It s not uncommon to hear a reformed brother saying” The sermon did not contain “Kerygma”. This is a sentence I once heard from a brother with no background in formal theological education. He was thereby denouncing the man in the pulpit who had done everything but proclaim the Gospel. I don’t know how some jargons managed, over time, to emerge from the academy to become popular expressions.

However, most users would be shocked to find that the terms they employ do not have a very reputable genesis. They were invented by liberals who rejected certain important tenets of the evangelical faith. But, by the grace of God, over time, with maturity, evangelicals have been able to “convert” these concepts into important evangelical heritage.

THE USE OF KERYGMA

Take for example the word Kerygma. Originally, this expression was very dear to a certain German professor Rudolph Bultmann (1884-1976) This man believed that the Bible speaks to us in an old language of myths, that we should not literally believe everything it says, that we should separate the myths from the truths behind them. For Him, kerygma was what remains after the process of demythologization.

Rudolph Bultmann rejected not only the miracles of the Bible but also certain historical facts such as the resurrection of Jesus. According to him it will be necessary to separate the real Jesus from the legends that his apostles invented to convey a certain teaching concerning Jesus and it was necessary to extract the real message of JESUS from all those myths that surround his person. And that was kerygma for him. I am not sure we use the word with that same philosophy in mind. Evangelicals started to use generally mean the content of Christian faith finally adopted it to designate apostolic preaching, this essential message of the Gospel, this proclamation of the Kingdom of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, a message which encompasses the great saving facts of the incarnation, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and second coming of Jesus, the Messenger of the Father par Excellence.

NARRATIVE THEOLOGY: ITS ORIGINS, PITFALLS AND BENEFITS

Today's article is about a jargon that has almost the same history: narrative theology. Just as the same as Kerygma, the expression has its origins in liberal theological circles of the 19th century, but with evangelicals, it evolved into a respected word to mean something that I believe could enormously enrich our ministerial experience as Africans.

Origins of Narrative Theology

Narrative theology originated primarily, though not exclusively, from the Yale School of Divinity in the second half of the 20th century. It is difficult to understand this trend without starting with the end of the 19th century with fundamentalism and liberalism, against which narrative theology is reactionary. In fact, the rationalist movement (between 1650-1800) had such an impact on theological institutions and gave rise to a certain theological liberalism that was promoted by supposedly Christian thinkers who rejected fundamental things like the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, the miracles of the Bible, the historical truthfulness and scientific credibility of the Bible.

In response, conservative theologians, mostly from Princeton, rallied against this liberal trend. Names like B.B Warfield, Darby, Billy Sunday, Dwight Moody joined forces to fight this apostasy. They wrote 12 volumes defending the foundations of the Christian Faith hence the name, fundamentalists.[1] Later fundamentalism went to some extremes itself.

Narrative theology can be called post-liberal, in the sense that it does not claim to belong to either of these two camps. It was born in the 20th century as a third alternative between liberalism and fundamentalism. Biblical truth, according to post-liberalism, simply takes narrative as a model for theological discourse and action, unbound by the presuppositions of either orthodoxy or Enlightenment liberalism. [2]

In simple language, one can say that narrative theology is based on the idea that Christian theology should use the Bible as a narrative representation of faith rather than developing a set of propositions based on Scripture itself, such as what is commonly called "systematic theology". In short, narrative theology has a fairly broad meaning, but it is generally a theological approach that seeks meaning from narrative and rejects the truth propositions of systematic theology.

The extremes of narrative theology

The first danger of narrative theology is obvious, namely theological relativism. This way of denying the objective truth. It usually goes with some animosity of this movement towards systematic theology. Proponents of narrative theology usually have some aversion toward any claim to make absolute dogmatic formulations of the Christian faith. The more popular version of narrative theology can be identified in emerging churches. Preaching becomes a long-gone practice because it would mean that a person speaks authoritatively to others, imposing his views on them. People sit in a circle and discuss, exchange, as everyone expresses his opinion on the Bible. Such a dangerous game.

Another extreme is moral relativism. Narrative theology places particular emphasis on “what matters is our relationship with God”. If the Bible does not contain absolute truths to discover (theological relativism) it does not contain either moral rule to observe (moral relativism). The Bible connects us with God and that is what matters to them.

