The Scandal of Having Something to Say

Pape makes creative use of Ricoeur's threefold understanding of textual mimesis. The Scandal of Having Something to Say is an indispensable contribution to the ongoing scholarly conversation about postliberal homiletics.

~John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School

When applied to preaching, the liberal approach may take one of two extreme forms. The progressive option features a kind of naturalism that refuses the notion of revelation and the supernaturalism of miracles, along with the tradition that attested them. One can see how historical criticism helped to explain away what was unintelligible to this rationality: "It is the Sea of Reeds, not the Red Sea." The second liberal approach, in response to such progressivism, is a conservative attempt to reduce unmanageable mystery to a set of propositions that can provide a reassuring certitude. Both modes of liberal preaching are alive and well as the body of Christ is divided up, like Christ’s robe, into blue and red. Pape offers a critical reflection on the major postliberal figures and suggests how preaching might be different in their wake.

~Walter Brueggemann, author of The Practice of Prophetic Imagination

The Scandal of Having Something to Say is a tour de force. Pape not only provides a clear and compelling analysis of Ricoeur's narrative hermeneutics, but releases its power for biblical preaching. Pape develops an approach to preaching that gives the preacher something urgent to say across a lifetime of preaching.

~Thomas G. Long, Bandy Professor of Preaching, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

...those who choose to think with Pape will learn much from his skillful elucidation.

~Aaron Klink, Duke University, Religious Studies Review

Pape's engagement with Ricoeur is conversant and accessible, yet, due to the nature of the subject, the road ahead will take a lifetime to travel...

~Samjung Kang-Hamilton, Restoration Quarterly