Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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6. Avoid allegorizing. This leads to inaccurate
interpretations."11
Barth also recommended word for word writing of
sermons. Preaching is of such importance that it
requires prayerful, precise preparation."'s
Simple direct sermons, governed by Scripture,
directed to the deep unspoken questions of mankind, give
God opportunity to speak afresh.
The problem of the Word . . . in theology I
[Barth] understand to be the question of
whether and how far theology recognizes its
obligation of directing Christian preaching to
the repetition in human words of what is said
to men through God himself about God, in
distinction to all which men can say to himself
about God."
The purpose of theology is to serve preaching
("ministerium verbi divini")," and the purpose of
preaching is to serve as a channel for the Word of God.
IV. PAUL TILLICH
In a given historical situation presumably
there can be a work which most fully gathers up
the strands of all that is best in secular
thought, and unites them with the truths of
God's self-disclosure. Augustine, Aquinas,
Calvin, and Schleiermacher, for instance, tried
to accomplish something like this, and in some
Important respects the theological thought of
Paul Tillich has the same marks."'
As indicated in the preceding statement, the church
remembers Paul Tillich primarily as a philosophertheologian
par excellence, but it should never forget
Tillich as preacher, both for his sermons and the impact
of his thought on contemporary preaching.