Final Words on Preaching
Early in my writing career (1988) I wrote an article for Touchstone titled “The Crisis of Evangelical Preaching,” in which I concluded that in the Evangelical world the decline of preaching into the tiresome and predictable under the guise of biblical exposition came from the loss of the infectious certitude typical of an earlier generation of preachers. The Evangelical preacher did not present himself confidently as the anointed bearer and interpreter of the inerrant word of God, as his fundamentalist predecessor could be expected to do, and indeed, as many Protestant ministers had for generations. The confidence, if not audacity, of a Henry Ward Beecher or a Charles Finney —or indeed, of many of the Church Fathers —leaves modern readers of their sermons struggling for breath.
I must add now, near the end of my life, after listening for decades to bad preaching from numerous pulpits, that Evangelicals have no corner on this market. Each denomination seems infected by its native strain of bad preaching —the Anglicans by preciousness, the Lutherans by formula, the Catholics by laziness and biblical illiteracy, the Baptists by great volume to no great end. Although from time to time excellent preachers can be found among them all, I simply deal here with those I know best.
An Excessively Thin Man
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door with Full Online Access
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
- Six print issues per year
- Full digital archive access
Subscribe (Print + Online)
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95.
Subscribe (Online Only)
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
27.4—July/August 2014
The Bible, Sacred Theology & the Mind of Christ by Patrick Henry Reardon
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
