Preaching in the time of COVID: finding the words to speak of God

ABSTRACT

This study contends that preaching in a time of crisis, such as the global pandemic, demands homiletical models that enable speech about God which can address the questions of God’s character and activity that are raised by great tragedy and disruption. A sample set of sermons, from churches of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, preached during the first United Kingdom wide national lockdown are reviewed as to what they say about God in relation to the pandemic. A model for crisis preaching as apophatic discourse is presented and then the central process of ‘saying and unsaying’ is applied to one of the more theocentric sample sermons in order to evaluate the potential effectiveness of the proposal.

KEYWORDS:

• Preaching
• crisis
• trauma
• apophatic
• discourse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Beamish

Revd Dr Robert Beamish is the minister of Prince’s Drive Baptist Church in Colwyn Bay, North Wales; and also the Hub Tutor for the Light College at Northern Baptist College, Manchester.