ABSTRACT
There are many dimensions to preaching –the text, the congregation, the preacher's imagination, the chemistry of the moment. But one stands above all –the speaking. There is no preaching without presence, no speaking without listening, no talking without silence. Silence discovers reality. Only in silence, in the space between noise, speech, and activity, is there room for a person to become focused, to achieve gravity and centeredness. There is a crisis of language in our world today. It has nothing to do with the pluralism of tongues; that, in fact, encourages silence by refusing an easy reductionism. Few things are healthier for the soul than days spent in foreign countries where one understands nothing of the language and is thrown back upon more elemental means of communication, or upon no communication at all, evoking new reverence for the immensity of life in the world. As silence gives shape to human character, so also it bestows form and meaning upon language.
