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Authenticating Novelty, Allen G. Jorgenson

Luther Faculty Publications

Some time ago, a pastor friend of mine was lamenting the burden of weekly preaching. His agony was largely reduced to the pointed observation that it is hard “to come up with something new each week.” This comment underscores what has become the task of our time: to verify worth by demonstrating novelty. Novelty has become, for better or worse, canonical. In this article I will explore this arrival of canonical novelty and suggest a faithful reappropriation of the category of novelty under the discipline of word and sacrament. In the latter task, I first consider novelty christologically before attending …