Primary Orality Literacy Second Orality

Before writing, but Phonetic alphabet. Invention Existent since 1985.

affecting majority of of print (1450s) Electronic revolution

population before print.

ORAL/AURAL way of LITERATE way of NEW WAYS of thinking

thinking thinking

EAR - thought relates to EYE - thought relates to EAR and EYE- space

sound sight, space and time

MONO-right brain MONO-left brain STEREO - right and left

brain - image, beat and

visualization

STORY-memorable, IDEAS - conceptual, STORY and IDEAS -

mnemonics, rhythms, abstract, analytical, symbolic, image, experiential,

repetitions, 'stitching explanation, linear, one- modulation,

together' way participation, intuitive,

wholistic, two-way

LANGUAGE - mobile, LANGUAGE - may be LANGUAGE - new self;

warm, personally inhuman, passive, conciously informal

interactive unresponsive style

COMMUNITY-group INDIVIDUALITY- COMMUNITY-self-

minded because no private world of print conscious 'global

alternative village' - spectacle

(Fig. 3 [Some characteristics of the three eras of communication])

Henderson in Culture Shift underlines the danger of compromising the Word with his model of accommodation where concern for audience eclipses concern for message (1998, 25-30). In its desire to engage culture relevantly, preaching can flirt dangerously with spiritual irrelevancy whenever it does not begin with God and His word. There is also the danger of embracing style without an adequate biblical theology. Allen and Bartholomew raise justifiable questions about how preachers can "become so intent on their own cleverness that style supersedes substance" (2000, viii).

If flight is unrealistic and some fight is necessary, how best can we respond? I suggest some judicious befriending. Preachers always live in the two worlds of scripture and contemporary context, and we cannot preach as though the electronic age has not dawned. Those who are committed to expository preaching need to be realistic and positive within these new opportunities.

1. A realism about the role of culture

We should be wary about how large a role in preaching we cede to culture. Jensen overstates its role with his thesis that "preaching is shaped by the communications culture of its time"(1993, 22). He commends "polymorphic preaching" as preaching of the future which involves simultaneous massaging of both eye and ear (141). It is wise to adopt a less extreme position which makes enough room for culture to have a significant role. Incarnational theology means "God becoming flesh and joining the indigenous practices of the culture of Jesus' time" (Sample 105). This enfleshing is not God joining in man's story, but "rather, Incarnation is disclosure that the world is part of God's story" (106). When the church fails to take human culture seriously it fails to incarnate its message and mission seriously.