Preachers and People in the Reformations and Early Modern Period (review)

Abstract

Early Modern European Preachers and People in Reformations and Early Modern Period. Edited by Larissa Taylor. [A New History of Sermon, 2.1 (Leiden: Brill. 2001. Pp. xviii. 397. $127.00.) Following her two excellent studies on preaching in France in Reformation, Larissa Taylor now brings together a valuable collection of essays by scholars of homiletics, each canvassing his or her familiar territory in era of Europe's reformations, ca. 1450-1700.This work offers insight into industry and mechanics of preaching and a useful review of current scholarship on subject. Most important, Taylor's cohort conveys a vivid sense of preaching's social contexts and how crucial preaching was in stimulating religious, political, and social change. Collectively these essays demonstrate impact preaching had in an era when, in Anne T. Thayer' s words, Preaching matters (p. 384). Entering Reformation through printed words of preachers is fraught with dangers. Nonetheless, these authors make an impressive entry and produce a credible composite study. To begin, they remind us that we have few printed or manuscript sermons we can rely on for preachers' ipsissima verba; and even if they were what was actually spoken, we then confront knottier problems of how audiences received these words and how to measure a sermon's impact on individuals or large assemblies. Nonetheless, these essays bring much light to this most important activity and provide useful approaches for exploiting riches of sermon literature. Part I consists of three essays on Sermon as Genre. Of importance is evolution of preaching from medieval thematic sermon to new forms inspired by classical, patristic, and humanist theory and practice. New sixteenthcentury handbooks on preaching from Erasmus, Melanchthon, Hyperius (Andreas Gerhard), Italian and Spanish humanist-trained clergy, recast sermon, directing that it be scriptural, persuasive, instructive, and aim for reform of Christian life. Authors of preaching manuals were also keen on exploiting ideas from contemporaries, even across confessional lines. If persuasion mattered, tools for effective speech might also be found in works of one's opponents. Thomas Worcester looks at some types of Catholic preaching before Council of Trent, and finds great variety and hybridization in genres and diversified sermon content of post-Tridentine Catholic preaching. He focuses on Jean-Pierre Camus, bishop of Belley, as one of many bishops who embraced Trent's declaration that the chief duty of bishops was preaching. Beth Kreitzer sees sermon as perhaps most significant genre of literature stemming from Lutheran Reformation. Treatises on preaching, postils, and other preaching materials all emphasized that preaching should be scriptural and teach the true faith and Christian way of life (p. …