EFFECTIVENESS OF PREACHING IN TIMES OF CRISES: CHRISTIAN VALUES AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
EFFECTIVENESS OF PREACHING IN TIMES OF CRISES: CHRISTIAN VALUES AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Author(s): Ventsislav Popivanov
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Political Theory, Theology and Religion, Politics and religion, Pastoral Theology, Psychology of Religion
Published by: Editura Eikon
Keywords: homiletics; preaching; Church communication; crises; values; ideologies;
Summary/Abstract: Preaching to contemporary Bulgarian flock, we sincerely believed that concerns as civil or world war and local or global pandemics are not highly likely to reappear from the near past of homiletics as holy church tradition. Church literature is rich in providing support to people in crises, but our generation hoped that in our lifetime in our advanced civilisation of post-post-modern age, such issues are not central to our life, because of value and cultural advancement. These years, global human society has been preoccupied with problems seemingly new to Orthodox spiritual healing tradition. The emergent global situation challenged especially those of us who had grown up yet in the 20th century, or before Internet, social media, and artificial intellect. And nowadays the risk of our preaching effectiveness is not only to sound outdate, and be unable to meet recent needs of our parishioners. Loss of interest in church preaching is even milder problem, than the danger to reach the hearts of believers by a homily leading to troubles as discrimination or incrimination, and church message that is populist and ideologised and could divide and polarise Eucharistic community. Given that we had reached certain homiletic effectiveness, but suddenly we were influenced by civic spirit, it is better for our parishioners to be rigid to our messages for some time, as they manage to overcome media noise and fake news, instead of leaving church gathering.

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