originally published 8/21/2017

Theologian Hans Boersma, author of Sacramental Preaching: Sermons on the Hidden Presence of Christ, discusses why we should recover a patristic way of preaching and reading scripture. While the modern tendency of exegesis is to move away from the words of a text to a more abstract summary or principle, the Church Fathers viewed scripture sacramentally as a reality to be entered into more deeply and more directly. Though the Church Fathers were very committed to correct doctrine, their guiding concern with regards to orthodoxy and preaching was to draw the Church into the life of God. We do not read scripture in order to abstract moral principles, but rather, in order that we might be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” and thereby perceive everything anew in light of Christ’s real presence.

23 minutes

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