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Do preachers really preach? Aiming for the relative safety of the ‘both/and’, many preachers slip into sermonizations of the Word of God, neglecting the activity of the Spirit. Barth’s early preaching (especially the infamous ‘Titanic sermon’) often flaunts rhetoric and ‘paradox’ rather than heraldic proclamation. Famous preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones was well known for his criticisms of Barth’s dialectical theology. Though rarely considered as feasible interlocutors, Lloyd-Jones’s call for prophetic ‘unction’ in preaching reveals a remarkably similar homiletic to the later Barth. Preaching as ‘prophecy’ emphasizes the active expectation of the preacher to be impacted by the power of the Spirit.

This article shall outline the significance of Kierkegaard’s method of Bible reading for preaching. The key concepts in Kierkegaard’s hermeneutics (De-Familiarization, Appropriation and Consequentiality) will be applied to his condemnation of pulpit hypocrisy in nineteenth-century Denmark. This is best illustrated in his humorous parable, ‘The Tame Geese’. Kierkegaard’s critique of preaching will then be compared with Fred B. Craddock’s ‘New Homiletic’. Though superficially similar, it will be shown that Kierkegaard still upholds the authority of the preacher in a way that diverges from many postmodern misinterpretations of his work. In the light of contemporary critiques of preaching, this reflection will emphasize how Kierkegaard’s hermeneutics might be helpful in shaping a renewed approach to proclamation that catalyses genuine transformation in its hearers, beginning with the preacher’s personal engagement with the text.