Narrative Exposition: The Art of Telling the Biblical Story

In the homiletics field, a text has been needed that blends hermeneutics, sermon development, and sermon delivery. Engaging Exposition fills that gap with what its experienced authors call a “3-D approach” to preaching. Bill Curtis writes about the Discovery process—how to equip the student to discover the meaning of a biblical text by using sound principles of interpretation, and to move from biblical analysis to biblical interpretation.

Honoring Biblical Authority through Narrative Preaching

The term “narrative preaching” evolved within the context of the New Homiletic, which rejected conservative theological understandings of biblical inerrancy and authority. They rejected any form of deductive preaching and the traditional forms upon which they were built. Instead, they identified the story as the primary model of human dialogue. As a result, their homiletics model required locating the “spirit” of a text within a story, and then allowing the listener to write the ending of the story, and the sermon, for themselves.

In 2010, Dr. Calvin Miller published one of the best evangelical responses to narrative preaching (Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition). In his book, Miller argues that there is a place for narrative preaching among those who hold to conservative theological understandings of biblical inerrancy and authority. Built on a solid foundation of genre research, Miller argues that preachers may honor the form of the text, while also providing a robust exegetical study of the text. This seminar will examine the hermeneutical and homiletical ingredients necessary to produce and teach biblical narratives.