A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original review appears below. Reviewed by J.H. (Hans) Kouwenberg.
Preaching. Fred B. Craddock. Abingdon Press, 1985, 224 pp.
Fred Craddock is the professor of preaching and New Testament in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta and I have heard tell that he is both a gifted preacher as well as competent teacher.
I need to say right at the outset, without sounding effusive I hope, that this book, much like Pitt-Watsons’ shorter A Primer for Preachers (1986), is simply searching and stimulating! At times I found myself saying (to myself and my wife) that if this is what real preaching is all about I haven’t come up to this level and yet found myself spurred on and called to more inspired heights of preaching. Although challenged, I wasn’t defeated; I was encouraged and given several new ideas.
His book is well-organized and well-written often giving evidence of the preacher’s use of analogy, well-chosen words, and even appropriate humour! Craddock begins with his own assumptions and convictions about preaching. I found myself beginning to think of my own principles and practice of preaching as I read the introductory chapter.
Craddock is one of those in the school of preaching who pays as much attention to those who listen to preaching as to the liturgical reading and interpreting of Scripture. He is careful to examine the context into which the sermon is projected. Who listens to the sermon is as important to him as who preaches the sermon and what is said. Craddock discusses the historical, pastoral, liturgical and theological context of the congregation to whom the sermon is addressed. Craddock says that understanding one’s audience or congregation is as important as part of “interpretation” as interpreting the scriptural text. Another example of this sensitive eye and ear and voice is the way Craddock interprets Scripture. He helped me to see that the point of view the preacher takes especially with scriptural texts where there are several persons has a great deal to do with the kind of sermon one preaches.
I found his “theology of preaching” intriguing (pp. 51-65). Rather than the more traditional, average proof-text version Craddock organizes his theology of preaching around three Frederick Buechner-like themes of “proceeding from silence,” “heard in a whisper” and “shouted from the housetop.” This was a new approach to a theology of preaching to me, seemingly understating the matter and yet it satisfied me with scriptural support, contemporary fit, and convincing, ringing tone. There is no doubt to me after reading this section that Craddock believes in preaching; at times his own preaching voice rings loud and clear! This section alone is worth re-reading and pondering.
Other sections of the book I found helpful are Craddock’s lifting up of “the life of study” – I probably need to turn my “office” more into a study as he says; certainly it is true that when I finally get to study I enjoy it and profit by it. Craddock’s suggestion for “a procedure for listening to [interpreting] a text” are helplful, especially his advice to initially “listen, think, feel, imagine, and ask” (p.105) in the first reading.
Craddock is concerned to emphasize that it is as important, also, to decide how a sermon will be preached as it is to decide what to preach. For example, the form of the text or passage should dictate the form or shape of the sermon. This is something new for me. A sermon on one of the Beatitudes should not take the same shape as a sermon on an article in a creed. A sermon from a text dealing with prayer should take a form or shape different from one dealing with a doxology. How the sermon is preached is as important to its effectiveness as is all the research and reflection that go into deciding what the text is saying. There may be times, he suggests, when the old model of “three points and a poem” suits the biblical passage under consideration, but these times will be few and far between. It is this point in Craddock’s book which has probably impacted me the most. But to learn from it!
I often found Craddock’s book original and creative. It is the kind of book I wish I had read and studied when in seminary myself. To be sure I cannot follow Craddock in everything, for example, his cautions against taking a full manuscript into the pulpit are certainly correct but with two services to preach one after the other I find I need full notes. Further, I suspect that the Canadian, Presbyterian context demands a more conservative approach to sermon form than Craddock would suggest. Nevertheless, I have very little to criticize in this book, except to say that it ended too quickly and perhaps too abruptly.