Study Of Sermons Research Articles

Achieving fidelity through self-translation: a case study of Friday sermons by Imam Mohammed Ewes

This study investigates whether fidelity was achieved in the self-translation of Friday sermons by imam Mohammed Ewes. Ewes is an Egyptian Muslim imam who immigrated to the United Kingdom in 1996. When writing this paper, he had been preaching at Al-Birr Mosque in London for 25 years. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, he is one of the few Muslim imams in the Islamic world to have self-translated and compiled his religious sermons into a single book. This study adopts the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach to analyze the data. We extracted the data from Ewes’s book Pulpit Sermons in Arabic and English, written in Arabic and self-translated into English by Ewes himself. Specifically, we selected eight sermons randomly from the book. We analyzed the data using Ajunwa’s (2015) approach to assessing fidelity in translation. The findings show that fidelity was not achieved in the self-translation because the self-translator did not produce a faithful and accurate translation. Therefore, the self-translation of Ewes’s Friday sermons cannot be regarded as a true translation but as a rewritten translation.

An Overview of the Effects and the Discussion of Sirah in the Sermons of Hazrat Imam Hassan (RA)

A lot of people have been mentioned in Quran and Allah Almighty has blessed them with the ability of Oration .The Quran has addressed such men as "the men of strength " and "men of vision ".These "men of vision " are known as Khulfa –e-Rashdeen. Hazrat Imam Hassan (RA) is the one to complete the series of Khulfa-e-Rashdeen.Like the Khulfa-e-Rashdeen Hazrat Imam Hassan (RA) guided the people through his sermons. These sermons contain guidance for self analysis. His sermons are a beacon and a ray of guidance for every individual of the human race. His sermons are a collection of discourses that were required by the circumstances but at the same time are a great and valuable treasure of Seerat-e-Taiba (SAW) discourses. The essence of his speech impressed many people. That is why the desired result of his speech came to light very soon. People accepted its effect and a reformed society was established. In this time, the study of sermons of Imam Hassan (RA) is also important because through these sermons the message of Prophet (SAW) may conveyed get to the people and a peaceful society may be established.

일제 강점기(1910-1944), 설교적 상황을 기반으로 한 설교 연구

코로나19 상황으로 인해 상황에 대한 설교학적 관심이 부상하고 있다. 코로나19의 상황으로 인해 회중들은 상황에 대한 성경적 해석을 설교자들에게 요청하고 있으며 설교자는 그 상황을 직시하고 그에 따른 해답을 제시해야 하는 과제를 안게 되었다. 따라서 설교적 상황을 기반으로 한 복음적 해석은 중요한 담론이 되어가고 있다. 본 논문은 일제 강점기라는 난세를 당시의 대표 설교자들이 어떻게 성경적으로 해석하여 설교에 반영하였는지와 이것을 위해 필요한 설교학적 과제가 무엇인지를 논한다. 이와 더불어 논자는 본 연구를 기존의 상황설교 연구와는 다르게 하나님의 초월성을 전제로 한 설교적 상황이해에 그 바탕을 둔다. 상황설교는 성경에 대한 필요를 상황의 해석을 위한 보조수단으로 보는 견해를 취하고 있기 때문이다. 시공간을 초월하시는 하나님의 초월적 말씀이 상황을 향해 선포될 때에 ‘설교적 상황을 기반으로 한 설교 연구’가 가능함을 밝힌다. 설교적 상황을 기반으로 한 설교학적 방법론 연구를 위해 일제 강점기의 정치·사회적 컨텍스트(Context) 기술을 선행하였고 당시 한국교회의 컨텍스트를 보충하여 설교적 상황의 이해도를 높였다. 이를 위해 논자는 설교적 상황에 대한 기본 이해를 바탕으로 성경본문과 시대상황의 관계에서 이해해보고자 노력하였으며 이를 위해 한국 대표 교단인 장로교, 감리교, 성결교의 설교자를 1인씩 택하여 장로교에서는 주기철 목사, 감리교에서는 김진호 목사, 성결교에서는 김기삼 목사의 설교를 표본으로 분석하였다. 설교적 상황을 기반으로 한 설교분석에 앞서 대표 설교자들의 설교 구성적 특징, 주제 사용 경향성, 성경본문 사용 경향성 분석을 선행하여 설교와 상황의 상관관계 연구의 객관성을 높이는 데 집중하였다. 본 논문은 설교적 상황에서의 설교 플랫폼(Platform)을 제시하기 위해 정치·사회적 상황을 기반으로 대표 설교자들의 설교가 어떠한 구성적 특성을 갖고 있는지를 분석하였다. 끝으로, 실용적 과제와 관련하여 도출해낸 결과를 통한 구체적인 플랫폼(Platform)을 제시한다.

