Die belang van die verrekening van metateoretiese vertrekpunte vir prediking en wetenskaplike navorsing in Homiletiek

Abstract

This article forms part of the second phase of the research project Metatheoretical assumptions in Practical Theology. The research problem has to do with the inability to reckon with shifts in underlying metatheoretical assumptions in the praxis of preaching as well as in embarking on scientific research in the field of homiletics. We focus on the influence of metatheoretical assumptions in the communicative dimension of worldview, hermeneutic notions regarding the communicative field at work in the homiletic process and theoretical notions underlying the researcher’s approach in complying with the scientific task of homiletics in a responsible manner. The article culminates in a description of one of the researchers’ interpretation of an example of his own recent research in prophetic preaching in a context of poverty when the underlying metatheoretical assumptions were explicitly reckoned with.