Christian Homily Research Articles

Why Can’t Saint Victorinus of Poetovio Be the Author of the Homily “On the Ten Virgins”?

The early Christian homily «On the ten virgins» for over 100 years has been a controversial work, since no strong argument has been presented by any scholar in favor of who is its author. The first group of researchers (for example, A. Wilmart, M. Špelič, M. Veronese and P. K. Dobrotsvetov) believes that its author is St. Victorinus of Poetovio, the first Latin interpreter of Holy Scripture. The second group of researchers (for example, A. Wlosok, M. Dulaey, R. Gryson and N. A. Khandoga) ascribes it to Pseudo-Victorinus of Poetovio, an unknown Latin exegete of the Gospel of Matthew. Proceeding from this, the article makes an attempt at a theological and philological analysis of several quotes from the homily «On the ten virgins» and the original works of St. Victorinus of Poetovio — the treatise «On the creation of the world», the fragment «On the life of Christ» and the interpretation of «On Revelation» — in order to identify the author of the homily. Important points in the answer to the question in the title in the article, becomes сhristology, eschatology and symbolic arrhythmology, since there is not a single one of the original works of Victorinus of Poetovio in which they are not given appropriate attention. However, in the homily «On the ten virgins» these theological themes are not adequately addressed.

Pseudo-John Chrysostom’s Homily On Susanna (CPG 4567) (Daniel 13 LXX): Masculinity, psychic typology and the construction of early Christian salvation history

This article investigates a short Greek Christian homily, from the 4th century CE, by an anonymous Cappadocian preacher on the narrative of Susanna in Dan 13 LXX. The homily is simply titled, On Susanna (CPG 4567), and has been erroneously transmitted as a work of John Chrysostom. The purpose of this article is to examine more closely the construction of Susanna in the homily, with specific reference to the use of masculinity, psychic typology and finally, the construction of early Christian salvation history. After addressing, in brief, some matters of canonicity, a close reading of On Susanna is given. It is demonstrated that the Cappadocian strategically constructs Susanna like a virginal Christian martyr and ascetic, with the aim of highlighting her masculine steadfastness and dominance in her contest ( agōn ) against the elders. A significant second move that is made in the homily is to position the masculine Susanna as a type for the soul of the individual, which should also be guarded against the onslaught of sin and the passions. Contribution: This Christian reconstruction of Susanna brings the subjectivity of the individual listener in the audience, and the character of Susanna, in close proximity to one another. In effect, by internalising the narrative of Susanna into the realm of the soul, the anonymous Cappadocian preacher is able to utilise a layered biblical salvation history that incorporates not only narratives from the Bible, but also the audience member’s own individual narrative and struggles into the grander scheme of salvation history.

Agamben, John Chrysostom and Alternative Politics

Abstract This article presents an alternative use of The Church and the Kingdom, a homily that Giorgio Agamben addressed to the Bishop of Paris and high-ranked Church officials at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, in 2009. Taking advantage of the biblical and patristic sources of the homily, this article places the speech within the Christian tradition, treating it as if it was a Christian homily. It argues that the Church and the Kingdom lay the foundations for the new political comprising a dialectical tension between the State and the Church. The alternative politics of this new political is further developed by bringing together John Chrysostom, the philosopher Agamben and the theologian Stanley Hauerwas. This coming together leads to a politics of a life as strangers, sojourners and refugees.

“What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” Christian homilies, ancient myths, and the “Macedonian Renaissance”

A study of the extensive corpus of around 200 Greek homilies dating from the late ninth to the end of the tenth century has revealed a clear trend in Byzantine homiletics, which has practically escaped attention so far: references to Ancient Greek myths in the form of exempla occur in roughly one tenth of them. All of this material is presented in detail and analyzed in the article. Moreover, this paradoxical phenomenon of incorporating pagan material in religious works that were read out in church is accounted for by appealing to a number of factors, including the influence of Gregory of Nazianzus’ and Photius’ examples on the homilists involved, the flourishing of rhetoric in the era of the “revival of learning”, and the classicizing spirit of the “Macedonian renaissance”. While the use of myths did not imply acceptance of their ethics, a special fondness of erotic myths makes its appearance. The trend under discussion here emerges as a literary counterpart to classicism in the art of the tenth century.

Homilies and Horsemen: Revelation in the CW’s Supernatural

In recent years, religious-themed media about the end of the world offering interpretations of the Book of Revelation have become popular. On television, the CW’s Supernatural featured a storyline that involved a fight between Heaven and Hell, leading to an eventual Apocalypse. We examine how television’s depictions of religion in modern American culture serve as contemporary Christian homilies by exploring this program’s Apocalypse story arc, informed by Revelation 6:2-8. The depiction of a Christian-based story that never featured Christ nevertheless provided the audience with a message about life grounded in Biblical lessons, essentially serving the purpose of a homily that one might hear in a church on a Sunday morning. In addition to broadening our understanding of how homilies function in a mediated world, we discuss how this religious-themed television show has managed to stay on the air when so many others have failed.