Crusade Preaching and the Ideal Crusader by Miikka Tamminen

Reviewed by: Crusade Preaching and the Ideal Crusader by Miikka Tamminen James H. Kane Tamminen, Miikka, Crusade Preaching and the Ideal Crusader (Sermo: Studies on Patristic, Medieval, and Reformation Sermons and Preaching, 14), Turnhout, Brepols, 2018; hardback; pp. ix, 332; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503577258. The extant crusade model sermons of the thirteenth century have attracted increasing scholarly attention over the past few decades. A series of invaluable studies by historians such as Penny Cole, Christoph Maier, Nicole Bériou, Jessalynn Bird, and Alexis Charansonnet has made these fascinating texts more widely accessible and shed considerable light on their composition, dissemination, sources, rhetorical strategies, themes, and impact. This new book by Miikka Tamminen explicitly builds on the work of these scholars and explores how concepts of the ‘true’ or ideal crusader were constructed and promoted in the model sermons and preaching aids composed by a group of crusade preachers who had all either studied or taught at the University of Paris at some stage: Phillipe le Chancelier, Jacques de Vitry, Roger of Salisbury, Eudes de Châteauroux, Humbert de Romans, Federico Visconti, and Guibert de Tournai. Drawing on thirty-six texts summarized at the outset (pp. 24–43) and listed in five useful appendices for ease of reference (pp. 291–97), Tamminen offers nothing less than ‘a comprehensive study of crusade sermons […] where the focus is on the messages intended for those who have already taken the cross’ (p. 2). Although no single book could truly provide ‘a comprehensive study’ of such a rich corpus of sources, Tamminen’s analysis does illuminate the perspectives of [End Page 251] the crusade preachers in detail. Fortunately, that detail never comes at the expense of clarity. The structure of the book is simple, but logical: following the introduction (pp. 1–43), the remainder of the study functions as a kind of triptych, with each chapter tackling a specific set of themes and motifs deployed by the preachers in their idealized constructions of crusaders’ spiritual comportment and physical conduct. Chapter 2, ‘The Crusade and the Bible’ (pp. 45–89), is not only the least substantial chapter, but also arguably the least innovative, even though it does provide a thoughtful and concise analysis of the ways in which preachers used various biblical figures such as Joshua, Achor/Achan, the Maccabees, and the prostitute Rahab as examples of the kinds of behaviour that they should both adopt and avoid. Though undoubtedly interesting, the chapter’s final subsection on ‘Biblical Prophecy’ (pp. 74–89) does not engage thoroughly with previous scholarship on apocalypticism in the crusading context, and fails to explain clearly how the apocalyptic and prophetic material discussed aided preachers in constructing and instructing ‘true’ crusaders. Chapter 3, ‘The Crusader and God’ (pp. 90–201), on the other hand, is both very long (perhaps too long) and full of insightful observations. One of the most important of these is that the ideals, language, and imagery of the imitation of Christ (imitatio Christi), inextricably bound up with concepts of self-denial, rejection of the world (contemptus mundi), love for God, and the ready embrace of suffering, remained as prominent in thirteenth-century crusade ideology as they had been in the twelfth century (pp. 108–32). This chapter also aptly illustrates the preachers’ complex, nuanced, and by no means consistent views on crusading stigmata, indulgences, and martyrdom. Chapter 4, ‘The Crusader and the World’ (pp. 203–78), shifts the frame of reference and investigates how the preachers articulated the ideal crusader’s relationship with wealth, family, home, and society. As in Chapter 3, Tamminen further refines our understanding of thirteenth-century crusade ideology by demonstrating that, contrary to what some scholars have suggested, awareness and expressions of the fundamental link between crusade and pilgrimage persisted in this period and can be seen in many of the model sermons (pp. 239–50). Furthermore, Tamminen shows convincingly (and somewhat surprisingly) that not all preachers were hostile or opposed to the participation of women and children in crusading expeditions, as is especially clear in the case of Eudes de Châteauroux (pp. 262–69). For all its merits, Crusade Preaching and the Ideal Crusader suffers to some extent from...

