Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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discover what happened to the 3ebusites.'4
Fosdick likewise objected to topical preaching.
Preachers of this type begin sermon preparation in the
newspaper. There they find a topic of current interest,
on which they preach their opinions. Having little
purpose other than conveying information to the hearers'
minds, they leave their congregations dissatisfied and
unchanged.
Fosdick borrowed what he saw of value in these two
methods, combined those components with original ideas,
and devised his "project method.m5
From the expositors, he retained the use of
Scripture. "The fact that history had thought it worth
while to preserve the [Biblical) text for centuries would
cause a wise gambler to venture confidently on the text's
superior vitality."'
Fosdick likewise adopted the topical preacher's
emphasis on the contemporary, but personalized it,
speaking only to issues his hearers struggled with day
after day.
Fosdick's creative contribution? "Co—operative
dialogue" in preaching.
When a man takes hold of a real difficulty in
the life and thought of his people and is
trying to meet it, he finds himself not so much
dogmatically thinking for them as
co—operatively thinking with them. A preacher
can easily play 'Sir Oracle,' assertive,
dogmatic, flinging out his dictum as though to
say 'Take it or leave it,' and such preaching
has its appeal to credulous and emotionally
impressionable minds. It has lost its
influence on intelligent folk, however, and the
future does not belong to it.e