Sacramental Imagination: A Lutheran Approach To The Analogical/Dialectical Divide In Preaching

Todd Arthur Peperkorn

Etd

Sacramental Imagination: A Lutheran Approach To The Analogical/Dialectical Divide In Preaching

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MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Todd Arthur Peperkorn. Sacramental Imagination: A Lutheran Approach To The Analogical/dialectical Divide In Preaching. Aquinas Institute of Theology. rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/58612587-2295-4236-945d-da660e0d2e11.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

T. A. Peperkorn. Sacramental Imagination: A Lutheran Approach To The Analogical/Dialectical Divide In Preaching. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/58612587-2295-4236-945d-da660e0d2e11

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Todd Arthur Peperkorn. Sacramental Imagination: A Lutheran Approach To The Analogical/dialectical Divide In Preaching. Aquinas Institute of Theology. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/58612587-2295-4236-945d-da660e0d2e11.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

Creator

Todd Arthur Peperkorn

Keyword

Sermon preparation

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In Copyright

Abstract

This thesis answers the question of whether there can be a Lutheran sacramental imagination for preaching. It begins with an overview of the history of preaching in The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), especially since the move into English in the 1920s. This history traces how the LCMS has largely adopted the New Homiletic, but has not reflected critically on how its own theological hermeneutic integrates with the New Homiletic, and what relationship this may have to sacramental preaching.Beginning with definitions of a dialectic imagination and a sacramental/ analogical imagination from David Tracy and Mary Catherine Hilkert, it examines the roots of the sacramental imagination in the works of Edward Schillebeeckx, particularly his early book, Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God. It then compares this with the writings of Richard Eslinger, Hans Boersma, and Graham Hughes.Next the thesis attempts to reconcile a sacramental imagination with a Lutheran hermeneutic. The most successful attempt for this has been in the writing and work of Lutheran Gordon Lathrop. While there are some concerns regarding a dialectic counterbalance, a Lutheran sacramental imagination that takes both the distinction of Law and Gospel and the place of grace begins to emerge.The ministerial intervention was a seminar for a group of pastors from the LCMS. It involved questionnaires, sermons, and interviews both before and after the seminar. The seminar included modeling sacramental preaching and taught the practice of “Preaching Partners” as a way of connecting the preacher to the the congregation.It concludes by determining that more work needs to be done on defining a Lutheran sacramental imagination, that Preaching Partners is an excellent method for building both pastoral relationships and in creating a collaborative spirit in preaching, and that Lutherans will benefit from more interaction with non-Lutheran preaching and scholarship.

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