Luminescence, Volume 2. C. K. Barrett
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Название: Luminescence, Volume 2

Автор: C. K. Barrett

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Религия: прочее

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isbn: 9781498240536

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СКАЧАТЬ so mysterious and obscure that I doubt whether it would be edifying to read it as the lesson.” “A revelation,” said Luther, “ought to be revealing.” While he was comfortable with a good deal of picture language and in using vivid description to fill out a context, he found apocalyptic somewhat daunting, as did Calvin, who wrote commentaries on everything in the New Testament except Revelation, and Luther, who had doubts about the book’s usefulness in the canon.

      Perhaps one revealing anecdote will be worth repeating. I was there on the occasion of J. D. G. Dunn giving the Lightfoot lecture at Durham, and as it happened, the lecture was more on the manifestation of spiritual gifts in modernity (speaking in tongues, prophecy), which Professor Dunn did not dismiss, than on what the biblical text had to say on the matter. Walking away from the lecture with Professors Cranfield and Barrett I remember hearing them agreeing that they were a bit surprised that the lecture did not focus so much on the interpretation of the ancient use of such gifts (as manifested in 1 Corinthians 14 and elsewhere), and they found the endorsement of such gifts in modernity a bit worrying.

      The tenor of these sermons reflects the character of the man, and clearly enough despite all his accomplishments, CKB was a humble person all too aware of his own limitations. This comes across over and over again in these sermons. Partly this is because he is imitating the example of Christ who humbled himself and served all, but partly it is just a reflection of who Kingsley was. Repeatedly he will refer to himself as “just a plain preacher” and much less frequently as a historian, and just occasionally as a “professional theologian.” This is how he sees himself, and I suspect that had he lived in the eighteenth century the Wesleys would have admired and enlisted him to do the very things he did do for seven decades in the Methodist circuits in the UK.

      Though these sermons are clear, and in some ways plain, they are also by turns eloquent and it is interesting to see what literary sources he likes to quote, besides the numerous partial quotations of favorite hymns. There are numerous uses of Shakespeare quotes, not surprisingly, and perhaps second most is the use of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. There are quotations from novels he enjoyed reading, and often from the Times or the Guardian when the news was germane to the sermon. As for poetry, sometimes we get Kipling, but more often we get that World War I chaplain Studdert-Kennedy. Perhaps most effective are the personal anecdotes where his humor comes through, and the examples from the myriad of people he met and experiences he had in preaching all over the place and spending so much time in Methodist Chapels. But while the vast majority of these sermons were written for presentation in such chapels, I have also included a goodly number of his addresses in college chapels, or to whole universities, or even to public schools of various sort. Clearly, he was in demand as a speaker in all sorts of venues.

      I will simply add this personal word of testimony. I’ve listened to preachers thousands of times over the course of my more than six decades of life, mostly to Methodist preachers, as I was a cradle Methodist, and someday I will be a grave one, and honestly I have never found or heard a better example and combination of biblical, Protestant (particularly Wesleyan), practical preaching than can be found in these sermons. I hope they will be as illuminating and enriching for you as they have been for me.

      BW3—Christmas 2016