Homilies

An Introduction to the Homily is not another "how to" book but a work that leads to a practical understanding of what the homily is and what it is supposed to do. Its purpose is to demonstrate how new homiletic scholarship from the various Christian churches, the insights found in normative church documents, contemporary theological, liturgical, and biblical studies, plus the lived experiences of preachers and people can help us understand the function of the homily in the liturgical tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. It is a source book for preachers and liturgical leaders who seek a firm foundation in liturgical preaching.

The Vercelli Book is one of the oldest surviving collections of Old English homilies and poems, compiled in England in the tenth century. Preaching the Converted provides a sustained literary analysis of the book's prose homilies and demonstrates that they employ rhetorical techniques commonly associated with vernacular verse. The study argues that the dazzling textual complexity of these homilies rivals the most accomplished examples of Old English poetry. Highlighting the use of word play, verbal and structural repetition, elaborate catalogues, and figurative language, Samantha Zacher's study of the Vercelli Book fills a gap in the history of English preaching by foregrounding the significance of these prose homilies as an intermediary form. Also analyzing the Latin and vernacular sources behind the Vercelli texts to reveal the theological and formal interests informing the collection as a whole, Preaching the Converted is a rigorous examination of Old English homiletic rhetoric and poetics.

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Essays on the largest body of prose work in Old English, by Stafford, Gatch, Smetana, Goddin, HuppéLetson, Nichols, Tandy, Jurovics, Dalbey, Szarmach.