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We Speak Because We Have First Been Spoken: A Grammar of the Preaching Life

Reviewed by Dave Faulkner.

As a young Methodist Local-Preacher-On-Trial, the first time I felt I was being led to preach a challenging sermon, I asked an older friend who mentored me about how I should handle such a thought. “Always check that God is not speaking such things to you before you dare to speak them to others,” he replied.

That simple conversation set up for me at an early date in my experience the thought that the life of the preacher needs to be congruent with the words preached. And of course it is important to practise what we preach. Michael Pasquarello, however, puts it the other way round: this book is to ensure that we preach what we practise. We preach out of the way God is forming us, and it is therefore critical for the preacher that we not only learn our homiletics and hermeneutics: it is an utter priority that we give attention to God’s remaking us in the image of Christ.

To explore this, Pasquarello draws on a wide range of scholars, ancient and modern. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Rowan Williams feature among more recent thinkers. However, the main theologian with whom Pasquarello dialogues is Thomas Aquinas.

There were times when I felt he could state his case much more simply than he does. However, this is a work for seminary training of preachers. If you find that slow, meditative reading of dense theology feeds you spiritually, then this book has great riches for you. If, however, a more academic approach is off-putting for you, I would suggest you look elsewhere for works that will challenge your formation in Christ.