La otra prédica: la huelga de la Universidad de París (1229-31) como 'escuela de guerra' del intelectual del sistema

A partir del estudio de sermones de miembros de la Iglesia, predicados durante la huelga de la Universidad de París (1229-31), se analizan las formas en que los distintos segmentos eclesiásticos intervinieron contra la corporación que buscaba su autonomía. Construyeron su prédica para interpelar al público escolar que no había abandonado la ciudad. Esto permite abordar, por un lado, los objetivos de la Iglesia para dominar la universidad y sus modelos educativos; por el otro, la reacción que desplegó frente a la corporación como contra los movimientos comunales, en un marco de conflictos que buscaban encuadrar los espacios urbanos en el feudalismo. Se caracteriza el rol de los estudios en el programa político de la Iglesia reformada para la creación de nuevos cuadros que encabezaron aquella regimentación, donde surgió un nuevo actor clave: las órdenes mendicantes. A partir del análisis crítico de la interpretación liberal de las revueltas, representada por José Luis Romero, se reflexiona sobre el lugar que ocupó la lucha de los escolares parisinos en el marco de los conflictos urbanos para pensar el rol de la Iglesia en el proceso de ampliación del poder feudal.

Nupcie facte sunt

The article provides a comparative study of sermons on thewedding at Cana (Second Sunday after Epiphany) from three Danishsermon collections by Peter Madsen (d. c. 1486), Christiern Pedersen(d. 1554), and Hans Tausen (d. 1561). The study draws upon methodologicaldevelopments within the field of sermon studies to show theimportance of a contextualizing, trans-reformation perspective: contextualizing,by referring to the context of the sermon collection in thestudy of the singular sermon and taking into account its purpose andcompilation; trans-reformation, by referring to a selection of materialfrom before and after the reformation in order to better understand thereception of tradition through its rejection, adaptation, and continuation.On this basis, the article argues that before and after the reformationthere was general agreement in the exegesis of the pericope, butgreat difference in how the text was used – a difference that may partlybe explained by a contextualization of the sermon.

Preaching and political debate on refugees

The article investigates how preaching relates to political debate on refugees through a study of sermons in Church of Norway in 2015/2016. The sermons are analysed in the context of the “refugee crisis” as it was mediated by national media and treated in public debate. The debate revolved around refugee politics, but included an exchange over the church’s role in the debate. The article investigates sermons as contributions to political debate on refugees and as negotiating the church’s role in political debate. A distinct finding is that most sermons collapse the historical distance to the biblical texts and employ them directly as instructions for moral and political action. The article identifies three homiletic strategies connected with three different ways of relating to public debate: A sentimental, a moralistic, and a heroic style of preaching.

John Calvin의 시편 설교 연구 : 장르적 특성을 반영한 시편 설교

John Calvin의 시편 설교 연구 : 장르적 특성을 반영한 시편 설교

Out of Context: Eckhart's Scriptural Excursions

Late medieval thought reveals some anxiety that friars’ preaching practice, whose force relies on super-textual flourishes and interpretative readings of scripture, is at risk of sacrificing too great a degree of Biblical and theological accuracy in rhetoric's favour. The Papal Bull ‘In agro dominico’ condemned Eckhart for ‘turn[ing] away from truth and follow[ing] fables’. Eckhart, however, by contrast argued that truths are only revealed when we seek ‘under the surface of the letter’. This paper is a study of the way Eckhart's sermons, taking Biblical verses as their starting point, range off into the deeps of his philosophy. Taking Sermon 10 as an example, this paper explores some of the excursive and discursive preaching strategies employed by Eckhart as speaker.

