A Bibliography to Condemn Screens, Redeem Allegory, and Restore Lutheran Preaching
Videos of the presentations from the Gottesdienst Conference May 2021 are all on-line and available at the Gottesdienst Youtube Channel. My presentation is rooted in my essay in the Fritzschrift on the necessity of imagination for reaching Scripture and preaching but tried to expand the topic based on things I’ve learned since. I had three goals: recognize our shameful disability to read deeply due to our dependence and addiction to screens, to redeem allegory as both a legitimate and necessary exercise of the imagination for proper understanding and interpretation of Scripture, and to uphold a fuller and classic understanding of preaching as interpretation and application of the text instead of simply Law and Gospel. You can view it here.
Sprinkled throughout the presentation were references to books that I have found very helpful. Afterwards I was asked for a bibliography and thought others might appreciate it also.
1. The problem with screens. Read David’s Why Johnny Can't Preach first and then Carr's The Shallows. Then read the others.
Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011.
Gordon, T. David. Why Johnny Can't Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers. Phillipsburg, N.J.: P & R Pub, 2009.
Postman, Neil, and Andrew Postman. Amusing Ourselves to Death. New York: Penguin Publishing Group, 2005.
Newport, Cal. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. London: Penguin Business, 2020.
Vinsel, Lee and Andrew L. Russell. The Innovation Delusion. New York: Penguin Random House, 2020.
2. Rethinking Allegory. The best two books I know for this are below. I suggest you read Wilson first. Wilson is a mainstream Presbyterian. Louth is Eastern Orthodox. Wilson analyzes both Luther and Calvin in a way that is very helpful.
Louth, Andrew. Discerning the Mystery: An Essay on the Nature of Theology. Wichita, KS: Eighth Day Press, 1983.
Wilson, Paul Scott. God Sense: Reading the Bible for Preaching. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001.
3. In terms of sermons being primarily and historically explication, or interpretation, of the text and then application as opposed to Law and Gospel see the recent articles in the CTQ by Mayes on the fourfold purpose of Scripture and the article on Reinhold Piepers’ homeltics textbook by Adam Koontz. Then read the relevant section from Gerhardt. Of course, one could also simply read sermons from any period of Christian history up to about 50 years ago.
Gerhardt, Johann, “Method of Theological Study,” in On Interpreting Sacred Scripture and Method of Theological Study, ed. Benjamin T. G. Mayes, trans. Joshua J. Hayes, Theological Commonplaces, I–II (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2017), 201-210.
Koontz, Adam c. Speak as the Oracles of God: Reinhold Pieper’s Classical Lutheran Homiletic. Concordia Theological Quarterly, 85: 1 (2021) 23-36.
Mayes, Benjamin T. G. The Useful Applications of Scripture in Lutheran Orthodoxy: An Aid to Contemporary Preaching and Exegesis. Concordia Theological Quarterly, 83: 1-2 (2019) 111-135.