Page 17 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

sermonic forms, topical or thematic, deductive sermons were 76.6 percent (861 sermons) and

textual deductive sermons, 20 percent (225 sermons).

Recently Unyong Kim, a professor of preaching at the Korea Presbyterian Theological

Seminary in Seoul, selected ten most representative preachers in contemporary Korean churches

and analyzed forty sermons ( four sermons by each preacher) that have been published since the

1980s.10 According to him, thirty-five (87.5 percent) sermons were concern with personal

dimensions such as individual morality and personal needs. In terms of sermonic form, he

reports that “most of them used the topical or three-point sermon form.”11 These two analyses

indicate that the dominant themes of Korean preaching have been and are focused on individual

morality and personal needs. Furthermore, the dominant sermonic form of Korean preaching has

been and is an authoritative deductive topical three-point preaching model that was implanted by

early western missionaries. This style has persisted for the last 120 years.

The dominant theme of the sermons reflects the preacher’s understanding of the nature

and function of preaching. Meeting the needs of the people, and the agendas of the preachers

have determined the main thrust and content of their sermons no matter which text was selected.

The biblical nature and function of preaching came to be distorted in contemporary Korean

preaching. The dominant philosophy of contemporary Korean preaching in terms of the nature

10
He chose the most influential and active preachers in the contemporary Korean church.
There are seven preachers from the Presbyterian denomination, one from the Methodist, one
from the Assembly of God, and one from the Baptist. They are Daivd YongKi Cho, YongJo Ha,
SamHwan Kim, SunDo Kim, SunHee Kwak, DongWon Lee, JoongPio Lee, HanHeum Ok,
JoJoon Park, and JongSoon Park.

11
Unyong Kim, “‘Faith Comes From Hearing’: A Critical Evaluation of the Homiletical
Paradigm Shift through the Homiletical Theories of Fred B. Craddock, Eugene L. Lowry, and
David Buttrick, and Its Application to the Korean Church,” Ph.D.
diss., Union Theological Seminary, 1999, 65.

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