More on preaching narrative

Peter Mead continues to write about preaching biblical narrative, and he does a fine job of expressing the challenges of this type of preaching:

On the one side you have some conservative preachers who treat the narratives as historically accurate, but essentially no different than any other biblical text (just dissect and deliver!) On the other side you have other less conservative writers who may recognize the literary skill, but deny historicity (my mind goes to Robert Alter’s term “historical fiction” in reference to the Hebrew Bible). . . .

As we prepare to preach biblical narratives, let’s make sure we don’t fall into the either/or thinking. Historical accuracy. Literary artistry. Two truths that sit comfortably together.

Yes.