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For more than forty years now, anyone interested in thinking creatively about homiletics has had to think about narrative as a primary option for both sermon form and content. The publication of Eugene Lowry’s The Homiletical Plot in 1980 was a watershed in the development of narrative preaching. The so-called “Lowry Loop” became famous as a means of using narrative form in the preaching of even non-narratival biblical texts. While evangelicals were a little later in coming to the party, the narrative move became the major focus of the “New Homiletic” and a basis for much of the work of the Academy of Homiletics for many years.
Now almost thirty years later, members of the Academy have sought to honor Lowry with a publication aiming to reconsider and update thinking about narrative preaching. What’s the Shape of Narrative Preaching is an impressive and helpful volume, featuring contributions from most of the main players, Fred Craddock, Richard Eslinger, Tom Long, David Buttrick, and more. This is close to essential reading for anyone interested in current thinking about narrative homiletics.
It seems that things have shifted some. Narrative preaching as a movement has faced substantial critique as documented in these pages. Narrative may be too limited to appeal to every listener. It may be too limited to do justice to a wide area of biblical interests and concerns. It may be, as Tom Long seems to suggest that an interest in Narrative Preaching has ebbed. Still, any serious homiletician, no matter their background, will want to understand the way that narrative has effected thinking about the sermon and about preaching in general.
Of particular interest in this volume, is Charles Rice’s “More-or-Less Historical Account of the Fairly Recent History of Narrative Preaching.” This historical overview gives a good summary of the place of narrative in the development of the New Homiletic. Richard L. Eslinger’s “Tracking the Homiletic Plot,” gives an excellent overview of the development of Lowry’s own thinking. Tom Long’s “Out of the Loop,” is an important discussion of the limitations of narrative, raising significant questions about the future.
Lowry was important in my own development as a preacher and homiletician. It was my reading of his Doing Time in the Pulpit more than twenty years ago that awakened me to the fact that biblical preaching could offer more than what I had previously been taught. Since then, I’ve come to see narrative as one of several foundational approaches to preaching (see Choosing to Preach). My own thinking is that the way forward involves an integrative
approach to preaching that embraces both narrative and proposition. Toward that end, this book is tremendously helpful.