Gott zur Sprache bringen

Herder paved the way for modern homiletics. He analyzed the prerequisites of speaking and hearing, of feeling and thinking, of imagination and symbolizing within the framework of studies from the perspective of epistemology and linguistic philosophy. Based on Herder's anthropological classifications, Martin Kumlehn reconstructs how Herder drew up his theory of preaching within a hermeneutical framework of the human experience of life and interpretation between the two poles of aisthesis and poiesis. He shows that in this context Herder felt compelled to redefine those experiences which were traditionally described using the terms »God« and »faith« as well as the significance of Jesus and the biblical revelation for the Christian practice of religion. Against this backdrop, Martin Kumlehn illustrates the essential rhetorical elements and rules of a sermon whose objective was to regard God as a matter of language, an objective which still applies today.