A sacred, hortatory oration, thematically based on Scripture, usually orally performed and
transmitted. These performances are, to an extensive degree, spontaneously composed.
Folk preachers may have been formally educated—many have not been—but their mode
of preaching and the sermon’s content are not decisively determined by their education.
Scriptural support for oral preaching and for the irrelevance of formal education is found
in Luke 24:49; the preacher does nothing to prepare himself for his mission, but rather
waits—tarries—until the Spirit descends:
And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the
city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
The only fit sermon subject is the kingdom of God, as prescribed by
Luke 16:16:
The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom
of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
A few of the elements characteristic of folk sermons—oral performance and
transmission, belief in the necessity of such spontaneity—are found in learned,
conventional sermons as well, as preached by a very wide spectrum of priests, rabbis, and
ministers. Most folk sermons in the United States are preached by Baptists, Methodists,
and Pentecostals, and by a host of divines who are not squarely in the mainstream of
American religious expression. More commonly, American preachers deliver sacred
messages from a manuscript, prepared in advance, one that may actually have been
reworked over months, even years. In a literate society, this mode of sermon preparation
and transmission is the norm. Oral composition is with many preachers actually an article
of dogma, deriving firom the New Testament. For many folk preachers, it is not merely
unnecessary to be educated, it is also probably a deterrent.
This form of preaching, and the resultant product, has been difficult to locate precisely
in history. It may have been the product of marginal New England religious experiences;
from there (if of American origin) it moved south, where it was found in colonial days
among the Quakers and Shakers in the Middle South. Observers of Baptist sermons noted
that emotions were expressed freely, and consequendy these sermons were attacked by
Anglicans for their “vehement pathos” and their “histrionics.” Traditional divines
belittled this unorthodox preaching style as the “Baptist whine.” This style of 18th- and
19th-century sermon delivery was notable for its emotionalism, its free expression, and
the musical tone of the preachers; it sounds much like the performance of the chanted
folk sermon of the late 20th century.
African Americans are the most prolific and the most skilled practitioners of this form.
Historically, the basic skills of oral sermon performance may have been acquired at the
many camp meetings held throughout the colonies and the early states. Both Blacks and Whites attended these open-air services, and though the races were usually seated
separately, the preaching could be heard by everyone. Yet, certain characteristics of these
performances—for instance, the call-and-response style of performances found even in
the 1990s—probably derived from Africa. So it is possible that what has become known
as the American folk sermon came from Africa along with slaves shipped forceably to the
New World. It is possible also that the modern-day form is the product of a blending of
Black and White sacred cultures.
This style of preaching orally performed, spontaneously composed, and characterized
by free emotional expression, became popular during that religious movement of the
early 19th century, the Second Great Awakening. During this period, a large number of
African Americans were proselytized and converted. The “barking” and “jerking” of the
Baptists and the Methodists, contemptuously derided by conventional New England
divines, were first recorded during this period. The outdoor camp meetings, such as the
one at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, attended by 20,000 people, were thought to be further
examples of “primitive” behavior.
Chanting and other dramatic vocal modes liven the sermon, avoiding monotony,
which in an oral performance could be especially deadly. The chanted folk sermon is
dramatic, and its performer is a sacred actor, using many of the techniques of the stage
performer to make the sermon more effective: gesture, facial expression, eye contact, and
alteration of voice pitch. Many folk preachers, and others, believe that emotion expressed
in church—the greater the abandonment the better—is appropriate. Frenzy, passion, and
glossolalia (speaking in tongues) are signs of the presence of the Lord. If church services
are not emotional, the minister (or priest or rabbi) is thought to have failed to evoke the
Spirit of God.
Chanting builds the emotional tension of the performance; the preacher’s tone of
voice, increasing pace of delivery, and mounting emotional content move toward an
emotional climax. The emotional curve of the entire performance is not significantly
different from an audience’s aesthetic response to well-written theatrical drama. In these
important ways, the chanted folk sermon is an analogue of the secular aesthetic work
embodying the catharsis of classical drama.
For these reasons, the spoken sermon is livelier and more dramatic than conventional
performances, even for the uninitiated, to hear. The convendonal text-based sermon,
prepared in writing, is appropriate for the belief that God should be apprehended through
intellectual exertion. The folk sermon appeals more directly to the emotions; a quiet,
thoughtful congregation indicates to the folk preacher that God is not present. An outsider
may think of such services as “emotional,” but the preacher and the congregation view
the performance as spiritual.
This delivery style establishes an intimacy between preacher and congregation, similar
to the close relationship between the preacher and his or her God. The folk preacher is
likely to say, “Jesus said to me the other day…” or “St. Paul said….” The folk preacher
may advise St. Peter not to worry about his children, or the leader of the Jews may be
referred to as “Old man Moses.” God and his saints are existential, living, and close at
hand, not distant, or aloof, or abstract. The preacher addresses that God and his saints
directly and immediately, a face-to-face confrontation with the divine presence in a
meaningful world. Oral recitation of spontaneous material allows the preacher a great deal of flexibility in
performance. The sermon can be lengthened or abridged depending upon the preacher’s
inclination, and that may be decided by several personal factors, including a response to
the congregation. If they are listless, the preacher can choose to enliven the performance
or to abbreviate it. Conversely, an excited congregation may stimulate the preacher to
further performative heights.
