Homiletics is defined as the science and art of preaching. It is all-encompassing of the trio of theology, philosophy, and science. It is the study and thinking about God’s relationship, not simply to Man as an individual… but a far greater accountability to man in universal creation; through the medium of Sermon. It is preparation and transmission and delivery of ‘tHIS Word’… by proclamation.
I love Linguistics. It helped me see that if I take the Word “God” and add an ‘o’, I can “KNOW GOoD”; even in a life void of God consciousness and God affirmation. I then saw that when you take the word “evil” and add a ‘d’, it personifies… gives personhood to a lesser power and principality in the word “devil”.
Homiletics, then, is the art of thinking, the discipline, the study, the preparation AND the delivery of Sermon —in the gathered congregational space. Sometimes spoken of as ‘the Sacred Space’, often spoken of as ‘Holy Ground’… it is ALL about the ‘Presence of a higher Supreme Being’ whose Presence in the universe affects the Goodness that is experienced and known collectively among societies. It is the transference of these thoughts into Teachings to inform the Knowledge acquired as the Path to ‘universal relationships’ of “Peace on Earth” AND “Goodwill towards ALL (wo)MEN”.
Soooooo how do we reach that point historically where ‘The Homily’ in content, appears to have a far greater concern for transmitting a study and ‘occupation with Devil’ than with ‘God —FROM the ‘Man of God’?
The late, Great Rev. Dr. Isaac Rufus Clark devoted his life to the teaching of Homiletics. The difficulties of really seeing WHO Dr. Clark IS, is shadowed by, I suspect, his not having very many students in his 28 years of teaching Homiletics at the Interdenominational Theological Center who “have a Proposition”! Every Clark student KNOWS THIS: “If you ain’t got no Proposition, you ain’t got no Sermon… neither!”
To really know him requires digging into his collection deposited at the Atlanta University Center Library. “Isaac Rufus Clark believed preaching was essential to the African American experience. This systematic theology and homiletics master with a colorful personality taught 28 years on the substance and methods of preaching. We here at the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives are pleased to highlight the Isaac R. Clark Memorial Collection.”
A Preacher’s son, Clark was born in New Castle, PA. He served in the United States Navy during World War II; after which he earned the BA from Wilberforce University; the B.Div from Payne Theological Seminary; and the Ph.D. in Theology from Boston University. Katie Canon writes concerning her 1972-73 experience: “Without a stutter or stammer, Clark told me that he did not believe that women could preach. He said that women are nothing more than pretty Christmas wrapping…” 2007 “Teaching Preaching: Isaac Rufus Clark and Black Sacred Rhetoric” by Katie Geneva Cannon. The single published source on Dr. Clark’s work.
By the 1979-80 school year, I was not blessed to have his Preaching Section. By Spring, he walked up to me coming out of Chapel and putting his arm through mine, he said to me: “Young Lady your Delivery is awesome, I could sit and listen to you Preach all day. Now as soon as you get the story right, they gon have to give you a pulpit.” About a week later I received his Letter of having been chosen an “Isaac R. Clark Memorial Scholar” for the 1980-81 academic year. This included a 1-on-1 course with him. OMG.
I suspect that there is a deep correlation to be seen in the ‘falling away from the Christian Faith’ and the teaching and preaching and studying of a principality that most all modern Christians speak so often and so loudly about… ‘The Devil’; Satan; The Enemy; and so much more of their ‘God Endowed Power’ GIVEN OVER to a principality… the devil did this; the devil MADE me do it; the devil meant it for my…
My late Great Professor of “Mission of The Church”, Dr. George Thomas- N’Dugu T’Ofriatti taught: “There is only ONE WORD that has POWER to move you and that Word is “God”. He talked about Wars and Fighting and Factions formed by words that should NEVER BE GIVEN that kind of power.
I cannot any longer sit in the pew of the Church listening to a ‘Man of God’ who gives more time in the Sacred Space conjuring up a principality, than KNOWLEDGE and TEACHING and PROCLAIMING the ‘Sovereign Power’ AND Will of God whom he claims to represent.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” (The Ancient Text)
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