Preaching and Popular Christianity

Abstract

The vast homiletic corpus of John Chrysostom has received renewed attention in recent years as a source for the wider cultural and historical context within which his sermons were preached. Scholars have demonstrated the excitin potential his sermons have to shed light on aspects of daily life, popular attitudes and practices of lay piety. In short, Chrysostom’s sermons have been recognised as a valuable source for the study of ’popular Christianity’ at the end of the fourth century. This study, however, questions the validity of some recent conclusions. A narrative has been developed in which Chrysostom is often seen as at odds with the congregations to whom he preached. On this view, the Christianity of élites such as Chrysostom had made little inroads into popular thought beyond the fairly superficial, and congregations were still living with older, more culturally traditional views about religious beliefs which preachers were doing their utmost to overcome. This study argues that such a portrayal is based on a misreading of Chrysostom’s sermons and fails to explain satisfactorily the apparent popularity that Chrysostom enjoyed as a preacher. What this study sets out to do, therefore, is to reassess how we read Chrysostom’s sermons, with a particular focus on the stern language which permeated his preaching, and on which the image of the contrary congregation is largely based. In doing this, we recover a neglected portrayal of Chrysostom as a pastor and of preaching as a pastoral and liturgical activity, and it becomes clear that his use of critical language says more about how he understood his role as preacher than about the nature of popular Christianity in late-antique society. There thus emerges a very different picture of late–antique Christianity, in which Chrysostom’s congregations are rather more willing to listen and learn from their preacher than is often assumed.