Workshop 8: To Speak of the Holy: God, Language and the Task of Preaching

"To Speak of the Holy: God, Language and the Task of Preaching"

This paper examines the impossible possibility of preaching. It begins with an analysis of the basis of all theological language, and examines the language of preaching in the light of discourse about God in theology and in the liturgy of the church. It establishes the relationship between language and truth, especially in the light of the postmodern challenge. The paper argues the thesis that preaching is discourse about the divine which is undergirded by scripture and tradition, but at the same time also shaped by cultural and theological imagination.

Dr Roland Chia, Ph.D (University of London, UK) lectures in systematic and historical theology at Trinity Theological College, Singapore. He is also the Director of the Centre for the Development of Christian Ministry and Editor of Church & Society. Dr Chia serves in the Life Science Study Committee and the Inter-Faith Relations Study Committee of the National Council of Churches in Singapore. His publications include "Revelation and Theology: The Knowledge of God According to Balthasar and Barth" (Lang, 1999), "Eschatology" (IVP, forthcoming) and numerous articles in scholarly journals like Scottish Journal of Theology, Studia Liturgica, and Transformation. He is also a regular reviewer for Theology and the International Journal of Theology. Dr Chia is currently working on issues of Christology, and editing a book entitled "Beyond Determinism and Reductionism: Genetic Science and the Person" (ATF, forthcoming).