In this paper it is explored whether the recent homiletic turn towards the listener happens in neglect of the foreign voice of scripture. Critics of the 'other-wise' homiletics are concerned that the round-table dialogues, used in preaching preparation, become a one-way-transfer of congregational experience closing off on an authentic dialogue with the foreign voice of the gospel. In accordance with the communication theories of M.M. Bakhtin the validity of the structuralistic model of communication, as one-way transfer of meaning, is rejected. As an alternative Bakhtin's interactive communication theories are introduced in which the role of the listeners is not to be passive receivers but active co-authors. From this perspective the genre of preaching can be described as an interactive dialogue between the 'already-said' of scripture and past theological conversations and the 'not-yet-said' of congregational response. In order to show that the contemporary listener-oriented homiletics does not necessarily happen in reject of the scriptural universe and mode of communication the Pauline letters are described as another unique genre developed in dialogue between a scriptural world and contemporary congregational situations.