Page 174 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

is how Jesus liberated “both his laws and his gospel [that] have suffered many things at the hands

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of prosaic literalists.”

Third, the Korean preachers should employ concrete and visual language. Korean

society has been in the process of entering an electronic age. This rapidly evolving worldview

is affected by the parabolic rise and development of communication. Korean culture is deeply

influenced by television, movies, and the mess media. Media-sensitive people become

increasingly individualistic and narcissistic. They are mesmerized by entertainment as much as

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is the Western world. If Korean preaching fails “to recognize and adapt to the quickly
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dawning world of electronic communication,” it will be confronted with a bigger crisis.

With such an acceleration of the entertainment culture, the Korean people have displayed

an interest in vision-oriented modes of communication. They come to be “image and narrative

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thinkers” and “story-soaked.” Consequently, contemporary Korean preachers must maintain
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their sermonic language by keeping it fresh, concrete, visual, and imaginative. The language of

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Handy, Jesus the Preacher, 57.

80 Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in an Age of Show
Business (New York: Viking Press, 1985), 6.

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Richard A. Jensen, Thinking in Story: Preaching in a Post-literate Age (Lima: C.C.S.
Publishing Co. Inc., 1993), 45.

82 Calvin Miller, Marketplace Preaching: How to Return the Sermon to Where It Belongs
(Grand Rapid: Baker Books, 1995), 38.

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Craddock, Preaching, 198-99. Craddock offers suggestions to retain a fresh and
imaginative quality of sermonic language: 1) remind yourself of the importance and power of
words by reading fifteen or twenty minutes each day from the essays, poetry . . . by great writers;
2) think of and use expressions that are more imaginative and forceful than usual “talking;” 3)
write personal letters to friends and relatives; 4) every five or six weeks, review your preaching
in search of overused words and phrases; 5) listen to people talk with one another; 6) converse