Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler (Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken)

The issue of authority has been the quintessential issue of the Enlightenment and especially of the 20th century. This is true for the very simple reason that the Enlightenment, by its very name, celebrated the autonomy of reason and humanity. Until the Enlightenment, philosophers and theologians traveled a single road: Authority Avenue. In the 18th century, however, these travelers came to a fork in the road. The old road was marked with the old sign "authority of revelation." The new road sign, marking the new fork, was erected by Immanuel Kant and his Enlightenment road crew, and read "autonomy of reason."

Many travelers who passed that way were so busy practicing their art that they never noticed the fork. No doubt many merely assumed that either road was an equally viable route to their ultimate destination. The Kantian revolution replaced the authority of Scripture with the authority of the autonomous mind. The result was politically, socially, ethically, philosophically, religiously, and homiletically momentous.

Modernism's collapse has bequeathed us postmodernism. Enlightenment modernity distrusted authority. Radical postmodernity dismantles authority. Edward Farley's oft repeated statement sums up the scenario at the beginning of the 21st century: "the house of authority has collapsed."1 For many, great was the fall of it. In Postmodernity, there is nothing certain, nothing objective, nothing absolute, nothing universal and nothing true with a capital "T". There are only truths with a little "t."2 Listen to Lyotard as he refers to the Bible as fable with its "despotic deposit of divine utterance."3

Deconstructionist Mark Taylor says, "Everything inscribed in the divine milieu is thoroughly transitional and radically relative."4 Homilete Scott Johnston tells us that "to be postmodern is to be post-certain."5 If one wonders what such post-certainty means for the gospel, Terrence Tilley tells us this lack of certainty is the good news.6 All of this has radical repercussions for preaching.

In light of this, it should come as no surprise that the question of Biblical authority has been the burning issue for theology in the 20th century. This issue of authority and how one construes it has been at the heart of the rise of Neoorthodox theology, Evangelical theology, Revisionist theology, and Postliberal theology. The authority issue has been keenly felt in homiletics as well. Every sermon preached presupposes a certain theology and a concept of authority. David Buttrick highlighted the essence of the authority problem for homiletics when he remarked that "conventional notions of biblical authorityAare no longer tenable,"7 and "we shall have to rethink the nature of authority."8 Lately, the field of Homiletics has begun to wrestle with the authority issue and like Jacob, refuses to let go without some blessing of authorization.