Apocalyptic reading allows the preacher to participate with God in world-making announcing the arrival of a new and declaring lives held captive to the old world order free to roam about in new possibility
The exiled preacher, John of Patmos, has invited the church to enter into a world where peace is born not on the back of Rome's war horses, chariots, or economic prowess but by the self-giving, self-emptying life modeled for us in the dying of Jesus. As Jesus before him, John declares this new world in the midst of the old using particular speech in evoking this new world order. So God, who in the beginning spoke a word to create, by grace invites the preacher to participate with the Holy Spirit in the ongoing work of world-making by words
As the preacher reads the text in this apocalyptic way, he or she does so bi-focally-
to see things both near and far with accuracy.
In one lens, the text is allowed to name the old world for what it is in its brokennessThis old decaying world order is often in the fore and dominates our vision. We become so accustomed to its way that we assume it to be the norm. As the preacher engages with the text, her or his vision of the old world, though near,
is clarified so that the text is allowed to name the powers of the old world
for what they are false.
The notion of performative language that calls forth an alternative world is found throughout scriptureIn another lens, the text imaginatively prefigures another reality. The new world created in the text is often on the horizon and hardly noticed because of the ways in which the old world crowds the preacher's vision. Within the text, the preacher has not only found an accurate vision of the world but an accurate vision of God. The text functions so that scripture becomes a living word present for the church.
shelly spectacles
As a result scripture and its proclamation are no longer held hostage by a methodology that requires the preacher to straddle antiquity and modernity.
When preacher and text are no longer objectified, the word of God is present for the church."
What I am suggesting is that the relationship between preacher and text is best guided by an apocalyptic theological sense. The preacher comes to the text each week
as an apocalyptic theologian guided by certain confessional understandings
about the nature of the word of God as performative and particular.
As apocalyptic theologian, the preacher participates in the ongoing work of God
to call forth the new creation in the midst of the old.
The question then becomes: what sort of reading strategies are informed by and move toward these apocalyptic ends
READING "IN THE WORLD OF" THE TEXT Paul Ricoeur proposes that imagination,
far from a fantastic escape from reality,
is the capacity to work through images, metaphors, and narratives
as a way of evoking and constructing an alternative world.Ricoeur's hermeneutical philosophy aligns itself closely with performative and particular theological readings of texts. He describes three worlds in relation to the text:
1. The world "behind the text" consists of those historical elements that produced the text
2. The world "before the text" consists of the world that we inhabit in the present moment
3. The world "of the text" refers to the world figured within the text itself
If engagement with the text is primarily occupied in the world "behind the text,"
the text itself tends to become objectified
and distance created between the text and the preacher is often experienced by the listenerIf one's engagement with the text is primarily occupied in the world "before the text," too often the text is relativized and sometimes even co-opted by the contemporary context. But when the engagement with the text is primarily in the world "of the text," the text is allowed to speak on its own terms to evoke a new world
Ricoeur is convinced that the primary work of interpretation is to live in the world of the text. 10 Ricceurs notion of reading "in the world of the text" is precisely the sort of reading our apocalyptic theological instincts would encourage
Engaging the Text with Spiritual Artistry Reading apocalyptically in the world of the text, the preacher will become a careful and patient observer of surroundings,
noticing the distinct world created by the particular language and imagery in the text.
The preacher who reads in the world of the text rather than behind it
might best be conceived as an artist rather than a scientistThis is not to suggest that some of the tools and benefits of scientific readings in the text are unimportant useless, and to be avoided. But science as a methodology implies, even requires, distance between the object and the observer.
The image of the artist, however, implies a subjective participation in the encounter with the text
As Mark Burrows suggests, rather than "critical exegesis," we might employ the language of "a constructive interpretive art, shaped by an aesthetic or a poetic approach to the biblical text."!' Conceived in this way, the preacher engages in "a spirituality of reading" that does not exclude critical reading but moves toward meaning after or beyond critical engagement with the text. 12 In describing his work with students, Walter Brueggemann says, "In general, my pedagogical approach is to engage in 'close reading,' to invite students to slow down and pay attention to the artistic detail of the text."13 If the preacher is to stand in the world of the text, it will require precisely this sort of posture in relation to the text
I ask students to begin their engagement with the text with this sort of close or deep reading by asking them to pray the text slowly and carefully in the manner of lectio divinia. I coach them to seize upon the language particular to the text in an exercise called "Exploding a Biblical Image." In this exercise, they seize upon the dominant imagery within the text itself. They enter into the language and imagery of the text so as to inhabit the world of the text. No longer objectified, the preacher now stands within the text, not over it
Employing Literary and Rhetorical Reading Strategies To read apocalyptically in the world of the text is not an undisciplined practice. In fact, there are helpful disciplines that serve reading in the world of the text. Rather than requiring the preacher to begin outside of the text, exploring the world behind it, the disciplines of literary and rhetorical criticisms lead the preacher to deal with the text itself and thereby be immersed in the world it creates.
