Coming to sermon: the practice of doctrine in the preaching of John Calvin

Abstract

It has been said that Calvin's preaching demonstrates a doctrine of a ‘kerygmatic real presence’. So in preaching, and in the reading of, the word, Christ is present to the believer. This might also be spoken of in terms of an encounter with God through his word, or as a personal confrontation with God and eventual justification, or as the experience of the grace of God, or perhaps as the practice and experience of faith trusting in the word. In these many ways Calvin's theology has been identified as being, to some extent, both didactic and affective. Gerrish helpfully speaks of Calvin's theology as ‘gift and response’ or ‘grace and gratitude’. It is in Calvin's preaching that this dynamic of affective and didactic, grace and gratitude is enacted.