The Art of Preaching: A Theological and Practical Primer by Daniel Cardó

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Art of Preaching: A Theological and Practical Primer by Daniel Cardó Andrew R. Wadsworth Daniel Cardó The Art of Preaching: A Theological and Practical Primer Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2021 224 pages. Paperback. $34.95. The request to review this book happily reached me just a few days after I had realized that I would be teaching a homiletics course for a member of my own community who was preparing for ordination. Having already decided that I would base this course on the 2015 Homiletic Directory of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, my comments in appraising Daniel Cardó's book here are somewhat based on a "conversation" between those two texts. My first observation would be that this is no dry manual of homiletics, or a theological treatise about the place of preaching in the life of the Church. It is, as the title suggests, a thoughtful consideration of the ars praedicandi, and how it might be acquired. It is also, importantly, a serious attempt to establish objective criteria for preaching. Although the study is well resourced, it is obviously also the fruit of the life and ministry of a preacher, and in reading it we are immediately aware of the importance of preaching for the author, who draws extensively both on his personal experience as a homilist (particularly in the parish of Holy Name in Englewood, CO), and his time teaching homiletics at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver. There is no substitute for this sort of validation through personal identification, as it ultimately reassures the reader that the author knows his subject "from the inside" and is offering observations tried and tested through experience. The book opens with a consideration of the fundamental question: Why preach? Living, as we all do, in a world of sound bites and short video clips, preaching can be considered a somewhat daunting mode of communication, relying often on the ability to follow an abstract train of thought without the support of a visual image. Preaching belongs to the age of storytelling, and presents considerable challenges for both the contemporary [End Page 216] preacher and the listener. Father Cardó does not shy away from this challenge, engaging with it directly, and offering in his introduction some sociological insights that prepare the preacher for his task, and remind us all that preaching is intended to engage both the heart and the mind. The book is helpfully structured in two parts: the first considers "Foundations of Preaching" and outlines a theology of preaching alongside useful strategies for what does and does not work; the second part is given over to an anthology of preaching in the form of "A Homiletics Reader." Part One is, in essence, an expanded presentation of the content of the first part of the Homiletic Directory, in its consideration of the homily, its liturgical setting, the structure and content of the homily, and its preparation. Importantly, Father Cardó does not exclusively focus here on the preacher alone, but highlights the importance of developing communicative strategies for preaching which really engage the congregation, and are characteristic of "An Incarnational Approach" (I:4). There is a useful survey of congregational responses to preaching in the form of "Advice from the Pews" (I:5), and good practical advice for getting the job done in "The Delivery" (I:7), which can, and should help a preacher hone his art. There is much that is helpful here, even for the seasoned homilist. There is also something encouraging in reading such a thoughtful treatment of what is ultimately a potentially difficult topic. The anthology, which forms Part Two, consists of a selection of patristic and later examples of preaching, adding to texts from Saints Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, John Chrysostom, Leo the Great, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, and Charles Borromeo, the likes of Bossuet, Newman, Knox, Saints Paul VI and John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis. Although I greatly enjoyed this selection of homilies, I did wonder whether the lapidary character of some of their formulations was rather beyond the sort of homilies most of us preach and hear at Sunday...