What Is Homiletics? An Intro to the Art & Science of Preaching

Homiletics has a rich and dynamic history that starts in the Bible and moves through ancient and modern church history.

To better understand it, we will consider its roots, developments, and movements, first in Scripture and then in church history.

Defining homiletics

But first, what is homiletics?

The word comes from the Greek noun homilia, meaning “conversation.” Its cognate verb homilein means “to converse with, consort.” From homiletics we get the word “homily,” which is a common shorthand for “sermon.”

The early church used the word homilia, or conversation, as opposed to monologue or speech. Even so, etymology and imagery only give us a partial understanding of the discipline of homiletics.

Homiletics is the art and science of preaching sermons and of reflecting broadly on the ministry of proclamation.

In much the same way that hermeneutics is the art and science of interpreting God’s Word, so homiletics is the art and science of preaching God’s Word and reflecting on it. Homiletics is an art in that it requires creativity, intuition, originality, and improvisation. It is a science in that it follows rules, exposits texts, and requires research.

Although preaching is first-order work, if we follow too narrow a definition, we will inadvertently conclude that homiletics only consists of preaching sermons. Such a definition would fail to capture the role of second-order reflection. Homiletics also concerns itself with the study of preaching, teaching preaching, and writing about preaching. A homiletics teacher, or homiletician, usually does all three.

Homiletics in Scripture

Although the Bible is not a homiletical manual per se, it remains an important resource for understanding homiletics.

Scripture gives us models, guidance, direction, and inspiration. Scriptural engagement prompts theological reflection and practical improvement.

Preaching in the Old Testament

The Old Testament provides us with at least three precursors to preaching.

The book of Deuteronomy is a collection of Moses’s sermons in which he rehearses what God has done, points to what God has promised, and calls the nation to radical faith and obedience. Modern preachers follow a similar pattern. They rehearse what God has done, point to God’s promises, and call listeners to respond to God in radical faith and obedience.

Another precursor comes in Nehemiah 8. The story does not offer a one-for-one correspondence with preaching, but the parallels are striking. In Nehemiah 8, Ezra the priest reads the book of the Law before the people (Neh 8:3; cf. 1 Tim 4:13). He stands on a wooden platform which the KJV translates as “pulpit” (v. 4). The Levites instruct the people in the Law (v. 7), “making [it] clear” and “giving the meaning” so that the “people understood” (v. 8). We do not know for certain if this means they interpreted Scripture, translated from Hebrew to Aramaic, or both. Finally, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites offer words of assurance; they exhort the people not to weep but to rejoice (vv. 9–11).

The final precursor comes through courageous Hebrew prophets whose sermons confront God’s people and announce good news, regardless of the response. According to Walter J. Brueggemann, “The work of the prophets in ancient Israel involved delivering a truth-telling, hope-evoking word in a society that wanted neither truth that was too hard to bear nor hope that was impossible to entertain.”¹ Sometimes the prophets confronted the people for their rebellion (e.g., Ezek 20:46; 21:2; Amos 7:16; Mic 2:6, 11). Other times they announced the good news that God had not given up on his people (Isa 40:9; 41:27; 52:7; 61:1–2). Their skill at holding truth-telling and hope-bringing in tension serves as a helpful model for modern preachers.

Preaching in the New Testament

New Testament preaching begins with John the Baptist. In the wilderness, he “declared” the coming Messiah, and Jesus proclaimed the kingdom. In Mark 1, John preaches “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (1:4). In the same chapter, Jesus asks his disciples to come to nearby villages “so I can preach there also. That is why I have come” (1:38). He travels around “preaching in their synagogues” (1:39). Wherever he goes, Jesus proclaims the good news of the kingdom (Matt 4:23; 9:35; Luke 4:43; 8:1) and sends his disciples to do the same (Luke 9:2, 6).

The same pattern of John as forerunner and Jesus as central proclaimer occurs in Matthew and Luke. However, each version provides a different angle on Jesus’s preaching. The Matthean account records the greatest sermon Jesus ever preached: the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7). The Lukan account records Jesus’s inaugural sermon in Nazareth (Luke 4) and his lesser-known Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17–49). These and other biblical texts introduce us to a preacher who used everyday language and familiar metaphors and parables, painted vivid pictures to describe the kingdom, deployed narrative strategies, and insisted on proclaiming good news.

The book of Acts records the preaching of the apostles. For obvious reasons, apostolic preaching adds a post-resurrection emphasis. It also expands its intended listeners to include Gentiles on a regular basis rather than an exceptional basis. Regarding expansion, the Apostle Paul heeds God’s call to “proclaim [Christ’s] name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15). Regarding a post-resurrection emphasis, the apostles continue proclaiming the kingdom (e.g., Acts 8:12; 28:31), and they add a new accent. Whether in the synagogue or the public square, in their preaching they insist that Jesus is the Messiah, that he died on the cross, and that God raised him from the dead (Acts 4:2; 5:42; 8:5, 25; 13:26–41; 17:29–33).