Jewish Preaching in Times of War (review)

Reviewed by: Jewish Preaching in Times of War Jack Riemer (bio) Jewish Preaching in Times of War, by Marc Saperstein. Oxford, England and Portland, OR: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2008. Marc Saperstein has virtually created a new field of Jewish studies: the scientific study of sermons. He has done major studies of medieval and modern sermons and now, in this—his latest volume—he studies what rabbis have said to their congregations during times of war in the last two hundred years. What should a rabbi say to his people when his country is at war? Should he follow the example of the kohen gadol in the book of Deuteronomy, who was told to rally the soldiers before they went off to war and tell them that God was on their side? Or should he follow the example of Jeremiah, who railed against entangling alliances and urged his people to stay neutral in the wars between their neighbors? Dr. Saperstein shows that the rabbis of the last two centuries have taken both approaches. In times of discouragement and confusion, some saw it as their task to appeal to their listeners to be patriotic, and some saw it as their task to warn their congregants against the moral sins that cause and that accompany wars. Some raised critical questions about government policies, and some inspired their listeners to sacrifice for a noble cause. Some articulated what their listeners already believed, and some challenged their listeners to see the war in a very different light. Some brought their communities a message of pride and confidence in their country; others brought to their audiences some harsh but valid truths that they believed needed to be heard. All spoke to specific congregations whose attitudes, affinities, values, and concerns were shaped by the community’s location and historical setting, as well as by the rabbi’s own background. Dr. Saperstein provides a close and careful introduction to these sermons, as well as explanatory footnotes. He explicates the texts, bringing forward allusions that the listeners of that time would have caught, but that may not be understood by a contemporary reader. He thus sets these sermons in their historical and cultural contexts. For example, he discusses a sermon by Sabato Morais, given during the Civil War. He notes, first of all, that it was given on July 4th in the American [End Page 75] calendar, corresponding to the 17th of Tammuz in the Jewish calendar. Which event had priority in the mind of the preacher: the anniversary of the sad day when the walls of Jerusalem were breached many centuries ago, or that of the joyous day when America was born? Morais referred to the Jewish date, and used it as a background for the discussion of the American date; he employed the grim mood evoked by that day in Jewish history to convey the sentiments that he felt when the fate of the Union hung in the balance. Saperstein points out that this sermon was given at the request of the Philadelphia Urban League, which tells us that non-Jews also cared about what a rabbi had to say on the issues of the day. We might not have expected this, given the small Jewish population in America at that time. Saperstein further points out something that we would otherwise not know: at the time the sermon was being delivered, the battle of Gettysburg was being waged just ninety miles away. It was only later that word reached Morais that the Union army had stood firm. In our age of instant communication, it is hard for us to imagine the uncertainty of the mood in the congregation to whom he spoke that day. And one more curious fact about this sermon: Morais said, “I am not indifferent to the fact, dear friends, to the event that four score and seven years ago brought to this new world light and joy.” Is it coincidence that Lincoln used the same elegant phrase—“four score and seven years ago”—to begin the Gettysburg Address, or is it possible that he may have read it in the Jewish Messenger? No one can say for sure, but it is...

A Corpus-based Lexical Study of Sermons in Nigeria

Religious sermons play a very significant role in a pluralist setting like Nigeria, as organs of social, political and moral education. The fulfilment of these functions is partly contingent on the effective use of language. If the sermon-giver and his audience draw from the same pool of lexis, communication in the genre will not only be enhanced but its teaching and practice will also align, thereby bridging the gap between the two. It is to this end that this study attempts to identify the words most associated with Christian sermons in English, in Nigeria. To carry out this study, a corpus of present-day sermons in Nigeria was constructed and compared to a reference corpus of sermons from other parts of the world, in order to find out those lexical items which are characteristic of sermons, whether in terms of types, frequency or usage. The study reveals the role of textual context to be the definition of thematic focus because, although the sermon words in the two contexts manifest high similarity, their degrees of significance in the contexts differ substantially. Additionally, the findings reveal diversity, both in lexical choice and the discourse structure of sermons. However, in both contexts, the sermons demonstrate similarity in semantic grouping. So, for the teacher of English for religious purposes (ERP) and the user of English in church contexts, this work offers insights into the lexical world of sermons in Nigeria.

Male Headship as Male Agency: An Alternative Understanding of a ‘Patriarchal’ African Pentecostal Discourse on Masculinity

In some Christian circles in Africa, male headship is a defining notion of masculinity. The central question in this article is how discourses on masculinity that affirm male headship can be understood. A review of recent scholarship on masculinities and religion shows that male headship is often interpreted in terms of male dominance. However, a case study of sermons in a Zambian Pentecostal church shows that discourse on male headship can be far more complex and can even contribute to a transformation of masculinities. The main argument is that a monolithic concept of patriarchy hinders a nuanced analysis of the meaning and function of male headship in local contexts. The suggestion is that in some contexts, male headship can be understood in terms of agency.

