RT Article
T1 Preaching as Protest against the Apophatic Silencing of God’s People
JF Religions
VO 15
IS 2
A1 Willimon, Will
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1881081567
AB Throughout church history, there have been those who stressed the limits of our ability to speak with confidence about God and extolled the nobility of silence in the face of God’s ineffability. Dionysius the Areopagite famously asserted, “With regard to the divine, negations are true, whereas affirmations are inadequate”. Apophatic silence is presented as respectful of the mysterious otherness of God. Christian preaching is a practice that refutes all attempts at negative, apophatic theology. Every sermon participates in the wonder of the uniquely Jewish and Christian claim that God not only speaks but also invites, even commands, humanity to speak about God as well. Christian preaching is suspicious of any attempt to sentimentalize silence in the name of humble acknowledgement of human limitations to speak truthfully about God. Preaching therefore requires the courage to speak up and speak out with the God who, in Jesus Christ, has spoken to us. The silencing of the voices of women, persons of color, and others who claim to know that God is with them is an aspect of neocolonial oppression that preaching cannot abide. Preaching is a protest against all those who would tell the voiceless that some things are better left unsaid.
K1 THE TRINITY
K1 Karl Barth
K1 Chalcedon
K1 Christian
K1 Negative Theology
K1 Apophatic
K1 Homiletics
K1 Preaching
DO 10.3390/rel15020233