The folk sermon’s structure is potentially fluid. While many ministers strive for the
conventional “text-context-application” format, during actual performance that form can
vary considerably. The “text” for the day, and its scriptural “context” take only a short
time to deliver. The “application” is the major portion of the sermon and may be
composed of any of several generic components: exemplars, anecdotes, biblical
narratives, first-person accounts. Seldom do these elements have to occur in a specific
order; the preacher is free to insert them in the sermon as necessary or expedient. Thus,
the folk sermon’s form is fluid, its constituent elements are variable, and the order of
their occurrence variable. Generic delineations are difficult to formulate.
Folk sermons in the United States are more often chanted than spoken formally. The
preacher begins the performance in a conventional oratorical mode, gradually increasing
the pace of delivery and the voice’s emotional tension. Shordy into the sermon, the
preacher of chanted performances is partly singing the message; by the end, he or she
may break into song, spiritual or popular. The method of composition is approximately
that described by Milman Parry and Albert Bates Lord in their several works on oralformulaic composition and performance. The preacher’s professional skills must be at the
same level of the Yugoslavian guslari (traditional epic singers): Having mastered the
material and the music of the delivered line, he or she can then improvise. But the basics
must first be mastered, just as with jazz musicians, who must know their material
intimately before being able to creatively depart from it. The preacher’s utterance in the
chanted-sung sermon is a metrically consistent line, of a regularly employed length, that
induces frequent repetition of word and phrase. Thus, the formula of the Parry-Lord oralformulaic theory is created. Composition by manipulation of oral formulas—those words
and word groups that occur regularly in certain metrical situations—is common. The
performances of some preachers are heavily formulaic: Up to 17 percent of their uttered
lines are repetitions of other lines within the same performance. Most, however, are not
nearly so repetitious.
The themes observed by Parry and Lord also occur. In the sermons, these take the
forms of set scenes or episodes, often from the Bible. The preacher may have mentally
formulated a description of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, or of Ezekiel preaching
in the valley of dry bones. These themes are composed of several (sometimes more than
two-score) formulas, not memorized but loosely structured, and which can be used in
performance as a unit. Such employment eases the preacher’s compositional task,
enabling him or her to concentrate on the material ahead and, over several performances,
facilitates honing the style and the message of the retained passage.
The folk character of the folk sermon derives from the content of the text, principly
the origin of the materials from which the sermon is constructed. What differentiates the
folk sermon from its literate, strictly biblical-based, kin is the preacher’s use of folk
materials.
Several kinds of materials may be found. Depending upon the preacher’s background
and musical competence, fragments of popular music—not gospels or church-sanctioned
hymns—occur. Popular songs, not usually thought of as belonging to a sacred service, are
used, particularly if the preacher feels confident in his or her singing ability.
Certain favored locutions and metaphors are also used, often derived from secular
sources. The preacher may exclaim, “Hark Haleujah,” or “God from Zion,” or “Ain’t
God all right?” Folk preachers rephrase Scripture colloquially: “Now hear the word of the
Lord” instead of the original “Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones.” Or a homespun
portrait of one of the four horsemen: “Dressed in raiment/White as driven as the snow.”
He wore a “rainbow ‘round his shoulder.”
Unconventional as these devices are, they are received with understanding by the
congregation. The message always gets through. The congregation in the churches
described here usually participate actively in the service, calling out individualized
responses ad libitim. Their participation can influence the preacher’s lexical choice, even
in the form the message of the day will take.
This antiphonal call-and-response is not prepared in any way, except what tradition
and custom directs. Both parties—preacher and congegation—are expressing their
individual addresses to God.
The metrical folk sermon, chanted or sung and making heavy use of conventional,
popular materials, is also used in ostensibly secular contexts. The most notable examples
are the sermons of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (especially his “I Have a Dream”
speech) and the Reverend Jesse Jackson (perhaps most famously his address to the
Democratic National Convention in 1988).
Yet, these contexts are not entirely secular. Certainly the civil rights march in
Washington, DC, was in large measure religious, as was Jackson’s address to the 1988
convention. If there was any doubt about the seriousness of the speaker, or of the
message, that misunderstanding would be dispelled by the nature and style of the
speaker-preacher.
When delivered by inspired preachers, the folk sermon has proven to exert a potent
influence over a very wide range of congregations and audiences, literate and
sophisticated (and jaded), as well as folk groups.
Bruce A.Rosenberg
References
Davis, Gerald. 1987. I Got the Word in Me, and I Can Sing It, You Know. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press.
Lawless, Elaine J. 1990. Handmaidens of the Lord. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Rosenberg, Bruce A. 1989. Can These Bones Live? Urbana: University of Illinois Press.