Male Headship as Male Agency: An Alternative Understanding of a ‘Patriarchal’ African Pentecostal Discourse on Masculinity

In some Christian circles in Africa, male headship is a defining notion of masculinity. The central question in this article is how discourses on masculinity that affirm male headship can be understood. A review of recent scholarship on masculinities and religion shows that male headship is often interpreted in terms of male dominance. However, a case study of sermons in a Zambian Pentecostal church shows that discourse on male headship can be far more complex and can even contribute to a transformation of masculinities. The main argument is that a monolithic concept of patriarchy hinders a nuanced analysis of the meaning and function of male headship in local contexts. The suggestion is that in some contexts male headship can be understood in terms of agency.

Holy Ambition: Rhetoric, Courtship, and Devotion in the Sermons of John Donne (review)

Reviewed by: Holy Ambition: Rhetoric, Courtship, and Devotion in the Sermons of John Donne P.G. Stanwood (bio) Brent Nelson. Holy Ambition: Rhetoric, Courtship, and Devotion in the Sermons of John Donne Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. xiv, 306. US $38.00 The juxtaposition of terms in the title (a phrase beloved by Donne) 'transforms our notions of both holiness and ambition,' writes Brent Nelson in a defining statement near the midpoint of his highly detailed rhetorical study of Donne's sermons. This simple noun phrase (a 'discordant conjunction') is a bridging term that extends the divine to the human and draws the human towards the divine, and, we are told, it reflects Donne's concern for courtship and hierarchy, which are fundamental to the rhetorical construction and development of his sermons. Nelson's densely written study considers the rhetorical occasions in which Donne applies his homiletic skill. We are carefully led towards an understanding of how any given sermon achieves its purpose. That end may be clarified by exploring 'courtship,' a universal force tending towards our discovery of authority and completeness. Donne is thus courting his auditory through the inevitable and forward unfolding of his sermons. In order to develop his argument, Nelson appeals to the rhetorical theories of Kenneth Burke, frequently citing his work and analogizing his ideas with the management of Donne's sermons. Nelson believes that Burke's understanding of 'the rhetoric of courtship' is very similar to Donne's own purpose and function in his sermons, and provides a significant means for illuminating them. Nelson's thesis is complex and unusual – perhaps unique. Although persistently developed, that thesis remains elusive; and for some readers, the Burkian underpinning of the book may seem tendentious and unhelpful. Donne, like most early modern preachers, was adapting classical epideictic oratory to his own homiletic purpose. The five stages in the construction of an oration, which Donne of course followed, were inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, and pronuntiatio et actio, with the opening exordium and the closing peroratio. Nelson particularly investigates 'Donne and Courtship as a topic of Inventio,' and 'Courtship and the Dispositio of Form' in the opening chapters and first half of his book, situating his study within Burke's theoretical paradigms, while setting the other oratorical stages to one side. They are not nearly, he supposes, so well or so easily discussed – yet I think we can infer much about Donne's presentation of his sermons from the written compositions that we have (one need only read them aloud). [End Page 409] The second half of Holy Ambition provides careful textual analysis of three sermons – a chapter devoted to each one, with detailed application of the theoretical principles previously elucidated. Nelson studies Donne's first extant sermon, of 30 April 1615 (on Isaiah 52:3, 'Ye have sold your selves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money'), which reveals especially well his inventio, his finding and amplifying available material. The final chapters take up one of Donne's favourite themes: death – for Donne a state that provides an abundance of rhetorical material suitable for many occasions. Donne visits death as 'a courtship topos, as a means of evoking conditions of "estrangement" that can be used to move his audience toward identification with God.' Accordingly, Nelson examines the Easter Sermon of 1619 (on Psalm 89:48, 'What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?'); and finally he explores the rhetorical treatment of death-as-courtship in 'Deaths Duell,' Donne's last sermon (on Psalm 68:20, 'And unto God the Lord belong the issues of death, i.e. from death'). Nelson writes persuasively in this final and climactic chapter of his book; he shows Donne's devotional ambitions for his auditory well, and 'the purifying effect of bringing [their] motives in line with a proper courtship.' This is a difficult, sometimes repetitive book, scrupulously documented and tediously allusive (no critic of Donne's prose remains unnamed). But Nelson certainly repays close attention, for he is approaching Donne in a way less common than from the usual cultural, political, or theological standpoints. His serious and thoughtful work is one of the first of...

Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England: Orthodox Preaching in the Age of Wyclif (review)

Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England: Orthodox Preaching in the Age of Wyclif. By Siegfried Wenzel. [Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2005. Pp. xxiv, 713. $170.00.) This impressive study is the culmination of more than forty years of Siegfried Wenzel's scholarly investigation of sermon manuscripts and, more generally, preaching in late medieval England. In it he sets out to build on, but also to modify the seminal works of G. R. Owst (Preaching in Medieval England and Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England) by identify[ing], describ[ing], and analyz[ing] surviving collections of Latin sermons that were produced in England between c. 1350 and c. 1450, the period that Owst himself had identified as the golden age of preaching in post-Conquest England. The need for such a study of Latin and orthodox sermons had long been recognized but had become more compelling as, ironically, the study of sermons in English from the same period, especially Wycliffite or Lollard sermons, had advanced significantly in recent years. Wenzel's study can be divided into several parts: First, he defines a variety of terms (model sermon collections, de tempore/de sanctis sermon cycles, etc.) and discusses issues (sermon structure, audience, occasion, etc.) that will be pertinent throughout the remainder of the volume. Those unfamiliar with sermon studies will find here a clear summary of basic information, while those knowledgeable in the field will appreciate Wenzel's careful discrimination in matters that can be all too easily generalized. Second, he surveys more than thirty manuscripts that contain collections of Latin sermons, providing technical information about each of the manuscripts (codicology, palaeography, provenance) and brief analyses of the principal features of the structure and content of the sermons. Included are discussions of the work of prominent figures such as bishops Richard FitzRalph, Thomas Brinton, and Philip Repingdon, less familiar individuals such as Robert Rypon, John Felton, and John Dygon, as well as anonymous sermons from monastic, mendicant, and parochial milieux. Wenzel offers detailed information, especially about the interrelationships of texts and manuscripts. In the course of this analysis, Wenzel calls attention to many issues that will be of interest to scholars of sermons. For example, the continued popularity of preachers from earlier periods (such as Jacobus de Voragine and Nicholas of Aquavilla) and the emergence of sermons that combine the exegetical strategy of the ancient homily with the structural principles of the scholastic (thematic) sermon. As an appendix to this survey, Wenzel has compiled an inventory of the basic information-theme, occasion, incipit/explicit, etc.-for all the sermons in these collections (more than 2000 total). The survey and appendix have been prepared with the thorough and meticulous scholarship for which Wenzel has long been admired-and to which a brief review can scarcely do justice. They will be invaluable for those studying the sermons and the network of manuscripts in which they are found, and will, no doubt, spark further scholarly inquiry. …

The Phenomenology of Religious Serpent Handling: A Rationale and Thematic Study of Extemporaneous Sermons

The ritual of religious serpent handling, among independent Holiness-Pentecostal groups of the southeastern United States, has been often construed by social scientific theories and popular media to be pathological and bizarre. Leaving aside such theoretical presuppositions regarding this practice, this study utilized phenomenological interpretation to analyze a collection of 18 extemporaneous sermons given by serpent handlers during the course of worship services. Interpretation of these transcribed sermons revealed that a pattern of five major themes described the meaning of the phenomenon of serpent handling from the perspective of the serpent handlers themselves. As an embodied event, the taking up of serpents within the context of sacred worship involved the experience of: (1) Being Moved upon by God, (2) a Life/Death Vitality, (3) an Us/Them Specialness, (4) a Power of True Knowing, and (5) Joy Unspeakable. The value of qualitative research in psychological investigations, especially of a first-person perspective, is suggested, and concerns for further research within this religious tradition are noted.

"Your Voice Like a Ram's Horn": Themes and Texts in Traditional Jewish Preaching (review)

