Workshop 4: Homiletics as Theological Discipline

"Homiletics as Theological Discipline"

Theological criteria on transforming biblical texts, illustrated on the "Massacre of the Innocents" (Mt. 2: 1-18)

Sometimes biblical texts and their implications are a crying disgrace. They tend to be silenced, played down or spiritualized. Which theological options hinder such tendencies? A sermon always transforms the biblical text of reference by following, consciously or unconsciously, specific options. What are these basic decisions of the preacher? What is the basic story she/he takes her/his bearings on? Elementary theological questions are provoked by an alienated transformation of Mt 2: 1-18 (a sermon by Rev Susan Durber/GB). We ask for our own basic stories and their cognitive, emotional and pragmatic implications.

 

Presenter: Prof Christophe Mueller & Rev Claudia Graf, Switzerland

Professor Christophe Mueller teaches homiletics, liturgy and science of communication at the University of Berne. He specializes, among others, on plural hermeneutics. Current research includes a project on "Rituals and Ritualization in families: Religious Dimensions and Intergenerational References." He is Vice-President of the subject section Practical Theology of the "Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft fur Theologie" and an ordained minister of the Reformed Church of Berne. His assistant, Rev Claudia Graf, is an ordained minister  and works on a dissertation about sponsorship.