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Preaching as the Word of God: Answering an Old Question with Speech-Act Theory
According to the Reformers, preaching is the word of God. As the word of God, preaching is a foundation for the church. It is also vital for the personal growth of a Christian. But Christians are poorly equipped to understand how preaching is the word of God. Some Christians look for preaching that closely reproduces the text in the Bible. Other Christians look for preaching that creates maximal emotional and existential impact. And there is a lot of name-calling with Christians accusing preachers of "not preaching the word." But what type of preaching is the word of God? The purpose of this book is to equip Christians to understand how preaching can be God speaking. It accomplishes this with a survey of the problem in the history of the church, a detailed overview of key biblical texts, and finally the application of the contemporary philosophical tool of speech act theory.
"With great pleasure I commend Dr. Sam Chan's thesis to you for publication. I was his first reader. His other examiners were Dr. John Feinberg and Dr. Willem VanGemeren. His thesis impressed us all. We were not only unanimous in passing it without reservation but all three of us encouraged him to seek its publication. Dr. Chan astutely draws together Scripture, tradition, and contemporary needs in this work. The thesis serves both the academy and the church. It deserves a wide audience."
--Graham Cole, Dean and Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"Dr. Chan has capably and faithfully explored the question of what happens in the preaching of the word. It is his contention that the faithful exposition of the word of God in preaching connects with the word in two ways. First, preaching is an attempt at entering into the textual world (locution). Second, it also makes an attempt at recontextualization of the text by remaining faithful to the intent of the word. He roots his approach in the Reformation tradition as well as in recent hermeneutic theory. I highly recommend the work for your consideration."
--Willem A. VanGemeren, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic Languages, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"How can we conclude that what we preach is the Word of God--God himself speaking through the sermon--as the Reformers insisted? In this important study, Sam Chan demonstrates that Luther and Calvin have it right, provided we focus on the New Testament insistence that rightly proclaiming the gospel is what is meant by preaching the Word of God. Chan then uses speech act theory to clarify his argument. The work is important not only for students of the Reformation, but for preachers who need to see that the faithful proclamation of the gospel is precisely what authorizes them to insist that their preaching is the word of God."
--D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"If you've ever heard him in person, you'll know Sam Chan is a preacher's preacher. He's vibrant, dynamic, funny, moving, and--when it comes to the text of scripture--deeply insightful. This book offers an intriguing opportunity to take a look 'under the hood' and see what makes Sam's preaching so potent. It's the work of a scholar who has thought deeply not only about how the Bible works, but how our own words work. Sam provides a deft introduction to the world of speech act theory, and applies it to the vexed question of how our preaching actually 'is' the Word of God. In the process he has given me a set of new tools for the daunting weekly task of preaching God's Word."
--Phil Campbell, Senior Minister, Mitchelton Presbyterian Church, Australia; Co-author of Saving Eutychus: How to Preach God's Word and Keep People Awake
Sam Chan (PhD) is a national communicator for City Bib
"With great pleasure I commend Dr. Sam Chan's thesis to you for publication. I was his first reader. His other examiners were Dr. John Feinberg and Dr. Willem VanGemeren. His thesis impressed us all. We were not only unanimous in passing it without reservation but all three of us encouraged him to seek its publication. Dr. Chan astutely draws together Scripture, tradition, and contemporary needs in this work. The thesis serves both the academy and the church. It deserves a wide audience."
--Graham Cole, Dean and Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"Dr. Chan has capably and faithfully explored the question of what happens in the preaching of the word. It is his contention that the faithful exposition of the word of God in preaching connects with the word in two ways. First, preaching is an attempt at entering into the textual world (locution). Second, it also makes an attempt at recontextualization of the text by remaining faithful to the intent of the word. He roots his approach in the Reformation tradition as well as in recent hermeneutic theory. I highly recommend the work for your consideration."
--Willem A. VanGemeren, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic Languages, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"How can we conclude that what we preach is the Word of God--God himself speaking through the sermon--as the Reformers insisted? In this important study, Sam Chan demonstrates that Luther and Calvin have it right, provided we focus on the New Testament insistence that rightly proclaiming the gospel is what is meant by preaching the Word of God. Chan then uses speech act theory to clarify his argument. The work is important not only for students of the Reformation, but for preachers who need to see that the faithful proclamation of the gospel is precisely what authorizes them to insist that their preaching is the word of God."
