In an article about “Challenges for 21st Century Preaching,” D.A. Carson writes, “Multiculturalism, rising biblical illiteracy, and shifting epistemology combine to remind us challenges like these are not new. When Paul preaches the gospel in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13), he does not sound exactly the way he does when he preaches the gospel to biblically illiterate intellectuals in Athens (Acts 17).
“On any reckoning, Paul has been in the ministry for more than two long decades when he preaches in Antioch. He is not shifting his message because he is intimidated. Rather, he recognizes he is now in another cultural ‘world’ than the one he inhabited when preaching in a synagogue. He perceived the biblical illiteracy in Athens, combined with such alien frames of reference as Stoicism and Epicureanism, means he must start farther back and talk about monotheism, creation, who human beings are, the aseity of God, the nature of idolatry, and a view of history that includes teleology and final judgment, before he can help his hearers make sense of Jesus and the resurrection.”
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Preaching Magazine, May-June 2008
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5591]