearing, television largely took away the
thinking aspect and did the work that had been accomplished by our imaginations.
Preaching
The two most popular text books of this era were written by H. Grady
Davis, and Clyde Fant. In 1980 the Academy of Homiletics published the
results of a textbook survey conducted among its members.
Interestingly enough, the book which was listed most frequently by the respondents...is 22 years old: H. Grady Davis, Design for Preaching (Fortress, 1958, $7.75). A more recent book was listed (by several respondents). The book is Clyde E. Fant's Preaching for Today (Harper & Row, 1977, $4.95). (Homiletic,Vol. 1, 1980)
Davis was ahead of his time. He insisted content and form are not two
distinct entities. Davis felt the form of the sermon must reflect the
biblical text. This was in reaction to the biblical theology movement
of the 1950s. Davis spent a little time in the last chapter discussing
ways to make the sermon more listenable, but his main concern was the
correlation of form and substance. Davis tried to take preaching out of
some of its self imposed bondage to traditional forms of preaching. He
did not advocate, specifically, that preaching become more visual and
less auditory. He did suggest that the sameness he found in reviewing
numerous sermons led him to realize preachers are limiting themselves
in their approaches to preaching.
This book is...primarily a description of what takes place in actual preaching, actual sermons. It sets forth no theoretical form which a sermon must take to be a good sermon, since even the most perfect (sic) form cannot make a good sermon of shoddy material. The book is rather a report of the surprising variety of forms that do turn up in different phases of sermonic design, and how each reflects and affects the content. (Davis,vi)
Fant also did not specifically appeal for less auditory and more visual
emphasis in preaching. Fant did, however, detest cliche!s and was convinced
no form of communication ever employed more trite, cliche statements than
does preaching. Fant's appeal was for "incarnational preaching".
His book combined theology of proclamation, communication theory, and
basic tenets of sermon preparation. Both Fant and Davis sought a fresh
view of preaching, but neither directly challenged the old three points
method of preaching.
One other contribution to the field during this era needs to be mentioned.
H. C. Brown, Jr. published A Quest for Reformation in Preaching
in 1968. Brown suggested we describe the relationship between the text
and the sermon as the biblical authority of the sermon. The concept needs
more delineation in Brown's book, but his germinal thinking on the subject
was long overdue. Many homileticians wrote of the need for biblical preaching,
but Brown offered at least a first step in understanding how to assess
and evaluate the relationship between the text and the sermon. Brown,
too, did not challenge the prevailing notion that sermons are built on
skeletal, rhetorical outlines. He did allow for some creativity in preaching,
but saw anything outside of the outline, point-by-point approach as something
to be done only occasionally.
W. A. Criswell, Adrian Rogers, Charles Stanley, and Jerry Vines were
among the preachers who began their ascension to prominence during this
era. Criswell was well known throughout the SBC, but for many years declined
to accept revival invitations, and limited the number of conferences and
conventions at which he would speak. He did publish many sermons, and
his books were consistently best sellers for Broadman and for Zondervan.
The sermons of each of these men were built on rhetorical outline points.
(Criswell, in October, 1968 preached "The Church of the Open Door",
an outstanding sermon on race relations. The sermon had three divisions,
but the divisions were not points in the sermon.) To be certain, they
did not limit themselves to just three points. Both Adrian and Charles
also employ subpoints in structuring their sermons.
Note, for example, the structure of "Mending Broken Brothers",
(the text is Gal. 6:1-2) a sermon preached by Adrian Rogers included in
Southern Baptist Preaching Today:
I. The Ministry of Restoration, 6:1
II. The Manner of Restoration, 6:1
1. With a gentle spirit
2. With a humble spirit
3. With sympathyIII. The Motive of Restoration, 6:2 (Allen & Gregory, 327-336)
During this era, sermons generally included more illustrative material
in the form of anecdotes than did the previous era. Figures of speech
were not used as illustrative material as much as they were in the auditory
era. No doubt, this was due to the awareness of preachers that society
had become more visually oriented and less auditory oriented. The basic
form of the sermon, rhetorical points, did not change. The substance of
the sermon changed a little with the addition of more anecdotal illustrations.