--D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"If you've ever heard him in person, you'll know Sam Chan is a preacher's preacher. He's vibrant, dynamic, funny, moving, and--when it comes to the text of scripture--deeply insightful. This book offers an intriguing opportunity to take a look 'under the hood' and see what makes Sam's preaching so potent. It's the work of a scholar who has thought deeply not only about how the Bible works, but how our own words work. Sam provides a deft introduction to the world of speech act theory, and applies it to the vexed question of how our preaching actually 'is' the Word of God. In the process he has given me a set of new tools for the daunting weekly task of preaching God's Word."
--Phil Campbell, Senior Minister, Mitchelton Presbyterian Church, Australia; Co-author of Saving Eutychus: How to Preach God's Word and Keep People Awake
Sam Chan (PhD) is a national communicator for City Bib
353 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 8, 2016
About the author
Sam Chan
15 books34 followersSam Chan (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; MD, University of Sydney) is a public evangelist with City Bible Forum in Sydney, Australia where he regularly shares the gospel with high school students, city workers, doctors, and lawyers. He speaks at conferences around the world on the topics of ethics, story-telling, apologetics, and the practice of evangelism in a post-Christian culture. Sam blogs at espressotheology.com.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 8, 2022
This is a very helpful book that tackles the classic problem of preaching being the word of God. The author approaches this issues from a historical, biblical, and philosophical approaches (corresponding to the three sections of the book). The most helpful was the third section where he analyzes the phenomenon of preaching in terms of speech-act theory. There are some flaws in his logic and some over-generalizations, but overall a helpful book.
June 2, 2018
In preaching, how can we understand fallen humans to be speaking the very words of God?
Sam Chan provides a thorough survey of the positions of Luther and Calvin - who both conceive of preaching as the word of God - and traces through the teaching of scripture to answer this question. He then examines the inadequacies of some contemporary views, before applying Speech Act Theory to secure his verdict: "to preach the gospel as the word of God is to re-locute and re-illocute the divine speech act, the gospel, which itself was once locuted and illocuted by the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles, and which now continues to be locuted and illocuted in the canonical scriptures."
I found much of the body of this book a struggle to work through. The work on the reformers was a good review, but didn't help to answer the questions I was interested in (or that the book was seeking to answer), though it did establish the significance of the reformers' position. However, tracing through the biblical revelation and conception of 'the word of God' was helpful, and Chan's application of the tool of Speech Act Theory was very interesting.
I really appreciated the reminder to 'secure illocutionary uptake' from scripture. That is, to preach not just the content of scripture, but also to preach with the force & intention of that portion of scripture itself. Chan includes this as one of his requirements which together are sufficient to guarantee that proclamation is the word of God.
In all, I enjoyed the read, and appreciated the questions the book has provoked for me. It's helped me to have a loftier view of preaching.
There's also a short and interesting appendix on prophecy.
Sam Chan provides a thorough survey of the positions of Luther and Calvin - who both conceive of preaching as the word of God - and traces through the teaching of scripture to answer this question. He then examines the inadequacies of some contemporary views, before applying Speech Act Theory to secure his verdict: "to preach the gospel as the word of God is to re-locute and re-illocute the divine speech act, the gospel, which itself was once locuted and illocuted by the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles, and which now continues to be locuted and illocuted in the canonical scriptures."
I found much of the body of this book a struggle to work through. The work on the reformers was a good review, but didn't help to answer the questions I was interested in (or that the book was seeking to answer), though it did establish the significance of the reformers' position. However, tracing through the biblical revelation and conception of 'the word of God' was helpful, and Chan's application of the tool of Speech Act Theory was very interesting.
I really appreciated the reminder to 'secure illocutionary uptake' from scripture. That is, to preach not just the content of scripture, but also to preach with the force & intention of that portion of scripture itself. Chan includes this as one of his requirements which together are sufficient to guarantee that proclamation is the word of God.
In all, I enjoyed the read, and appreciated the questions the book has provoked for me. It's helped me to have a loftier view of preaching.
There's also a short and interesting appendix on prophecy.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews