History Of Homiletics

An overview of Homiletics: Historical, Theological and Homiletic Development and Significance.

Introduction:

Preaching is the central acts of Christianity Preaching is a vehicle for promoting the changes in the churches as well as in society. Preaching also assumes that it is the fundamental aspects of the church. The church cannot function properly without the direction of it. . Today’s preaching has comes to us through several developments.

Preaching is one of the commandments which are given by Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour of the world (Matt.10:7). The scripture declares that the Jesus came to preaching (Mattt.4:23). “From the beginning, the church of Jesus Christ was a preaching church”

Apostle Paul also suggested his young disciple

It is derived from the word homilia, the Greek word, which means “to converse or talk”. As M. Reu pointed out that, the word homilia continued as a label for the sermons of the Fathers until the middle Ages.

Definitions of Preaching:

There are several definitions for preaching. The researcher here gives some of the important definitions. They are as follows;

W. E. Sangster defined preaching that, “Preaching was, is, and ever will be God’s chief way of communicating his will to the world.” According to Sangster, preaching is the only way of communication that God’s will is proclaim to the world.

As Philip Brooks pointed out that, “Preaching is the communication of truth by man to men” Philip Brooks bring out two essential things in his definition. Truth and personality of the preachers are playing important role in the preaching.

Craig Skinner noted that the preaching, “As an art, the art of verbal communication by human personality through which God is pleased to reveal himself”.

Origins and Development of Preaching in History:

Christian preaching has a long history. As a preacher, he/she must know the history of preaching. To know the history of preaching, we have to start from the period of Old Testament times. The origins and development of preaching has divided into five sections. They are as

The Modern era

1 Biblical Period: Old Testament Time: “The preaching of Jesus fit into a well-established tradition. The same was true of the preaching of the apostles” According to Hughes, Jesus had a model to preach the gospel to the people of his time. Jesus practiced his preaching ministry in the synagogue, and also the place where the people gathered around him to hear the word of God. The Christian preaching has been understood in the light of Jewish practice. There is a continuance of Old Testament preaching and the preaching of Jesus. The function of the Christian preacher has a line in the Old Testament.

In Old Testament times, there were a special class for the chosen people to prophesise. They called as prophets. They get messages from God directly. The assignment of the prophets was to announce the present truth of their people. They spread-out the God’s messages to their contemporary people. The prophet of the Old Testament is the forerunner and model of the Christian preacher. D.W. Cleverly Ford stated that the preaching was a late comer in the history of