Grégoire de Nysse et Julien l’Apostat. Polémique antipaïenne et identité chrétienne dans le Panégyrique de Théodore

The message conveyed by early Christian homilies served different purposes: didactic, parenetic, apologetic or polemic, to name just a few. This article shows that Gregory of Nyssa’s Panegyric on Theodore the Recruit (BHG 1760), delivered in 379/380, can be meaningfully interpreted as a polemical rejection of Julian the Apostate’s attempts to restore paganism in the early 360’s. After a general introduction on panegyrical sermons on martyrs (I) and a presentation of Gregory’s Panegyric on Theodore follows the argumentation which proceeds in three steps (II). Firstly, two elements of indirect proof are brought to the fore: a comparison with the Passion of Theodore (BHG 1761) indicates that the strong anti-pagan tendency in the sermon is due to Gregory himself and that it is a priori certainly reasonable to bring this in connection with Julian’s religious policy because many other patristic authors, some of them writing much later than Gregory of Nyssa, did the same (A). Secondly, it is shown how some passages in the homily, which contain a polemical rejection of paganism in its entirety, provide the foundation for the anti-Julianist polemic (B), which is then being analysed as the final step of the argument (C). In a final section it is explained how in these polemical passages the homilist did not only reject paganism and Julian’s policy but, in doing so, also strenghtened the Christian identity of his audience (III).

2 Clement and the Meaning of the Christian Homily

The Second Letter of Clement to the Corinthians is not a letter, does not claim to be by anyone named Clement, and probably has nothing to do with Corinth. What it is is a homily - almost certainly the earliest preserved Christian homily - which, precisely in its seeming mundaneness and ordinariness, bears witness to a conviction that the Gospel was meant to bring about a new and radical transformation at the very heart of ordinary, everyday lives.

From Prophecy to Preaching: A Search for the Origins of the Christian Homily (review)

From Prophecy to Preaching: A Search for the Origins of the Christian Homily (review)

Review: From Prophecy to Preaching. A Search for the Origins of the Christian Homily.

Review: From Prophecy to Preaching. A Search for the Origins of the Christian Homily.

Eberhard the German and the Labyrinth of Learning: Grammar, Poesy, Rhetoric, and Pedagogy in Laborintus

Abstract: Eberhard the German's Laborintus, the first of the artes poetriae to be printed, has received comparatively little scholarly attention. Both Kelly and Murphy have noticed that the work conveys a pedagogical emphasis. This essay, however, demonstrates that Laborintusis not merely a manual for teachers of verse. Rather, the work is a delightful maze of verse, grammar, and rhetoric, a labyrinth of learning containing an allegorical account of grammar,poesy, and rhetoric. On one level, the rhetorical figures are used as inventional schemes for the composition of verse in proper meter. However, the examples used in Eberhard's account of the rhetorical figures also contain Christian homilies on faith and action that are exemplary primers for teachers. The homilies in tum underscore Eberhard's pedagogical theory, which is ultimately the key to his labyrinth.

The Religious Principle in Beowulf

Reflective Englishmen of the seventh and eighth centuries, living under the transforming influence of classical and Christian ideas, must have satisfied a special need by revaluating their Germanic patrimony in terms of the new culture. In that process the Teutonic heritage naturally took on an added lustre wherever it lent itself to Christian interpretation. Beowulf more fully than any other English poem reflects that effort to assimilate and reappraise whereby the Germanic tradition from the Continent was ennobled by the new theology, as by a light flashed backward into the heroic past. Thus the career of the Danish king Heremod becomes an exemplum for a Christian homily on pride; Grendel, creature of northern fantasy, is placed in a Biblical lineage of evil reaching back to the first murder. The poet probably recognized, however, that his illumination of the past stopped short of perfect fusion of new and old, to say nothing of historical fidelity. Doubtless he was less disturbed than we are by vestiges of his pagan sources that lie awkwardly in the matrix of his Christian prepossessions. He had the advantage of knowing what he meant when, for example, he used terms of various and elastic connotation like wyrd. Also, if I am not mistaken, he saw his divergent materials in relation to a great central truth, an underlying principle which enabled him to recognize a larger unity in his fabulous tales than appears on the surface, and which made them in his eyes more worthy to survive in a reflective poem of epic magnitude.