Un-mastering homiletics interculturally: gospel, belonging, and communion for in-class sermon feedback

Facework offers more than a useful intercultural theory for enhancing the homiletics classroom by attending to individual face needs like belonging, competency, and autonomy in threatening moments like in-class sermon feedback. Facework in my class also provided a framework in sections for mentoring preaching students as homiletical theologians in their own right, as evidenced by a description of classroom practices as well as student responses to an anonymous survey in 2020. Furthermore, when illuminated by Willie Jennings's groundbreaking work on theological education in After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, such attending to face needs and mentoring might begin to deepen homiletical education in our interculturally challenged environment of white supremacy.