1980- The Sentio Ergo Sum Era
Cultural Frames of Reference
A shift back to conservatism was predictable enough. Most of us like
some order in our lives, and the sixties wearied many of us with its disorder.
We are still shifting through some of the shambles of the chaos of the
sixties. Education reform, for one, is no where near returning the public
school system to what it should be.The same could be said for the home,
family values, and sexual morality. However, some changes from the sixties
appear to be with us long term. Self-centeredness, instant gratification,
an emphasis on entertainment rather than work as a means of acceptance
and identity, the various forms of rock music. Since each of us has lived
through this era, I will not re-hash the events.
Preaching
While we have taken a strong turn to conservatism, changes in worship
style have maintained the "off with the old, on with new" philosophy
that triggered the sixties. In this age of conservatism, of restoration
of old values, the changes in worship seem decidedly liberal. The "old"
ways are being shunted aside, the "new" ways, we are told, are
the only way to go. All of this may be largely true if we are speaking
only, or even primarily of church music. The form of the sermon, however,
has not changed that much in my experience.
Take as a, albeit limited, barometer the D Min preaching seminars I have
conducted in the last twenty-one years at SWBTS. The seminars average
fifteen members enrolled. Most, and usually all, of them are pastors.
Ninety-nine to one hundred percent of them testify they preach series
sermons in the morning services almost always. The exceptions are usually
for Christian holidays. Many of them say they are in more than one series
at a time--Sunday morning and Sunday night. A few say they have a third
series ongoing on Wednesday nights. Eighty-six percent tell me they usually
preach from a book written by Paul because "it is easier to outline".
Of the four to eight sermons per week I hear in Preaching Lab, nearly
one hundred percent of them are structured by three point outlines. Of
the two to thee sermons per week preached in chapel at SWBTS each week,
the vast majority of them are structured in outline points.
All of this leads us to wonder: do the changes in worship style affect
the music only, or the music primarily, but do not affect our preaching
styles? with all of the changes occurring in society, do people think
only in outlines? are outlines the best way to communicate from the Bible?
are outlines really for the convenience of the preacher rather than for
the edification of the congregation? should we encourage our students
to use outlines in most sermons most of the time? should congregations
be encouraged to memorize our major points? if so, what would that accomplish?
Expository preaching has been touted as the best and sometimes the only
way to preach. Many definitions of "expository preaching" exist.
We find ourselves not wanting to disagree with that assertion, but hesitant
to fully support it until we know what "expository preaching"
means. Others have touted the narrative sermon, and again, we are not
always certain what that means.
Should the sermon be "storying" the Bible?
Should the sermon find or create a story in parallel with the text?
Or should we find or create a story that has the same "moral"
as the text?
If so, where does one find so many stories?
Or should we combine the two into what has been called "narrative
exposition"?
Narrative exposition would have obvious appeal to the auditory and to
the visual, but would it meet the needs of today's kinesthetic generation,
especially if we use an inductive sermon approach?
End Notes
The reference to Advertising Age was taken from a clipping from that journal
given me by a professor at Southern Illinois University in 1955. I have
not been able to find complete bibliographic information, and the date
was hand written on the article.
Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation. New York: Random House, 1998.
John A. Broadus, A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons.
Revised by E. C. Dargan. New York: George H. Doran Co., 1898.
H. Barry Evans, gen. ed., Homiletic, "Survey Results: Books
for Preaching," Vol V, Number 1, 1980.
H. Grady Davis, Design for Preaching. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg
Press, 1958.
H. C. Brown, Jr. A Quest for Reformation in Preaching. Waco, TX:
Word Books, 1968
R. Earl Allen and Joel Gregory, compilers, Southern Baptist Preaching Today. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1987.
Bibliography
Includes entries from the end notes, plus:
Brown, H.C.Jr. A Quest for Reformation in Preaching.
Waco: Word Books, 1968.
Robinson, Haddon W. Biblical Preaching. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980