Leerling onder de leerlingen. Een Bijbels model voor predikanten?

ABSTRACT: Disciple among the Disciples. A Biblical Model for Preaching In this article the author discusses the differences between Roman Catholic and Protestant homiletics in the Netherlands. First he assesses a quite old book written by Ernst Henau which is one of the few books about preaching from a Catholic perspective. Henau suggests that preaching from the Bible is not really possible, because the Scriptures are too difficult to understand and Catholic ministers are too often not capable of interpreting Scripture. Next the author of the article reflects about Dingemans’ book, the most important Dutch handbook of protestant preaching. Dingemans argues that protestant preaching was too often focused on a one-way communication. Dingemans delineates several models of preaching and criticizes all of them, because the minister is too often only the teacher and his audience is too often only the listeners. Dingemans wants to correct this one way model and argues that the preacher has to become also one of the listeners among other listeners. Because there is very few Catholic homiletic literature, this Protestant handbook is often used at Catholic seminaries and theology departments. Dingemans’ viewpoint, however, is not very relevant for Catholic preachers. They are usually already quite attuned to their audiences and probably should rather devote more attention to the content of their sermons especially by studying the Bible more. The author of the article presents Luke 24:13-35 as an alternative model for Catholic and Protestant preachers. The minister is invited to follow the footsteps of Jesus by becoming a disciple among the disciples. That may eventually make the preacher a real teacher