Preaching As A Social Act: Theology and Practice http://www.servantofmessiah.org
common perception of the social reality."(13) Since the discipline of sociology originally emerged in the midst of the radical changes in Britain and Europe brought on by the French and Industrial Revolutions, it is not surprising that, with the escalating tensions of our world in this part of the twentieth century, the turn toward this kind of analysis should gain in influence.(14) But a word of caution is in order here. Linking an analysis of society with the phenomenon of radical change has tended to depreciate the importance of tradition. Edward Shils has argued that the Enlightenment ethos surrounding the French Revolution pitted scientific procedures (and their accompanying rationality) against traditional knowledge and beliefs. The development of social science as a discipline was shaped by this ethos. We need, therefore, to critique this analytic tradition and recover "the traditionality of knowledge" — knowledge has a history; it goes back in time.(15) Analysis is a process of taking things and ideas apart to examine them. Tradition emphasizes the handing on of what connects things, people, and ideas. The social urgency of this shift away from tradition has been made painfully obvious, for example, in the tragic history of North American land claim "settlements" with Native Peoples, because their "traditional" way of life has repeatedly been regarded as backward compared with modern systems of economic development.(16) 4. Increasingly, analysis of society has been deliberately applied to the study of theology (and occasionally theology to the study of society). The historical critical analysis of Scripture has been expanded to include this new dimension, and books and articles have poured forth like a torrent.(17) In the area of theology per se various kinds of liberation, political, and contextual theologies have appeared in bewildering array.(18) David Tracy and Max Stackhouse, among others, have called for a public theology(19) and Dennis McCann and Charles Strain have issued "an invitation: practical theology as public discourse."(20) Preaching as an integrating theological discipline cannot remain aloof. Its time has come. The Theological Urgency in This Societal Dimension But preaching is first and foremost a theological act; it is a proclamation of the Word of God. Whatever movements bring to our consciousness the ability to see various social dimensions in the activity of preaching, a commitment to pursue this investigation gains its urgency in theology http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showchapter?chapter_id=1105 (6 of 16) [2/4/03 6:14:24 PM]