The evaluation of the logos of Spiritual formation through the preached message is only the first of the three parts of the communication of the eternal Word to one’s contemporary audience. One can rank the logos of a message in one of three places: low, medium, or high. When one adds a second dimension of persuasive speech, one now has nine options in evaluating the preached message, as in the figure below.
The ethos of the message is the perceived authenticity of the speaker, based on his ability to communicate in the language, culture, and history of his audience. One cannot only evaluate how well the preacher exposes the authentic logos, but also how well the preacher reaches the authentic ethos of the receptor language of his audience. One may have the very Word of God to convey, but if one is not perceived as authentic, the message is not heard.
In this case, “ethos” is not used strictly in the sense of Aristotle’s Rhetoric. By “ethos,” Aristotle means something more akin to the English word “ethic.” The credibility of the speaker is judged on his perceived character. It is used to mean the credibility of the conveyor of the message, but “ethos” will here be used more in the sense of his ability to connect with the “ethnicity” of the audience; their language, history, and culture.
In his book, 'The Unknown God', Alister McGrath examines the task of seeing how the Christian Church can communicate the gospel to this postmodern culture. His argument is that one must discover the common ground from which to start the proclamation of the gospel, and then couch it in the terms and interests of the hearers. This is precisely what the apostle Paul does in Athens on Mars Hill in Acts 17, where McGrath takes his title. McGrath demonstrates how one can see that there is a common spiritual hunger in every person, and he uses this archetypal longing to begin his exploration of the claims of the Christian faith. He uses Plato’s classical Greek metaphor of “The Cave” and postmodern sentiment to build a case for a hearing of the Christian worldview and the particulars of the historic, biblical message.
With 'Reckless Hope', authors Todd Hahn and David Verhaagen do an excellent job of describing the ethos of this generation, drawing on some statistical research as well as some anecdotal evidence. They faithfully adhere to a desire to present the authentic Christian gospel found only in the Scriptures. They also make helpful and wise suggestions when challenging the local church to put this into practice. Their three-angled paradigm for presenting the gospel today is very helpful; creation, covenant, and community can communicate the message and connect with the interests of “Busters.” They also provide an excellent discussion of the dangers of the modernist approach to the Bible that treats God’s revelation as merely a “road map” or an encyclopedia of morality.
In his 'Homiletic', David Buttrick argues for structuring sermons in the natural way of thinking and speaking of the postmodern setting. It is the best way to structure a sermon, because it is the best way of connecting with the ethos of this generation. Buttrick takes the ethos of his audience seriously, and the logos of the Word of God seriously. Putting these two elements (audience and message) together is the task of the authentic Christian proclaimer. The committed proclaimer of God’s Word in the postmodern setting will need to understand these two elements intimately.
