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THE PROTESTANT PREACHER and the PROPHETIC MISSION AVERY DULLES, SJ. in the Interconfessional Discussions of the Past Few Decades

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THE PROTESTANT PREACHER and the PROPHETIC MISSION AVERY DULLES, SJ. in the Interconfessional Discussions of the Past Few Decades THE PROTESTANT PREACHER AND THE PROPHETIC MISSION AVERY DULLES, SJ. Woodstock College N THE interconfessional discussions of the past few decades, Catholic I theologians have come to see the need of studying more carefully, in the light of their own faith, the authentic Christian elements which subsist in dissident Christianity. These elements include, most impor­ tantly, the twofold ministry of word and sacrament. Protestant Churches insist rather less than the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox on sacramental practice; but they claim to be, in an eminent way, Churches of the word. This claim calls for a critical examination from a Catholic point of view. From this point of view a number of questions spontaneously arise. It may be asked, for instance, to what degree the genuine Christian message survives in Protestantism, even among the more conservative and dogmatically inclined groups. Further, doubts may be raised as to whether Protestant Churches can propose the Christian revelation with sufficient credibility to make it rationally acceptable. Can they, more­ over, speak with divine authority, demanding the assent of faith to the gospel which they proclaim? And finally, can the word be preached with supernatural efficacy within Protestant Christianity? Prescinding from the first three of these questions, we shall in the following pages deal with the fourth alone. In Catholic theological thinking, the preaching of the Catholic Church is a supernatural activity. She heralds the gospel in the name of Christ her founder, by His command, and as a living organ vitally conjoined to His Spirit. But Catholic theologians will hardly admit that Protestant Churches have been divinely commissioned to proclaim the gospel or that they are, as institutions, instruments of the Holy Spirit. Hence it seems problematical whether Protestant Churches can speak with the grace and unction of the Spirit, in a manner apt to elicit from their hearers the supernatural response of faith. The full force of this difficulty will become evident if we first propose a brief theological analysis of the nature of preaching and of the preacher's need for a divine mission. 544 PROTESTANT PREACHER AND PROPHETIC MISSION 545 THE NECESSITY OF A MISSION FOR THE PREACHER The entire proclamation of the Christian revelation is, in a wide sense of the word, preaching. More precisely, preaching may be defined as the public proposal of the word of God in the name of the Church. The primary form of preaching is oral communication, in which there is a living, personal confrontation between the witness and his audi­ ence. Written preaching is a derivative form. In the present article we shall therefore attend chiefly to oral preaching. There are many different types of preaching, such as the evangeliza­ tion of infidels, the catechetical instruction of children and uneducated believers, pastoral exhortations, and the mystagogical sermons which often accompany the Church's public worship. As regards its immediate goal, preaching may seek to promote any of the various functions of the Church—faith, worship, or Christian conduct. For present purposes we shall confine our attention to preaching in so far as it is intended to generate or to perfect Christian faith. The Christian tradition has recognized that the office of preacher is essentially prophetic. St. Albert the Great observes that preaching is "a kind of prophesying or exposition of prophecies."1 St. Thomas calls it "quasi prophetare."2 Modern theologians rather commonly take the same position. Thus Abbé Moeller writes: "Preaching in the strict sense pertains to the prophetic mission of the Church The preacher is a witness and interpreter of God, just as were the prophets of old."8 Abbé Rauch likewise declares: "The preacher is a prophet in the origi­ nal sense of the term—one who declares what God has taught him."4 The prophet, however, is one who speaks in obedience to a call, or mission, received from God. He acts not on his own initiative, but as moved by God, whose envoy he is. His mission includes not simply his original designation, but the divine afflatus which is upon him when he speaks. Thus the prophet is an instrument—a living, conscious, rational instrument—of God, who speaks in and through him. Because of this 1 "Est enim praedicare quoddam prophetare vel prophetias exponere"; In Lucam 9:2, quoted by A. Rock, O.P., Unless They Be Sent (Dubuque, Iowa, 1953) p. 167, n. 92. * "Ad presbyterum pertinet interpretari et exhortan, quod est quasi prophetare," In 4 sent., d. 5, q. 2, a. 1, q. 2, ad 2m. Cf. In Matth., c. 7, where he writes: "Dicendum quod prophetae sunt doctores in ecclesia et praelati." 