Rhetorical criticism, as Brueggemann points out focuses on the artistic processes that operate in the text and generate an imagined world within the text. Such artistic attentiveness takes seriously the exact placement and performances of words and phrases, of sounds and repetitions that give rise to an altemative sense of reality that was not available without this particular configuration of words and images. In both literary and rhetorical readings of Scripture, the text itself becomes the object of attention and draws the preacher within the text
Reading the Text Theologically Is it possible for us to enter into the apocalyptic sense created by the larger biblical narrative and embedded with each story therein? Perhaps no recent scholar calls more for an explicitly theological reading of the text for preaching than Paul Scott Wilson. Wilson calls for preachers to engage the text for its "God sense"-allowing that sense to guide both exegesis and proclamation. He coaches preachers to identify the "trouble" and "grace" within the text and allow these two theological themes to shape the sermon
To read the text theologically, the preacher must have a well-formed theological sense. This cannot always be assumed, because in most preparation for ministry, a clear separation exists between the disciplines of biblical text and theology. What this calls for is a deliberate and purposeful collaboration so that the reading of texts is informed by one's theology even as the reading of text is informing one's theology
The relationship between the word of God and the preacher is of vital importance for proclamation
Rather than finding this relationship mediated by a modern critical methodology, the preacher is best guided by a robust apocalyptic sense to dwell "in the world of the text." These three moves-engaging the text with spiritual artistry, employing literary and rhetorical reading strategies, and developing a keen theological sense-guide a preacher to read "in the world of the text." If the preacher engages the text in this way, what sort of sermons might be formed? The possibilities are not only numerous but also represent the ever-present hope of the renewal of preaching in our own time and place
STEPHEN JOHNSON Dr. Johnson is an assistant professor of preaching at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. Currently, he is on sabbatical, studying and doing research at the Toronto School of Theology in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
5 Johnson: Apocalypse, Theology, and the Performative Reading of Scripture Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2003 198 LEAVEN Fourth Quarter 2003 END NOTES I Walter Brueggemann argues the limitations of historical-critical readings, stating, "Students have been taught in a modernist society to raise historical questions to such an extent that the text is overlooked. A detailed lining out of the historical context usually receives a good deal more attention than the text itself." Walter Brueggemann, "That the World May be Redescribed," Interpretation 56 (October 2002): 359-60
2 All citations of scripture taken from the New Revised Standard Version
3 Elie Wiesel, Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea (Toronto: A.A. Knopf Canada, 1995),64. Italics added
4 Although specifically addressing the preaching of apocalyptic texts, David Jacobsen has argued for an apocalyptic lens for reading scripture. He says reading texts in this way allows the text to have priority over the preacher so the aim of the preacher is not to "get the text" (i.e., figure it out like a riddle) but that "the text gets you." See Jacobsen's helpful description in Preaching in the New Creation: The Promise of New Testament Apocalyptic Texts (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1999), especially the first chapter, "A Road Map for an Odd World." 5 Most notably, Paul Scott Wilson has made considerable strides toward the recovery of preaching as a theological task
Hodos
I write what you can understand
Surveying the attention and prescriptions for preaching over the past few decades, Wilson maintains that there yet persists a declining ability to communicate faith. The problem, he says, is a theological one necessitating a theological answer. The roots of such a theological dilemma "lie deep in the soil of the biblical text and meanings preachers find there." Paul Scott Wilson, "Preaching as a Theological Venture," Papers Presented to the Academy of Homiletics (December, 2002): 64
6 For a recent and thorough discussion, see Charles L. Campbell, The World Before the Powers: An Ethic of Preaching (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002)
7 New Testament scholar Richard Hays has stated that "despite the important contributions of historical criticism, churches have not always been treated well by those guilds." He points out,
"Problems arise when we try to separate the Bible
from the church's ancient traditions of theological interpretation."
See David W. Reid, "Interpreting a Scholar: Richard Hays' Moral Vision," Divinity Magazine 2 (Fall 2002): 14-168 This point is argued quite well by Mark Love, "Funding the Sermon with Theological Imagination," in Preaching Romans. Rochester Lectures on Preaching, vol. 4, ed. D. Fleer and D. Bland (Abilene, Texas: ACU Press, 2002), 127-48
9 Perceptive readers will observe the obvious connections between Ricoeulr 's thought and the work of Walter Brueggemann
As a philosopher, Ricoeur possesses certain theological concerns. In many ways, Brueggemann is extending the work of Ricoeur and attempting to follow the trajectory laid out therein. This is most obvious in Chapter 5 of Bruggemann 's book
Cadences of Home: Preaching Among Exiles (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997)
10 Paul Ricoeur, Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press
1976)
11 Mark S. Burrows, "To Taste with the Heart: Allegory, Poetics, and the Deep Reading of Scripture," Interpretation 56 (April 2002): 168
12 Burrows suggests that we learn from the allegorical readings of scripture practiced by medieval monks, acknowledging that although we can not return to precritical state, we can come upon a "second naivete." 13 Brueggemann, "That the World May be Redescribed,' 360
14 Ibid
15 See Paul Scott Wilson, God Sense: Reading the Bible for Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon, 2001) and The Four Pages of the Sermon: A Guide to Biblical Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999)
6 Leaven, Vol. 11 [2003], Iss. 4, Art. 8 http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol11/iss4/8
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