How was religious education taught in one of the central institutions of emerging Christianity? The contributors to this volume examine late antique sermons from the Latin West, explore how biblical content and saints were addressed in them, and how questions of Christian ethics and faith were communicated.
In this volume, essays are brought together that map the preaching landscape in the late antique Latin West from the perspective of religious education. In Late Antiquity, sermons were the central institution through which religious education was imparted. Each contribution focuses on one preacher and addresses one of four key questions: What role did the Holy Scriptures play in preaching? How were hagiographic texts interpreted in the sermon? How were Christian ethics taught in sermons? And how did dogma enter the sermon? Reflections on current research into preaching and on the role of Augustine for late antique preachers round off the individual studies. Since preaching is highly dependent on its local and historical contexts, the volume collects a variety of perspectives that offering a nuanced picture of the genre of preaching that has shaped Christian communication from Late Antiquity to the present day.
Table of contents:
Nicolás Anders, Peter Gemeinhardt, Lina Hantel: Introduction
Marius A. Van Willigen: Ambrose as Preacher -
Francesco Pieri: On the Psalms, on the Gospels, on the Liturgical Year. Jerome as a preacher in Bethlehem -
Christian Tornau: The interplay of polemics and didactics in Augustine's preaching on love (
In epistulam Iohannis ad Parthos tractatus decem ).
Dominic Keech: Merit, Matter, and Membership: Martyrs in the teaching of Gaudentius of Brescia -
Robert Edwards: The Illustrious Teachers of Rome: Learning from the Saints in the Sermons of Leo the Great.
Dorothee Schenk: The narrative Construction of Christian and Communal Identity in Zeno of Verona's
Tractatus - Clemens Weidmann: Quam dure et amare praedicavit episcopus! Remarks on the
Increpationes of Maximus of Turin
- Nicolás Anders: Communication between Ideal and Reality: Conveying Everyday Ethics in the
Sermones of Caesarius of Arles
- Bronwen Neil: Teaching Biblical Values of Community in the
Dialogues and
Gospel Homilies of Gregory the Great
Peter Gemeinhardt: Dogmatics for the Daily Life: Defining Orthodoxy and Fighting Heresy in the Sermons of Chromatius of Aquileia
- David Vopřada: Faith and Heresy in the Sermons attributed to Quodvultdeus of Carthage
- Lina Hantel: Passage through Hell: Preaching the Resurrection and Eternal Life with Peter Chrysologus
Geoffrey D. Dunn: How Influential was Augustine's Preaching in his Own Time?
- Johan Leemans: Methods and Approaches in the Study of (Latin) Patristic Sermons
