Preaching: There is a lot of literature on interpreting narrative. One of the frustrations pastors face is perhaps knowing how to approach and study a narrative passage but not how to turn around and put it into a homiletical form. How do you make the transition from interpreting the narrative passage to preaching the passage in a narrative form? That is a struggle for many preachers.

Robinson: Yeah, it is a struggle. One advantage we have today is that a modern audience doesn't know those stories. I was chatting with a young woman two weeks ago who is a graduate of a major university. She has recently come into the faith. In the course of the conversation I said something about 1 Corinthians 13, and she stopped me and said, "What is 1 Corinthians 13?" I said that it's a chapter in the Bible about love and, she said, "Is that the New Testament or the Old Testament?" I suddenly realized this lady hasn't got a ghost of a notion about those stories! I think that today one of the things that we can do is simply to tell a narrative -- tell it in an effective fashion, help people to re-experience it. That is one reason for a minister to read novels, to be aware how story tellers craft their stories in order to get across not just the story but some ideas behind it.

In the past -- at least when I was in seminary -- the great emphasis was on the left brain. You know, analyzing. I am convinced that you don't really interpret the Bible unless you also use your imagination, especially with narrative literature. You have got to enter into that -- not by cold analysis, but you have got to say: can I put myself back into those days, can I relive what David was feeling when he escaped from Saul? If I can do that, then I can tell the story in a vivid way.

In fact one way you can do a narrative is the first person narrative. My son, Tory, is writing his thesis for a D.Min. degree on how to study for and to preach first person narratives. There you have to get into the mind of the character. A lot of the story preaching is not biblical; it's interesting but not very biblical -- that's its great danger. But you can take that story from the point of view of one of the characters and tell it. You don't have to be a great actor. It's amazing how interesting it is for people to hear somebody who as a character relives that story. In our day it can make a great impact.

Preaching: You use the term experience. How much preaching needs to be experiential versus intellectual?

Robinson: I don't think you really understand truth unless you can experience it. I think truth in the Bible is never like mathematical theory -- something that you can put up on a blackboard and analyze. I think that truth in the Bible always intersects life. Therefore, while I have to think in order to understand, I also have to experience in order for that truth to really make a difference. I'm not saying that I have got to move people's emotions by some tricks, but I am convinced that the Bible is never given in order to simply satisfy our curiosity.