Narrative Theology and Preaching: Wobbly Willimons All?

***Several years ago William Willimon spoke in chapel here at Midwestern Seminary. Willimon was then Dean of the Chapel at Duke University and was already the most brilliant popularizer of Narrative Preaching. I find Willimon’s preaching style and particular brand of sarcasm-laced humor seducing, probably because it seems to derive organically from the Piedmont of the Carolinas from which we both hail. Willimon’s preaching disarms me. Stories abound, the humor simultaneously shocks and illuminates. Tears and laughter alternate and mingle among the listeners. But Willimon said something to this effect; “I do not know if the resurrection was a historical event. I do not know if it was a physical occurrence. And I cannot know. I may never know. It really does not matter though, because we have the story itself and its power to heal and create community, transform lives and inspire faith does not depend upon the historicity of the resurrection.”

After Willimon finished and sat down, the president of the seminary addressed the assembly and made if clear that we could not follow Willimon on this matter; “we, he said, agree with the apostle Paul:

“Now if Christ raised from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is not resurrection of the dead, Christ Himself cannot have been raised, and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless; indeed, we are shown up as witnesses who have committed perjury before God, because we swore in evidence before God that he had raised Christ to life. For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins. And what is more serious, all who have died in Christ have perished. If our hope in Christ is for this life only, we are the most unfortunate people” (1 Corinthians 15:12-19).

So is this the fruit of Narrative Theology? To snatch the resurrection from us and try to make us like it? Do all narrative thinkers and preachers go so wobbly on matters as essential as the resurrection of Jesus?

Joel Osteen: Three Big Thumbs Down from Land, Wallis, and Hopkins

***When Richard Land (Southern Baptist), Jim Wallis (Sojourners), and Dwight Hopkins (University of Chicago) speak with a single voice, it’s news. All three gave a big thumbs down to the health and wealth positive thinking message of Joel Osteen over the holidays on CNN. Osteen's messages would leave me buoyant and energized if he would just stay on message. The hitch in the stream of good feeling comes with Osteen's 18 second attempt to jam Christianity down the throat of an otherwise consistent quasi-evangelicalized Norman Vincent Peale spiel. The ham-handed effort to christianize the love of filthy lucre and all its promises tends to jolt Bible readers from Osteen's spell, reminding us that the apostles received a rude welcome from the world and that Jesus (once the healing and feeding miracles ground to halt for a few days) was crucified. Osteen’s appeal is good ole' stuff―it just ain't Christianity.

Will Return January 2 or 3

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