3 C. Moeller, "Théologie de la parole et oecuménisme," Irénikon 24 (1951) 313,332. 4 C. Rauch, "Qu'est-ce qu'une homélie?", Maison-Dieu 16 (1948) 36. 546 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES dynamic presence of God, the prophet's words have a divine fecundity surpassing that of merely human eloquence. They are not empty speech but events of the supernatural order. They are, according to many theo­ logians, always efficacious—either unto justification or unto judgment, depending on the response of the hearer.5 The concept of preaching which appears in the New Testament is thoroughly prophetic. This is apparent from the terminology alone. As Przywara remarks, "The formal root-term, for ancient prophetism as for the new evangelism, is the kërygma"* The Greek term këryx, as is well known, designates an official herald or crier. "Kërygma means, therefore, official messenger announcing the official message."7 The prophetic notion of preaching is eminently verified in Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God, as described in the Gospels. His public mission begins with the descent of the Spirit upon Him in His baptism. He preaches in virtue of this mission, inasmuch as "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me" (Lk 4:18). He says nothing on His own au­ thority, "but He who sent me, the Father, has commanded me what I should say and what I should declare. The things, therefore, that I speak, I speak as the Father has bidden me" (Jn 12:49-50; cf. 8:28). His words possess a mysterious unction. "All bore Him witness, and marveled at the words of grace which came from His mouth" (Lk 4:22). But those same words have power to condemn whoever does not believe: "The word that I have spoken will condemn him on the last day" (Jn 12:48; cf. 15:22). St. Paul displays a profound consciousness that in preaching he is discharging a commission laid on him by God (cf. Tit 1:3) and that he does so with special assistance from heaven. He informs the Corinthians that he speaks as an "ambassador of Christ," that "God exhorts through us," that "Christ speaks in me" (2 Cor 5:20; 13:3). He con­ gratulates the Thessalonians for having welcomed his gospel "not as the word of men but, as it truly is, the word of God" (1 Th 2:13). 6 Cf. V. Schnurr, C.SS.R., "Situation und Aufgabe der Predigt heute," in T. Filthaut and J. A. Jungmann, SJ. (eds.), Verkündigung und Glaube (Freiburg, 1958) p. 200. eE. Przywara, S.J., "Christian Root-Terms: Kerygma, Mysterien, Kairos, Oikonomia" in W. Leibrecht (ed.), Religion and Culture: Essays in Honor of Paul Tittich (New York, 1959) p. 115. 7 Ibid. It should be observed, however, that in Mk 7:36 këryssein is used to describe un­ authorized proclamation. Cf. the comment of G. Friedrich on this text in his article "κηρύσσω," TWB 3, 707. PROTESTANT PREACHER AND PROPHETIC MISSION 547 A special mission from God is not simply a property of Paul's own preaching but a permanent attribute of Christian preaching itself. Paul clearly teaches this in his letter to the Romans, where he asks the rhetorical question, "How are men to preach unless they be sent (apos- talösin)}" (Rom 10:15). The great tradition of Christian theology has interpreted this as requiring a special mission in any Christian preacher. In their exegesis of this text St. Thomas8 and Luther are equally em­ phatic in declaring that whoever should pretend to preach without being sent by God would be in a class with the false prophets of whom God said to Jeremiah: "I did not send them, yet they ran" (Jer 23:21). Luther, who wrote his commentary as a Catholic in 1515-16, goes so far as to declare: "This is the mighty arrow that strikes down the here­ tics."9 Modern commentators, both Catholic and Protestant, generally in­ terpret the Romans text in much the same way. The comment on the text in KittePs Wörterbuch may be taken as representative: God does not send men books but messengers, and by the fact that He chooses individual men for this ministry He institutes the preaching office. Not every Christian is called to preach. ... A preacher is not a reporter who narrates his own experiences, but the deputy of a superior, whose will he loudly and clearly proclaims. Preaching without vocation and mission is an absurdity, even a fraud ; for it simulates what is not present. If there is no mission, preaching about Christ is only propaganda, not apostola te.10 The term "preaching" may, of course, be used in a descriptive sense to include what Friedrich here calls a "fraud." But in the theological sense preaching essentially involves a divine mission. Hence we may subscribe to the definition of Fr. Rock: "Preaching is an act of the min­ istry whereby one duly sent publicly announces the truths of the faith 8 In epist. ad Rom., c.
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