Inviting Response(ability): Developing a Learning-centered Homiletic

Chapter 1 introduces the theme of this study: namely, how following a learning-centered pedagogy as the core pedagogical strategy for preaching reimagines preaching theologically, epistemologically, and practically. The aim of this study is to develop a learning-centered homiletic by which the participants are invited to practice their response(ability) and engage in a shared process of practical theology informed by experience, discernment, and knowing rooted in relationship. Recent scholarship in homiletics calls for a transition to a learning-centered pedagogy when teaching preaching in academic settings. I argue that a shift to a learning-centered pedagogy is also needed when engaged in the practice of preaching. I seek to determine how Jane Vella’s participatory learning theory and process called Dialogue Education might contribute to the field of homiletics. Chapter 2 seeks to answer the question, “What does it mean to understand preaching as a Christian practice and what are the implications of such an understanding?” In doing so, it examines homileticians who call for an understanding of teaching preaching as a Christian practice that is centered upon a learning-centered pedagogy. These scholars focus solely on the implications concerning the learning and teaching of preaching in the classroom. I explore the idea of preaching being a Christian practice and the implications for preaching as understood from a practice-based worldview by engaging with the scholarship and practice theory of Theodore Schatzki. Chapter 3 of this study analyzes and evaluates the strategies realized in certain preaching types—Propositional, New Homiletic, and Conversational preaching— by focusing on the pedagogical frames detailed in the scholarship of the homileticians engaged with in Chapter 2. These pedagogical frames are teachercentered teaching, learner- or student-centered teaching, and learning-centered teaching. The argument in Chapter 3 states that examining and exposing the pedagogical characteristics at work in preaching can help one move toward a pedagogy that fits a practice-based worldview and develop learning-centered preaching. Chapter 4 of this study argues that engaging homiletics with the educational theory of Vella offers insights for developing a learning-centered homiletic. The chapter shows how Vella’s pedagogical understanding can enable the mutual involvement of the congregation in the actions that form the practice of preaching. It examines the pedagogical, epistemological, and implicit theological characteristics that Vella’s theory and process can offer to preaching, elaborating on the implications of these characteristics for developing a learning-centered homiletic. Chapter 5 examines the theological characteristics that integrate to form a theology for a learning-centered homiletic. Using the work of Ray Anderson and Esther Meek, the chapter develops a theological framework for learning-centered preaching. It demonstrates how an ontological and epistemological perspective rooted in Christopraxis relates to and calls for developing a homiletic whose core strategy is a learning-centered pedagogy. Having formed a theology for a learning-centered homiletic in the previous chapter, Chapter 6 endeavors to utilize Dialogue Education in order to develop learning-centered preaching. While Vella's principles are not intended for preaching, I have argued that a critical adaptation of her steps of design can not only enable the design and planning of such preaching but also help the preacher execute the plan and preach in a learning-centered way. In Chapter 7, I conclude that Vella’s theory critically challenges the homiletical theories that predominate by questioning the ontological and epistemological perspectives and pedagogies they hold tacit. Vella’s insights also highlight assumptions related to the roles of the preacher and the participants of the sermon during the homily. Her perspective contributes to preaching being understood as a shared process of practical theology because it helps the preacher design their sermon to welcome the response(ability) of all participating in the sermon.