Hebrew Studies 39 (1998) 264 Reviews concludes that both are significant strands within the complex of Hekhalot literature, which developed independently but were linked by a later redactor who understood their goals to be intimately related. Swartz's argument has important implications for the relationship of.ascent and adjuration in Merkabah mysticism, a topic addressed by Scholem (who considered ascent to be at the center of the movement) and other scholars. Scholastic Magic addresses the issues of memory, ritual, and purity by closely examining the Sar-Torah texts and by drawing on rabbinic and nonJewish material. Swartz's analysis of memory raises a number of intriguing issues, including the significance of food in the Sar-Torah texts and its relation to memory, a topic which he fleshes out with comparative examples from rabbinic and Muslim sources. His discussion of ritual and purity is also enlightening although the topic of women and their relation to impurity could have been examined in greater depth. Swartz provides an invaluable service to non-Hebrew readers by translating and critically commenting on the various Sar-Torah texts. His interpretations are lucid and well supported by Jewish and non-Jewish sources alike. Scholastic Magic is an indispensable work for those interested in the role of magic in Judaism and in early Jewish mysticism. Because of its clear writing, cross cultural references. and methodological awareness, it is also accessible to readers outside of Jewish studies with a background in history of religions. Nathaniel Deutsch Swarthmore College Swarthmore. PA 19081 ndeutsch@swarthmore.edu "YOUR VOICE LIKE A RAM'S HORN": THEMES AND TEXTS IN TRADITIONAL JEWISH PREACHING. By Marc Saperstein. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College 18. pp. xix + 522. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1992. Cloth. The study of Hebrew preaching has a long history. The first survey, by Leopold Zunz (Die goltesdienstlichen Vortriige der Jaden historisch entwickelt [Berlin, 1832]), dates back to the previous century and was followed by Israel Bettan's study (Studies in Jewish Preaching [Cincinnati. 1939]), in the beginning of the current century. Despite the significant chronological gap between them, both of these works are representative of older scholarship. More recently, major advances in the study of Jewish Hebrew Studies 39 (1998) 265 Reviews preaching have been made by such modem scholars as Joseph Dan (Sifrut Ha-Musar We-Ha-Derush [Jerusalem, 1975]), Mordechai Pachter (Sijrut Ha-Derush We-Ha-Musar shel Hakhmei Sefat Be-Me'ah Ha-Tet-Zayin UMa 'arekhet Ra'ayonoteha Ha-'/qariyyim [Ph.D. thesis, Hebrew University Jerusalem, 1976]), and Jacob Elbaum (Peti/.zut We-Histagrut: Ha-Ye$irah Ha-RuI;zanit Ha-Sifrutit Be-Polin U-Be-Ar$ot Ashkenaz Be-Shalhei HaMe 'ah Ha-Shesh 'Esreh [Jerusalem, 1990]). However, the leading modem scholar of Hebrew preaching is the author of the present volume, Marc Saperstein. Saperstein's studies of Jewish preaching, in his previous book (Jewish Preaching 1200-1800 [New Haven, 1989]) as well as in his numerous articles and the current volume, are devoted exclusively to the study of Hebrew sermons, beginning with the Middle Ages. In all of these works, Saperstein studies Jewish preaching from varied perspectives: historical, literary, and philosophical. He compares Jewish sermons with their Christian counterparts and notes features both common and unique to the two types of sermons. To a certain extent the present volume continues the previous one. However, while the previous volume is devoted to Hebrew preaching in general, the present volume limits itself to specific issues as it deals with two types of sermons: penitential sermons and sermons preached on the High Holidays, which bear a hortatory character; and eulogies. Sermons of the first category are general in nature, as they deal with transgressions of all sorts; only rarely do they discuss a particular sin or relate to a specific place or occasion. By contrast, eulogies deal with a specific person whom the preacher felt himself bound to eulogize, whether out of a sense of personal obligation, due to personal acquaintance or out of professional obligation, as when the preacher served as a rabbi and communal leader. The present volume includes both articles published previously in assorted scholarly journals and new material, which links the earlier studies into a...

The preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the word that moved America

It is a commonplace that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a spellbinding orator, and it is evident that he honed these skills in the pulpit, in his capacity as a Baptist minister. Until now, however, there has been no full-scale study of King as a preacher. This long-awaited study, drawing tape-recordings and transcriptions of unpublished sermons, and interviews with King's parishioners and colleagues, promises to remedy that lack. Preaching to congregations was never something King had on the side, or dabbled in when he wasn't busy being a rights activist, Lischer shows. Not only was preaching integral to King's identity, but the material of his Sunday morning sermons found its way into his mass-meeting speeches and civil addresses. When King spoke in civil settings, he transposed the Judeo-Christian themes of love, suffering, deliverance, and reconciliation from the shelter of the pulpit into the arena of public policy and behaviour. King's religiously informed rhetoric, argues Lischer, helped create a fragile and temporary consensus among white and black Americans and contributed to legislation that has changed the fabric of daily life in this country. King's Sunday morning sermons were far from identical with his civil addresses, however, and, in Lischer's view, the more intimate, unpublished private sermons necessarily tell us far more about what King really believed about his God and the ills of the nation - from issues of personal morality to the massive problems of racism and war. The Preacher King thus opens a new window the heart and mind of one of the great figures of 20th-century American history, and the well-spring of his greatness.

