Redemptive-Historical preaching is a method of preaching that was forged in the fires of debate in the
Reformed churches of the Netherlands in the early 1940s. The debate concerned
itself with the question, "how are we to preach the historical narratives
of the bible"?
On one side of the question were the proponents of "exemplaristic"
preaching. This method of preaching taught that the biblical narratives in
general, and the Old Testament stories in particular, were to be preached as
examples of how Christian today should (or should not) live their lives. Old
Testament believers were held up as examples (or anti-examples, as the case
may be) of how we should conduct ourselves.
On the other side of the debate were the advocates of
"redemptive-historical" (the term used to translate the Dutch heilshistorisch)
preaching. The proponents of this kind of preaching argued that Old Testament
narratives are not given – primarily - to us by God to be moral examples,
but as revelations of the coming Messiah. The narratives, the stories, of the
Old Testament served as types and shadows pointing forward in history to the
time when Israel’s Messiah would be revealed in the person and work of Jesus
Christ. In support of this view, the advocates of redemptive-historical
preaching drew heavily upon the text of Luke 24:27 (where Jesus is teaching
the disciples on the road to Emmaus), "And beginning with Moses and all
the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things
concerning himself." (English Standard Version). Along with this verse,
also invoked was v. 44 of the same chapter where Jesus says, "These are
my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything
written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be
fulfilled."
In this way, then, the bible is seen not as a collection of abstract moral
principles, but rather as an anthology of the events of God’s great works in
history. The bible is dynamic, so the Redemptive-Historical advocate claim,
and it progressively unfolds revealing more and more of Christ to us as it
progresses through salvation history. This, then, is to be the way in which
the narratives are to be preached – preached with a view towards showing how
the text points towards Christ.
This approach to preaching has its roots, however, in a movement which
preceded the 1940s. The Biblical-Theological movement originated in Germany
under the liberal teaching and writing of Johann Philipp Gabler in the late
18th century, who emphasized the historical nature of the bible, over against
an overly dogmatic reading of it.
Nearly a century later Princeton Theological Seminary inaugurated its first
professor of Biblical Theology, Geerhardus
Vos (1862-1949). Vos was instrumental in taking the discipline of biblical
theology in more conservative direction, using it to vindicate the Reformed
faith and historic Christianity over against theological liberalism.
Today, in America at least, the Redemptive-Historical method of preaching
has been carried forward through the work of Westminster Theological Seminary
(both in Philadelphia and California)
and Kerux: The Journal of Northwest Theological
Seminary.
Bibliography
Clowney, E.P. Preaching
and Biblical Theology. Philipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed
Publishing, 2002.
Greidanus, S. Sola
Scriptura: Problems and Principles in Preaching Historical Texts.
Doctoral dissertation, Kampen.
Johnson, D. Him
We Proclaim. Philipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing,
2007.
Trimp, C. Preaching and the History of Salvation: Continuing and
Unfinished Discussion; trans. N.D. Kloosterman. Copyright by author, 1996.
Vos, G. Biblical
Theology: Old and New Testaments. Edinburgh; Banner of Truth Trust,
2000.