The Apostle Paul places a similar accent on preaching cross-resurrection in his epistles. For instance, he tells the Corinthians that he aims to preach Christ crucified (1 Cor 1:17, 23) and has resolved to know nothing other than “Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). In chapter 15, he links the indispensability of Jesus’s death to the indispensability of his resurrection: “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor 15:14).

Many accounts of preaching in the New Testament stop here, limiting themselves to examples of apostolic sermons and citations of New Testament texts that describe what preaching is and why it is important. However, when we stop here, it can lead to an overly individualistic understanding of preaching.

The ministry of proclamation extends beyond one person preaching sermons. God also calls the whole church to the ministry of proclamation.

The ministry of proclamation extends beyond the individual. Yes, God calls individuals and gives them spiritual gifts of preaching, but God also calls the whole church to preach. In 1 Peter 2:9, it is the church that is called God’s chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, and treasured possession so that the church “may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9). According to homiletician P. T. Forsyth, “The one great preacher in history, I would contend, is the church. And the first business of the individual preacher is to enable the church to preach.”²

Homiletics across church history

When the church moved from the apostolic to the post-apostolic age, homiletics underwent a series of shifts and transformations. The first-order task of preaching changed, as did the second-order task of homiletical reflection.

Homiletics in the early church

In the early church, preaching sounded more informal and exhortative. In house churches, imagine a preacher offering a word of wisdom, prophecy, or exhortation that would then be checked in community by Scripture. As early as the book of Acts, we see the Church of Berea commended for this practice. The Bereans “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).

In the house church context, the word homilia or “conversation” makes sense. Many Christians met secretly in homes as part of a new, fledgling, persecuted religion. Most of their preaching was simple, communal, and conversational.

By the early third century, however, preaching had undergone a major shift. Origen of Alexandria (185–253 CE) proposed an approach to interpreting Scripture more commonly known as the “allegorical approach.”³ He interpreted the Bible along three levels: the literal, the moral, and the spiritual, with spiritual being the highest. Not surprisingly, his hermeneutic shaped his homiletic. Like his commentaries, his sermons followed the three levels.

Origen played a pivotal role in homiletical history not because of his allegorical approach, but because of the way he preached Scripture. According to Alistair Stewart, Origen helped to transform preaching from its house church origins as informal exhortation checked by Scripture in community to formal exegesis of Scripture leading to exhortation.⁴ In today’s churches, most of us do not interpret Scripture using a three-level allegorical approach, but we do follow a similar order to Origen’s: formal exegesis leading to exhortation.

Many other important homiletical figures followed Origen, too many to name here. For the purposes of brevity, I will mention just two other church fathers. St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE) wrote the first true handbook on preaching, De Doctrina Christiana or On Christian Teaching. Following Cicero, he contended that the aim of preaching was “to instruct, delight, and move.”⁵ He made room for eloquence, believing we needed it to answer our detractors and to contextualize, but that character should not be underestimated. One can preach in such a way that one’s “way of life becomes, in a sense, an abundant source of eloquence.”⁶

St. John Chrysostom of Antioch (347–407 CE) also made a major contribution. The name “Chrysostom” or “Golden Mouth” was conferred on him on account of his pulpit eloquence. Unlike Origen, Chrysostom advocated for a literal-historical approach. As a preacher, he developed a stellar reputation as a prophetic, catechetical, and highly oratorical communicator with a strong concern for morality. Like Augustine, he wrote a highly impactful ministerial manual. His treatise was called On the Priesthood. It told the story of his vocational call, described the office and duties of the pastor, and offered pastors practical counsel on preaching.

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Homiletics in the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages brought about a dramatic increase in preaching manuals. The best-known manuals from this period originated in France: How to Make a Sermon by St. Guibert of Nogent (1055–1124)⁷, and the more popular The Art of Preaching by Alain of Lille (1128–1202). These manuals offered reflections on the preacher’s character, definitions of preaching, and counsel on biblical interpretation, sermon length, language, and contextualization.

In the same period that these manuals were published, itinerant preachers established preaching ministries that still influence preaching into the twenty-first century. Women preachers such as Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), Elisabeth of Schönau (1129–1164), and Birgitta of Sweden (1303–1373), to name just three, built innovative and vibrant preaching ministries.⁸ St. Dominic de Guzmán (1170–1221) established a mendicant order that would later be called the Dominicans. They refer to themselves as the Order of Preachers (OP) because of their commitment to preaching.

Homiletics in the Reformation era

The Protestant Reformation brought about a renewed belief in the authority of Scripture, the power of Christian preaching, and the priesthood of all believers.

Following John Calvin’s elevation of preaching in Geneva and among Reformed churches in Switzerland, Heinrich Bullinger, the primary author of the Second Helvetic Confession, declared in 1566:

The preaching of the word of God is the word of God. Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very word of God is proclaimed, and received by the faithful.⁹

Also in the sixteenth century, Martin Luther held forth as a towering preacher in Wittenberg. Luther offered practical wisdom for preachers in Table Talk, a book that records his varied statements on ministry as collected by his students. Concerning the task of preaching, Luther offers his thoughts on sermon variety, simplicity, the use of notes, preaching to the simple over the educated, editing content, and the need to preach Christ.

