Forty Gospel Homilies

In these 40 sermons on the Gospel, Gregory the Great can be seen as both pastor and preacher. He pays attention to the historical details of Scripture, seeks out its moral application to daily Christian life, and through it reflects on the hidden reality of God. He believed that the Christian study of the Scripture entailed a personal engagement with mystery and openness to transformation, as an attempt to achieve individual perception of the divine while one is still bound by earthly and bodily ties.

At the dividing line between Antiquity and the Middle Ages, scholar-diplomat-pastor-writer-pope Gregory the Great drew on his profound knowledge of Scripture and his personal experience to preach the Gospel. These forty homilies show the practical concerns Gregory faced as well as the theological expectations he had of his flock.

Gregory the Great (c. 560-604 C.E.) occupies a key position in the development of Christian commentary on the Scriptures. Pope and political leader during a chaotic era of transition in the history of Western Europe, he may be best known for his famous encounter with English children in the Roman slave market and his commissioning of St. Augustine of Canterbury's subsequent mission to England. Gregory's "Homilies on the Gospels" were first preached in 591-92, early in his papacy, and were very popular for their vigorous and engaging style. Using simple words to preach to the nobles and common people of Rome, Gregory employs metaphors, analogies, stories and images to answer basic questions of faith. His exegetical interpretation may often seem simplistic to the modern reader, but shows his dependence on earlier patristic tradition and reveals his pastoral heart. -- Book cover.

Augustine's homilies on the Gospel of John are masterpieces not only of theological profundity but also of pastoral engagement. This volume also includes the index for Homilies on the Gospel of John (1-40). Few ancient Christian authors attempted anything like a complete commentary on the Gospel of John, among them Origen, John Chrysostom and Augustine. Of these, Augustine's must count as the greatest. Unlike Origen's, it has come down to us in its entirety, and of the others that remain it is certainly the most theologically profound. John's gospel allows Augustine to range broadly over themes that were his life’s work —the Trinity, the person of Christ, the nature of the Church and its sacraments, the fulfillment of the divine plan. The 124 homilies that constitute Augustine's commentary, however, are masterpieces not only of theological profundity but also of pastoral engagement. In the question-and-answer style that he frequently employs, for example, one can sense Augustine's real awareness of his congregation's struggles with the gospel text. And the congregation's response to Augustine, which he frequently alludes to, is an indication of the success of his dialogical preaching style. The Johannine literature drew out the best in Augustine. The Homilies on the Gospel of John are the indispensable complement to The Homilies on The First Epistle of John, published in this series, and they should be a part of any serious theological library.

In Hildegard of Bingen, Gospel Interpreter, Beverly Mayne Kienzle presents and acquaints readers with Hildegard’s fifty-eight Homilies on the Gospels―a dazzling summa of her theology and the culmination of her visionary insight and scriptural knowledge. Part one probes how a twelfth-century woman became the only known female Gospel interpreter of the Middle Ages. It includes an examination of Hildegard’s epistemology―how she received her basic theological education and how she extended her knowledge through divine revelations and intellectual exchange with her monastic network. Part two expounds on several of Hildegard’s homilies, elucidating the theological brilliance that emanates from the creative exegesis she shapes to develop profound, interweaving themes. Hildegard eschewed the linear, repetitive explanations of her predecessors and created an organically coherent body of thought, rich with interconnected spiritual symbols. Part three deals with the wide-ranging reception of Hildegard’s works and her inspiring legacy, extending from theology to medicine. Her prophetic voice resounds in the morally urgent areas of creation theology and the corruption of church and political leadership. Hildegard decries human disregard for the earth and its lust for power. Instead, she advocates the unifying capacity of nature, “viridity,” that fosters the interconnectedness of all creation.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098 '1179) describes the virtue of Fortitude teaching the other virtues in the fire of the Holy Spirit. Like Fortitude, Hildegard was enkindled by the Holy Spirit and edified many with her teaching. Hildegard of Bingen's Homilies on the Gospels are here translated for the first time from Latin into English. Hildegard's sisters recorded and preserved her informal preaching in this collection of homilies on twenty-seven gospel pericopes. As teacher and superior to her sisters, Hildegard probably spoke to them in the chapter house, with the scriptural text either before her or recited from memory, according to Benedictine liturgical practice. The Homilies on the Gospels prove essential for comprehending the coherent theological Vision that Hildegard constructs throughout her works, including the themes of salvation history, the drama of the individual soul, the struggle of virtues against vices, and the life-giving and animating force of greenness (uiriditas). Moreover, the Homilies on the Gospels establish Hildegard as the only known female systematic exegete of the Middle Ages.