The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church. Vol. 6: The Modern Age (review)

In 1998, Hughes Oliphant Old published the first of his projected seven-volume history of preaching, The Biblical Period. Subsequent volumes followed: The Patristic Age; The Medieval Church; The Age of the Reformation; Moderatism, Pietism, and Awakening; The Modern Age; and Our Own Time. These volumes are a valuable resource to which students may turn to become acquainted with the church’s preaching tradition. They are written in a manner that is not only informative but also invites readers to share the author’s deep love of preaching as an act of worship in the church.

The present volume aims to cover the period extending from the French Revolution to the fall of communism (1789–1989). According to Old, the central problem for all preachers in the modern age has been secularization, followed by the challenge of biblical criticism and the opportunities provided by the world missionary movement. To accomplish this task, Old organizes his discussion of preachers according to schools or fellowships within the following chapters: I, Religion Revived in a Secularized Europe; II, German Preaching in the Wake of the Enlightenment; III, The Evangelical Calvinism of New England; IV, The Old School; V, The Victorians; VI, The Great American School; VII, The Beginnings of Black Preaching; VIII, German Preaching in the Mississippi Valley; IX, Scotland in the Nineteenth Century; X, Southern Baptist Preaching; XI; Europe in Crisis; and XII, The War Years in Britain (1914–1960).

As in the previous volumes, Old writes in a manner that demonstrates his impressive knowledge of and profound respect for the wisdom, skill, and devotion of preachers from the Christian past. Homiletic descriptions, or sketches, that vary in length and detail walk the reader through selected sermons that are illuminated by Old’s commentary in relation to matters that are theological, exegetical, pastoral, liturgical, and cultural in nature. In addition, Old’s commentary often reaches back to previous figures, schools, or movements in the history of preaching to note similarities in style, interpretation, content, and purpose. The benefit of this kind of interpretative discussion is significant in that it helps the reader to identify recurring homiletic patterns and habits and encourages the cultivation of a sense of the logic or grammar of Christian preaching across time.

It is difficult to criticize a book that contains so much valuable information and insight on preaching. However, the sections on twentieth-century preaching might have been framed by a discussion of theology, mission, and preaching in light of the ecumenical vision articulated at the 1910 Edinburgh Conference and the subsequent movement for Christian unity. This larger perspective could have provided balance to the overall discussion that often reveals Old’s clear preference for expository preaching in the Reformed tradition, especially as exemplified by John Calvin.