Jewish Preaching, 1200-1800: An Anthology (review)

Volume 9, No.2 Winter 1991 85 close reading of details in the tradition and its artifacts. Theory is needed to ground the innovations in liturgy and ritual that feminism has produced. Where can feminists comfortably stand on questions of subjectivity and language , on ideas of body and soul, on the rule-governed nature of the games that we play for mortal stakes? What are the competing theories of Judaism and feminism that are implicity in the varieties of feminist Judaism? Does Plaskow's adoption of the conventional categories of Judaism (Torah, Israel, God, etc.) bind one to a patriarchal system of classification? Perhaps a feminist Judaism might borrow and develop alternative feminist categories: Anger, Tears, Body, Laughter. (I am thinking of the first Matriarch eavesdropping on angels, explicitly conscious of her bodily processes, laughing at God, and assuming the divine prerogative of naming by bequeathing laughter to her descendants through Isaac's name.) In the meantime, Plaskow has given us an indispensable book, culminating years of Jewish feminist inquiry and learning. Because I think that it will be an important resource, I was frustrated by the absence of a bibliography and spent much time scanning backwards in the thorough and engaging annotations. The index too is inadequate, and I hope that future editions will, therefore, append a complete source list. Lori Lefkovitz Department of English Kenyon College Jewish Preaching, 1200-1800: An Anthology, by Marc Saperstein. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. 470 pp. $45.00. Professor Saperstein has produced a scholarly masterpiece and an intellectual tour de force that must be read by anybody with a serious interest in Jewish studies or the art of preaching. His introduction, virtually a monograph itself, is an overview of the genre and the relationship between the study of sermons and Jewish history. The main part of the book consists of sixteen medieval and early-modern sermons that Saperstein selected, edited, translated, introduced, and annotated. The final section, "Sources for the History and Theory of Jewish Preaching," contains comments on preaching by eighteen Jewish preachers during the period under consideration. The book also contains excellent bibliographies of Jewish sermons, both printed and in manuscript, secondary works on Jewish preaching, important literature on Christian preaching, a guide to all scriptural and rabbinic passages cited in the book, and a detailed, but not exhaustive, index. 86 SHOFAR To appreciate the importance of Jewish Preaching, it must be realized that the written versions of Jewish sermons preached during the period 1200-1800 are not a very accessible genre. Indeed the hundreds of extant medieval and early modern collections of sermons have not received adequate attention. Very few have been published at all, let alone in critical editions, and they certainly have not been used regularly as historical documents. Saperstein is painfully aware that the texts that he has so carefully studied usually do not represent what was actually preached, since they were edited and translated from the vernacular to Hebrew by the preacher or an amanuensis . Moreover, the published Hebrew versions of these sermons rarely identify sources and, as Saperstein showed, often omit major sections of the manuscript original. Furthermore, the texts move rapidly between many levels of discourse with very few obvious signs of transition or organization. Therefore, Saperstein's notes are one of the most important features of Jewish Preaching. They indicate structural elements, point out transitions, identify sources, show what was common and what was unique, trace significant differences in manuscripts, compare passages with interpretations offered by other commentators and preachers, provide valuable thematic crossreferences unavailable elsewhere, mention specific contemporary events, and criticize previous scholarly views on certain passages. Saperstein's most significant contribution is showing the many levels of textuality in each sermon and identifying the numerous literary associations that each author took for granted because they came naturally to many in his audience, for a major aspect of the sermons for them was often what modern readers would notice least: clever reworkings of biblical and rabbinic texts with subtle allusions to contemporary events. In his introduction Saperstein argued that sermons could serve as a mirror of contemporary events, but often do not. However, more important than being a repository for...

Ambrosius Spiera: A Fifteenth-Century Italian Preacher and Scholar

Our attempts to piece together the mosaic of ideas and events during the late medieval period have been enriched in recent years by the increased attention given to the study of sermons. Sentence commentaries, summae and tracts are the bedrock for the study of medieval theology, but we also wish to know what was being preached.