The Good Side of Narrative Theology

Unfortunately, those extremes are used to make generalizations about the whole movement. Narrative theology brings some positive things on the table. Here are some:

Reading the Bible as a Story not as a set of propositions

Roger E. Olson, a well-known theologian, tries to save narrative theology from the pit of criticism and says that:

"narrative theology recognizes that the Bible contains doctrinal propositions but these propositions are neither independent nor superior to the great history of the redemptive work of God”. He adds that “the propositions elucidate the History of God, illustrate it, communicate it better and ultimately serve the History and not vice versa. »

This professor from Baylor University continues and drives the point home by saying that “doctrines are secondary to History; they cannot replace it. They are judged by their ability to explain and faithfully express the character of God revealed in history.” [3]

Narrative theology and other disciplines in theology

This brings us to the second feature of narrative theology: the importance it places on biblical theology above systematic theology. This is one of the great contributions of narrative theology. The distrust of systematic theology is so evident in the emerging movement, an attitude in itself not recommendable and which leads to the excesses of theological relativism. But the problem in my country for example, reformed theology was introduced to people for the first time via a set of lectures on systematic theology. Little Flock Ministries tried to reverse the order. Our first strategy was to introduce people to the Bible, grasp the Big Story of the Bible and only later proceed with teachings on doctrines.

Narrative theology used responsibly makes us discover the complementarity between systematic theology and biblical theology, and if I dare say the very primacy of the latter. Olson writes that:

"Biblical theology is not concerned with stating the final doctrines which constitute the content of Christian belief, but rather with describing the process by which revelation unfolds and proceeds toward the goal which is the final revelation of God of his purposes in Jesus Christ. Biblical theology seeks to understand the relationships between the different eras of God's revelatory activity recorded in the Bible… “the systematic theologian is mainly interested in the finished article, the statement of Christian doctrine. The biblical theologian, on the contrary, is more interested in the progressive unfolding of truth.”[4]

Narrative theology and emphasis on our relationship with God

The final contribution of narrative theology concerns its emphasis on our relationship with God. Classically, the Cartesian tendency that dominates theological institutions and it results in a disregard for an experiential encounter with God, a disregard for emotion, and a haughty dogmatism.

It is true that if our thirst for communion with God is not based and guided by the Bible, it may lead us to the excesses of an unbiblical mysticism. Nevertheless, narrative theology, with its emphasis on personal experience with God, reminds us that we are no longer in the balance of things until doctrinal precision takes precedence over our relationship with God. Do you know of any circles where a person's Christian maturity is measured by their ability to articulate doctrines rather than the quality of their relationship with God?

The relevance of narrative theology in the African context.

It is an established fact that much of the Bible is written in narrative form. But narrative theology is not only interested in these narrative parts. It challenges us to read the WHOLE Bible as a Unified History of Salvation. On a continent like ours where storytelling is the primary medium for communicating concepts and principles, we should feel more comfortable with the Bible than Westerners since it was written in a context close to our own, an Afro-Asian context.

The problem is that we are often trained to read and interpret the Bible in purely Cartesian categories. The famous Craig Keener married a Congolese woman and I believe that in addition to his specialized studies in Culture and History as a background to the Bible, his marriage allowed him to see clearer. He says, “Most theologians who question the use of narratives are, by contrast, Westerners or Western-trained people, offshoots of the Enlightenment. In fact, some Westerners even believe that Bible stories are not for everyone. Even in the United States, black churches have specialized for generations in narrative preaching.

He adds that “in most churches, children grow up loving Bible stories until they become adults and then we start teaching them that they now need to think abstractly rather than learn from concrete illustrations. Just because our traditional method of extracting biblical doctrine doesn't work well with stories doesn't mean that biblical stories have no message to communicate. On the contrary, it shows how inadequate our way of applying the traditional method of interpretation is because we ignore so much of the Word of God. » [5]

If our preachers are Western-trained, it affects their approach to ministry and preaching in particular. They are more concerned with providing a logical and analytical presentation than communicating Salvation History in categories of African thought. The unfortunate consequence is that they find themselves disconnected from the audience. They are disappointed and end up blaming the audience for their lack of education when they are the ones who need more education in narrative preaching.

Why are Westerners becoming aware of this gap in their academic curriculum before us Africans, who should feel even more concerned? Many preachers shy away from stories or treat them badly because of poor training. In the past, preachers tended to treat stories as allegories or illustrations of preconceived theological ideas drawn from didactic passages. These preachers did not understand narrative literature and did not learn to interpret it. This lack of training continues to this day. Seminaries rarely, if ever, offer the required courses in exegesis and storytelling. Most require exegetical courses focused on didactic material, which do not train students to understand and communicate narrative literature. More often, the methodologies that allow us to understand didactic literature prevent us from understanding narrative literature.

The need for contextualization

By drawing inspiration from the richness of our culture, our traditions and our way of thinking and communicating, we have a duty to find a model of preaching that works best in our context learn how to use all these assets as a contextual tool in preaching, I wonder when local theologians will learn the lesson and start doing theology like Africans, instead of becoming a mere echo of our teachers and theological institutions. That would be a fatal loss for our rich homeland.

[1] GotQuestions viewed February 17th 2021

[2] TGC visited on Feb., 15th 2021

[3] Patheos visited on Feb,15th 2021

[4] Ibid.

[5] I highly recommend the reading of Biblical interpretation by Craig Keener, which can freely be dowloaded here