Speech Act Theory, Post-modernism, and the Word of God Part 2

In Part 1 of this article, we looked at how the Speech Act Theory interacts with Post-modernism and critiques its generalized skepticism on truth. This should be encouraging for a couple of reasons. Not everyone in the world is Post-modern(!) no matter what your college professor leads you to believe. Also, even secular theorists realize the possibility of discovering truth from texts like the Bible despite what your college professors lead you to believe. I do poke fun at the academic culture right now, but the fact is there is more diversity than what you hear on the typical college campus and you need to know that.

Now, let’s get to work.

How does the speech act theory affect the way we view the Bible? First, we affirm that we can come to the Bible with trust rather than skepticism. Deconstructionists attempt to deconstruct the author’s words in the hopes of salvaging a true meaning. Reconstructionists attempt to create a world of meaning based the authors limited amount of words he speaks. Reader Response interpreters don’t care what the author intends and take from the words what they want; and the list continues on and on. However, we affirm an author, including biblical authors, can effectively communicate what they want; so we come to the Bible with a hermeneutic of trust rather than distrust.

Second, we affirm God is knowable. God speaks. He spoke the world into existence, he spoke his covenant commitment to Abraham, he spoke his reaffirmation of the covenant to David, God spoke through Prophets, and Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s speech as the Word of God. With the Speech Act Theory, if God speaks; then his audience can understand. The transcendent God now condescends to man because he communicates through words. To be frank, that’s just incredible.

How does the speech act theory affect the way we read the Bible? First, we must come to grips with the locution. We familiarize ourselves with the verbal substance of God’s speech acts. It is impossible to understand if we are ignorant of the subject matter. For example, surely we need to know the words of Jesus’ call of faith and repentance at the beginning of Mark to put ourselves in a position to understand what God is saying.

Second, we affirm that there is an illocution to God’s word, simply meaning God acts. Many times we feel as if we must do something to reach God. But as we come to the Word of God we realize that God acts toward us. It’s the difference between Law and Gospel. In attempting to keep the Law (us doing); we die. In aligning our lives with the Gospel (God acting); we live.

Third, as we seek for application, we don’t have to make anything up or be creative. We simply must ask what is the perlocution of the author, and we can easily deduct how we need to change to align ourselves with God’s revelation.

How does the speech act theory affect the way we preach the Bible? First, we must come to grips and express the locution. The substance of what is being said in the Word of God must be understood because it is the means to which communication with God is possible. This affirms an importance of reading, studying, and memorizing the words of Scripture.

Second, we must never forget the illocution. Remember, the illocution is the act of communication. Hebrews 1:1 says, “Long ago in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken by His Son.” The ultimate illocution of God is the incarnation of God the Son, Jesus. We must never forget Jesus in preaching because he is the act and meaning of Scripture.

Third, we must not forget the perlocution or intended affect. The broad, intended affect of Scripture is faith, hope, and love in Jesus. If one ever forgets this affect in preaching, they will dilute the Word of God to just knowledge. By the way, knowledge never saves. However, there can be smaller perlocution in addition to the over-arching purpose of scripture. For instance, when Paul writes the qualifications for an elder in 1 Timothy 3, his perlocution for Timothy was not only faith but an adherence to put qualified men in leadership to guard the church which is the pillar of truth (v. 15). Thus, we need to remember to urge change in our lives as we preach or hear preaching based on the perlocution of the text.

The Speech Act Theory can give us confidence with Word of God in an age of skepticism.