Homiletics post-Reformation

This side of the Reformation, formal and informal interest in homiletics increased at an exponential rate.

In 1853, the former students and colleagues of the renowned practical theologian Alexander Vinet (1797–1847) posthumously published his lectures on preaching. Vinet’s classic Homiletics, or the Theory of Preaching, at over five hundred pages, made a major impact on the field.

In the English-speaking world in the nineteenth century, at least two homiletical manuals left a major mark on homiletical history.

In 1870, in the United States, John A. Broadus, the Baptist preacher, scholar, and second president of Southern Seminary, published his 550-plus page volume, A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons. Broadus’s textbook covered a range of topics. It commended an expository approach to sermons and used a rhetorical frame for form and structure. Made available in multiple languages, the book shaped several generations of Baptist and non-Baptist preachers around the world.

In 1875, in the United Kingdom, the British Baptist preacher Charles H. Spurgeon published Lectures to My Students, a collection of his weekly lectures at the Preachers’ College in London. In these lectures, Spurgeon discusses the life of the minister, the task of preaching, pastoral responsibilities, and which secondary resources to consult when preaching.

In Switzerland and Germany in the 1910s and 1920s, Karl Barth and his friend Eduard Thurneysen experienced a revival in their love for Scripture and for preaching. Barth called for a renewed belief in the power and promise of preaching in The Word of God and the Word of Man and offered more insights on preaching in The Goettingen Dogmatics and Homiletics. Unlike Broadus, Barth followed a more didactic frame. He did not give significant attention to form or structure. In emphasizing a God who was wholly other, he advocated for theologically abstract, word-by-word, plain-style exposition.

Modern works of homiletics

Over the last seventy years in homiletics, we have seen a groundswell of resources in preaching, an expansion too vast to summarize here. Scholars and practitioners of nearly every social and theological persuasion have access to a veritable mosaic of theologies, theories, traditions, and practices of preaching. Here is a selective list of categorical references:

Modern mainline Protestant perspectives on preaching:

• Fred B. Craddock, As One Without Authority
• H. Grady Davis, Design for Preaching
• Thomas G. Long, The Witness of Preaching
• Henry H. Mitchell, Black Preaching: The Recovery of a Powerful Art
• Leonora Tubbs Tisdale, Preaching as Local Theology and Folk Art

Modern evangelical perspectives on preaching:

• Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching
• Mary S. Hulst, A Little Handbook for Preachers: Ten Practical Ways to a Better Sermon by Sunday
• Timothy Keller, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism
• Haddon W. Robinson, Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages
• John Stott, Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today

Books by women on women preaching:

• Nancy Lammers Gross, Women’s Voices and the Practice of Preaching
• Eunjoo Mary Kim, Women Preaching: Theology and Practice through the Ages
• Leonora Tubbs Tisdale, How Women Transform Preaching

Books by preachers of color for communities of color:

• Justo L. González and Pablo A. Jiménez, Púlpito: An Introduction to Hispanic Preaching
• Eunjoo Mary Kim, Preaching the Presence of God: A Homiletic from an Asian American Perspective
• Matthew D. Kim and Daniel L. Wong, Finding Our Voice: A Vision for Asian North American Preaching
• Cleophus J. LaRue, The Heart of Black Preaching
• Frank A. Thomas, Introduction to the Practice of African American Preaching
• Lisa L. Thompson, Ingenuity: Preaching as an Outsider

Books on preaching in other languages:

• Cecilio Arrastía, Teoría y Práctica de La Predicación
• Alexander Deeg, Gottesprojektionen Homiletisch
• Marlene Ringgaard Lorensen, Dialogical Preaching: Bakhtin, Otherness and Homiletics
• Osvaldo Motessi, Predicación y Misión: Una Perspectiva Pastoral

Popular histories of preaching:

• O.C. Edwards, A History of Preaching (vol. 1; vol. 2)
• Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church (7 vols.)
• Martha J. Simmons and Frank A. Thomas, eds., Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the Present

Digital preaching in a digital age:

• Casey Sigmon, Engaging the Gadfly: How to Move from Reactionary to Reflective Hybrid, Online, and In Person Preaching in the Digital Age
• Sunggu A. Yang, ed., The Digital Pulpit: Preaching in the Revolutionary Era of Online Technology and Social Media
• Sunggu A. Yang, Digital Homiletics: The Theology and Practice of Online Preaching

Conclusion

At its core, homiletics helps us preach well and reflect well on preaching. On the one hand, it provides us with the practical know-how we need to preach. That is its first-order task. On the other hand, it prompts us to reflect on the ministry of proclamation through study, teaching, and writing. That is its second-order task.

In the end, we need both the first-order and the second-order work. We need practical know-how, that is, basic guidance on putting sermons together, and we need opportunities for deeper reflection. In reflection, we interrogate our assumptions, improve our practices, and deepen our commitment.

When framed theologically, our practical know-how and deeper reflection do not take place so that we can garner attention or make a name for ourselves. Rather, we preach well and reflect well so that the church will be edified and the world will be blessed.

Jared E. Alcántara’s books on preaching

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