Sacred Rhetoric: Preaching as a Theological and Pastoral Practice of the Church (review)

This volume seeks to situate contemporary homiletic practice within the Church's tradition. The author, an associate professor of practical theology at Ashbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky and an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, is catholic in his appropriation of the Christian past by calling upon the witness of Augustine, Gregory the Great, St. Benedict, Bernard of Clairvaux, Humbert of Romans, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Erasmus, Latimer, Luther, and Calvin. This is traditional church history, that is, church history as a branch of theology in the service of the Church. While there are perceptive insights into the authors discussed, the book does not claim to break new ground historically. In fact, it does not claim to break new ground theologically or homiletically. Quite the contrary, the book is itself an example of its argument: rather than look to new theories of communication to render preaching more effective, the preacher should look to the great preachers and great Christians of the past as exemplars. This approach, of course, perpetuates tradition. The ancient and medieval Church relied on the imitation of Christ, the Apostles, and the saints to form Christians. Imitation, not rules, were what worked. As the author argues, one reason is that the Holy Spirit is not confined by rules, and it is the Holy Spirit who in the end is the true speaker. The human voice is only its instrument. For Pasquarello, the preacher only becomes that instrument by first embodying the message that is to be communicated. In a sense (pace Marshall McLuhan) the message is the medium. In the end, the Gospel preaches itself. Pasquarello also hopes to recapture that tradition, at least as he saw it existing before the Enlightenment divided the theological disciplines and caused a modern homiletic poverty. For preaching to be truly effective, the preacher must reintegrate homiletics into the content and experience of faith. The goal should not be mere technical skillfulness, but Christian wisdom. Pasquarello goes too far, however, in claiming that his authors "neither presumed to be technical experts, nor were they concerned with writing theory" (p. 134). Augustine was certainly a technical expert. Both Erasmus and Calvin were "expert" practitioners of humanist rhetoric. All three were also interested in communication theory. In fact, it was the knowledge of all levels of communication (or rhetoric) that led them to choose the sermo humilis to reach less educated believers including many of their clerical colleagues. Pasquarello is certainly correct in emphasizing the scriptural character of the traditional sermon both in content and in the language employed. For Pasquarello, the Bible does not need to be translated into a more modern idiom since it was crafted by the divine Word, the most expert of preachers. Translation and the elaboration of new theories or practical tips only distance the speaker and the audience from the eloquence of the Gospel. That distance contributes to the "homelessness" of homiletics and the Christian people who "struggle to maintain an alternative vision, identity, and vocation in an increasingly indifferent and even hostile world" (p. 136). Pasquarello uses his sources responsibly and well, although he passes over in silence the sacramental life of the pre-Reformation Church in his exclusive emphasis on the written and preached Word in the authors he discusses. To be sure, the Word was sacramental, but "mute" sacraments also spoke to both learned and simple Christians. However, this privileging of the Word is a pardonable failing in a book devoted to preaching.