Copyright © 2013 Ji Hyuk Kim
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Copyright © 2013 Ji Hyuk Kim All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction. A REAPPRAISAL OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN EXPOSITORY PREACHING IN LIGHT OF JONATHAN EDWARDS’S SENSE OF THE HEART A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Ji Hyuk Kim December 2013 APPROVAL SHEET A REAPPRAISAL OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN EXPOSITORY PREACHING IN LIGHT OF JONATHAN EDWARDS’S SENSE OF THE HEART Ji Hyuk Kim Read and Approved by: __________________________________________ Hershael W. York (Chair) __________________________________________ Michael A. G. Haykin __________________________________________ Timothy K. Beougher Date______________________________ To Ji Young, My partner in life and in the ministry, and to Sungjae and Eunjae, who are living proof of God’s blessings TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE..........................................................................................................................vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 Statement of Problem ........................................................................................... 4 Religious Experience Excluded in Expository Preaching ............................. 4 Whose Context? Which Application? ........................................................... 9 Why Jonathan Edwards? .............................................................................. 11 Religious Experience in Edwardsean Sense ....................................................... 14 Thesis of This Study ........................................................................................... 16 History of Research ........................................................................................... 17 Methodology and Limitations ............................................................................. 20 Outline ............................................................................................................... 22 2. JONATHAN EDWARDS'S SPIRITUAL EPISTEMOLOGY ............................. 25 Puritan Influence on Edwards's Spiritual Sense ................................................ 26 Sense of the Heart: The Product of Calvinism and Enlightenment ................... 31 Continuity with Locke in Edwards’s Thought ............................................. 32 Discontinuity between Edwards's Thought and Lockean Empiricism......... 35 Edwards's Creative Synthesis of Puritan and Enlightenment ...................... 37 Sense of the Heart in Edwards's Thought .......................................................... 40 Content, Mode and Sensibility .................................................................... 41 An Exposition of the Sense of the Heart in Religious Affections ................ 46 Edwards’s Pneumatology and the Sense of the Heart ................................. 50 iv Chapter Page The Object of the Sense of the Heart: The Beauty of God ................................ 53 The Vocabulary of Beauty ........................................................................... 56 God's Beauty and Its Manifestation ............................................................ 59 Beauty and the Holy Spirit .......................................................................... 66 Conclusion: Homiletical Reflections on Edwards's Sense of the Hear and Beauty ................................................................................ 67 3. EDWARDSEAN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE FOR EXPOSITORY PREACHING ...................................................................... 70 Schleiermacher's Modern Turn to the Subject: The Experiential-Expressive Approach ...................................................... 72 George Lindbeck's Postmodern Turn to the Church: The Cultural-Linguistic Turn ...................................................................... 76 Edwardsean Religious Experience ..................................................................... 78 The Legacy of John Calvin: Faith and Experience ...................................... 80 Edwards's Shifting Understanding of "Religious Experience" in His Works ........................................................................................ 82 Edwards's Personal Conversion Experience: "Personal Narrative" ............................................................................ 88 Case Histories: Sarah Edwards and David Brainerd ................................... 91 The Word of God and the Holy Spirit in Religious Experience ....................... 100 The Word as the Mediator of Genuine Religious Experience ................... 102 The Holy Spirit's Relationship to the Word in Edwards's Thought ........................................................................ 107 Edwardsean Religious Experience: The Spiritual-Linguistic Approach ........................................................... 113 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 116 4. RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE THROUGH "SENSE OF THE HEART" IN EDWARDS'S SERMON ................................................................................ 118 Affective Aspect of Edwards's Preaching ......................................................... 119 Puritan Homiletical Tradition and Edwards's Preaching .................................. 121 v Chapter Page The Legacy of Puritan Preaching .............................................................. 122 Characteristics of Edwards's Preaching ..................................................... 129 Typology for the Use of Imagery in Edwards's Thought ................................. 134 The Charge of Subjectivism ...................................................................... 137 Typology: Justification of the Use of Figurative Language ...................... 140 Examples of the Use of Imagery in Edwards's Sermons .................................. 145 "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" ................................................... 147 "Heaven is a World of Love" ..................................................................... 151 Conclusion: Preachers Need Brave New Words ............................................. 154 5. IMPLICATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY EXPOSITORY PREACHING ............................................................................. 157 Preaching as Persuasion ................................................................................... 157 The Sense of the Heart and Preacher's Imagination ........................................ 165 Edwardsean Piety for Contemporary Expository Preachers ............................ 172 Experiencing God's Beauty through Our Preaching ........................................ 180 6. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 184 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 190 vi PREFACE A dissertation is obviously not an individual but a communal accomplishment. Without sacrificial, supportive love of those who encouraged me to complete this dissertation, I could not have it done. I would like to thank my important family members: to my mother, Eun-A Cho, who consistently prayed for me and sacrificed her life for her son; to my parents-in-law, who have given me warm encouragement and love; my oldest brother, Rev. Kwang-Hyuk Kim, who has consistently prayed for and supported my study; and to our precious children, Sungjae and Eunjae, who have offered me joy and strength to complete this project. I thank God for Dr. Hershael W. York. He challenged me to focus on the sense of the heart in expository preaching. Dr. York instilled in me the confidence and encouragement to complete this dissertation. He served as a teacher and mentor throughout the entire process. I am honored that Dr. Haykin and Dr. Beougher are two of my committee members. They guided me with insightful comments and warm encouragement. I should express my deep gratitude to my colleagues in the Southern Seminary: Hong-Gil Lee, Eun-Sung Roh, James Detwiler, Larry Sowders, Paul Merideth, Deek Dubberly. Especially Na Young Seo and Joseph Baik consistently encouraged me throughout my writing with their unfathomable friendship and delicious foods. Mikyoung Oh and Hyogil Gong spent their precious time with my son and allowed me to focus on my work. I also would like to express my deep appreciation to Rev. Gi-Seung Han at vii Kwangju Shin-Il Presbyterian Church. He supported and prayed for me in all situations. I thank God for Rev. Seok-In Kim at Hanshin Church for his heartfelt love and prayer. I also wish to express my thanks to Rev. Tae-Geun Song for his continued encouragement and mentoring. He showed me what faithful expository preaching was during my ministry with him. I also extend my thanks to Rev. Jung-Kwon Choi and Cheltenham Presbyterian Church for their consistent scholarship and prayer. No one has supported me more to complete this work than my wife, Ji Young. No words can adequately express my thanks for her unending support and unconditional love. Without her I would never have accomplished this