The Protestant Homiletics Approach toward Preaching on the Internet

Abstract

Summary The presence of the sermon in cyberspace requires an in-depth theological interpretation and an appropriate classification. Evangelicals maintain that traditional homiletics is not able to meet this new technological challenge, thereby they call for creating a new homiletics, i.e. the one crafted for the Internet. This article outlines the proposal of such homiletics and discusses it thoroughly. This new approach toward Gospel preaching stems from the paradigm which perceives the sermon as an ‘open work of art’, adopted from Gerhard M. Martin’s aesthetic homiletics. Its supporters claim that the current situation allows for considering the Internet not only as a medium, but also a place where the Church is realized. Thus, the community gathered online around the sermon is treated as an ecclesial community. However, the Catholic Church does not accept such an understanding of both the Church and the sermon. In their view, in a virtual space the authentic preaching of the Church cannot be performed. Therefore, all forms of preaching on the Internet should not be researched by homiletics, but media theology.