Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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(i.e., God's self-revelation, or accurate knowledae of
Godfl is Present in Scripture. and. su p remely, in the
historic Jesus.) Indeed, others of the seven theoloaical
systems include the statements that God s p eaks, and
Christ is present. in preaching. 1O
Acce p tance of p reachina as incarnation has
significant im p lications for a theology of preaching,
particularly as it relates to this cha p ter's third
question, "Do persons or content take priority in the
delivery of the message?"
A short summar y of the historic doctrine of
Incarnation helps explain the analogy. This doctrine
pictures God and man initially separated." In a
moment of history, "the Word became flesh." Bringing
God-ness and man-ness together, Jesus Christ enables
reconciliation between God and man. This new
relationshi p transmits life (God-ness) from God to man.
Accordina to the traditional model. Christ could effect
this salvation only as he was "Perfect God and perfect
man."
Today, the preacher and his preaching follow this
incarnational p attern."' He brings the message of
reconciliation from a loving God to an alienated world.
But he can incarnate this message of relationship, i.e.
his preaching can be effective, only to the degree that
he experiences relationship with both God, the initiator,
and man, the recipient. He and his words, ideally, take
on the dual God-man nature.