「故事即论证」：韦利蒙讲道中生命故事的运用

“Story Is Argument”: The Use of Life Stories in William H. Willimon’s Preaching

WONG Shun Shing

　　This article examines William H. Willimon’s homiletical theology, which posits that narrative—especially life stories—serves not as mere illustration but as the primary argumentative structure in Christian preaching.

　　Amid contemporary challenges of entertainment-oriented, consumerist, and attractional preaching that often reduce the gospel to therapeutic advice, moral guidelines, or marketable spiritual products, Willimon advocates a theocentric model. Preaching, in his view, constitutes a divine theological event wherein God speaks disruptively through the peculiar and alien qualities of biblical and ecclesial narratives.

　　Drawing on narrative theology influenced by Karl Barth, Willimon maintains that Christian faith is fundamentally narrative, witnessing to God’s historical acts culminating in Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection. Preaching thus performs and re-presents God’s story in the present, inviting hearers into its drama. Stories function generatively and performatively: they enact theological truth and create a new reality rather than passively reflecting or decorating pre-existing propositions.

　　This study contrasts Willimon’s approach with conventional narrative practices, which typically familiarize the gospel, emphasize individual inspiration, address felt needs, instrumentally prove abstract truths, or depend on the preacher’s charisma. Willimon instead employs estrangement to underscore the gospel’s scandalous strangeness, prioritizes communal formation, embodies truth narratively, and relies on the Holy Spirit rather than human technique.

　　Central to his method are life stories—personal, congregational, and historical testimonies—that form the core of argumentation. These function as existential witnesses, embedding individual experiences within God’s redemptive narrative, countering modern individualism, and cultivating the church’s identity as a peculiar people shaped by divine initiative.

　　Applying this framework to the Chinese church context, the article critiques prevalent tendencies toward prosperity theology, pragmatic applications, and commodified personal testimonies that domesticate the gospel’s cruciform oddity. It advocates defamiliarizing, Spirit-reliant, community-focused storytelling that honors failure, unresolved tension, and waiting as loci of grace.

　　In conclusion, Willimon reclaims preaching as a relational divine–human encounter rather than an attractional performance. By treating story as an argument, preachers participate in God’s reality-creating speech, entrusting their vulnerable words to the Holy Spirit for disciple formation and immersion in the ongoing drama of salvation.