This thesis Sermons of Jindřich from Vildštejn in Litomyšl deals with the preaching work of the cleric Jindřich of Vildštejn, which is preserved in the manuscript of the Bavarian State Library in Munich (BSB, Clm 14256). In order to describe and evaluate this handwritten collection, the author chooses only a small probe (three of the total of thirteen preachers), in which in various ways he shows the form, context and socio-communicative purpose of the late medieval sermon. These three sermons were held in Litomyšl (1376 and 1378). Two of them are Eucharistic sermons and one is funeral speech on the occasion of the funeral of Charles IV. At the beginning of the whole work, the reader is introduced with the life of the historical personality of Jindřich of Vildštejn who was a member of the Minority Order and who held several episcopal offices throughout his life. In the second part, the author presents a description and classification of selected preaching texts. The third part of the thesis is an interpretative study in which the author tries to elucidate the contemporary communication significance of one important phenomenon of medieval preaching manuscripts such as the abundant use of quotes from the Bible and the authorities. At the very end of the work, the critical edition of three sermons...

Jane Austen’s novels remain an essential component of the literary canon, but her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, is frequently neglected. However, in Sense and Sensibility is the genesis of Austen’s technique through which her major characters cultivate and reveal a strong inner life, demonstrated through the character of Elinor Dashwood. This technique is a characteristic she incorporates in each of her succeeding novels. Her approach to literature centers on the interiority of her characters and their ability to change, but it her first novel Austen takes a unique approach. Following the structure of an eighteenth-century sermon, Austen creates a sermon for lay people that centers on the cultivation of a strong interior life.

I have been for years now teaching homiletical theories and methods to students at World Mission University in Los Angeles, California. I have been aware of certain problems in the theory and practice of preaching prevailing in the Korean church. One of the most critical issues is that Korean preaching largely consists of the topical-deductive method. Another is that a hierarchical structure enforces the gap between the preacher and the congregation. The study explores, within the framework of the theologian Johannes van der Ven’s empirical-theological research program, text-guided preaching, based on the American homiletician Thomas G. Long’s theory that the sermon should regenerate the impact of the biblical text, in the context of the Korean church and its tradition of preaching. The study looks at the history and characteristics of Korean preaching (Chapter 2) and also at the emergence, characteristics, and styles of new American preaching (Chapter 3). The empirical component of the study deals with a case study involving a preaching workshop for theological students as an illustration of the reception by Korean preachers of the proposed theory for preaching (Chapter 5). My proposal is that text-guided preaching (described in Chapter 4) will benefit those Korean preachers and students willing a homiletical exploration. The basic premise of this model of preaching is that a text seeks to impact its reader; or, to use Paul Ricoeur’s words, confronts its readers with a particular world of understanding; or, from the standpoint of speech-act theory, performs multiple illocutionary acts. Text-guided preaching as it is presented in this study incorporates the notion of application, a notion introduced to hermeneutics by Hans-Georg Gadamer that says that understanding a text always aims at some practical application. Homiletically refined by H. J. C. Pieterse and C. J. A. Vos, it means that the preacher’s understanding of a biblical text is partly determined by the particular, historically contingent situation of the congregation. This study adopts an empirical-theological approach to practical theology. As a part of the theological induction phase of the empirical-theological cycle, a preaching workshop was conducted with eight student-participants. The case study produced some significant results. The clearest finding has to do with the task of interpreting the life situation of the congregation. It leads to the conclusion that theological education at World Mission University has to be modified to include trainings that would produce competent interpreters of the cultural context of Christian life. / Thesis (PhD (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Practical Theology / PhD / unrestricted

Current collective church services, where families in totality are coming together although the focus only falls on adults, do not address today’s post modern families. For this reason two tragic routes were began to be followed within the church: <ul> <ol><li>Parents with small children began to give up trying to pressure their children to attend services because they themselves realized that it was not working for them, and started to go to church without their children, while parents with teenagers allowed their teens to attend services of other churches where they felt that their needs were met. Parents who still tried to pressure their children into going to services with them, started to experience the tension surrounding that within their families as well as in themselves.</li> <li>Congregations started creating generative services where the different generations were served separately from each other, within the premise of specialized ministry on the level of each unique generation.</li> </ol></ul> The result of this was disastrous for families as well as the church in general. On the one hand family members were spiritually alienated from each other and covenant families were tore to pieces; on the other hand covenant families were alienated from their own Christian tradition and church foundation, while the role of parents as spiritual mentors of their children were minimilised. Because of this, more and more families began to plead for the addressing of their needs to be ministered to as a whole within the church service and to worship together, while covenant parents began to demand to be once again empowered as primary spiritual mentors of their children. Consequently the urgent need within the church had arisen for the implementation of family ministry, and especially family services, where families in totality can effectively be ministered to so that the needs of each family member will be met. Principles for such inter generative services, as well as sermons to post modern families within that context, is necessary to make such a cross generational ministry successful. Precisely this is the focus of this study. / Dissertation (MA (Research in Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Practical Theology / MA / unrestricted

Mgr. Andrea Svobodová Komplexní studium Rukopisu dzikovského se zam ením na grafickou, jazykovou a textovou analýzu eské sbírky kázání A Comprehensive Study of The Dzikowian Manuscript Focusing on a Graphic, Language and Textual Analysis of the Czech Postil Abstract The thesis submits a comprehensive philological analysis of the Dzikowian Manuscript, an insufficiently explored late medieval manuscript containing two postils, de tempore in Latin and de sanctis in Old Czech. The thesis aims to specify the place of this work in the context of medieval preaching, to critically review the previous research and to find new paths of research in evaluating this work. It is divided into three chapters, their common topic being attribution of both the postils on the grounds of codicological, content, and especially language features. Special emphasis is put on description of non-standard language phenomena, their interpretation being a key factor for transcription rules (one of the main results achieved apart from precising probable dating and localisation is a complete transcription of the Old Czech postil). The phenomena described enrich the existing inventory of deviations from the standard language and call for relating to other sources traditionally categorised as dialectal and thus for elaborating diachronic...

The purpose of this article is to reflect on homiletics and Christian preaching in the context of Latin America, in the current times of transition. In order to provide a better understanding of the approach, initially aspects of the Latin American religious and cultural context will be analyzed. Then there will be considerations on aspects of the development of Christian preaching, creating a space to think about the relationship between Christian preaching and theologies that are relevant to the context, such as liberation theology. Finally a few challenges to Christian preaching in times of transition will be pointed out. Due to the delimitation of the article, it will focus on the homiletic development of the historical Protestant churches on the continent, above all in the Brazilian context.

Este artigo tem por objetivo refletir sobre a homilética e a pregação cristã no contexto da América Latina, em tempos atuais de transição. Para tanto, afim de propiciar uma melhor compreensão da abordagem, analisar-se-á aspectos do contexto religioso e cultural latino-americano, num primeiro momento. Em seguida, refletir-se-á sobre aspectos do desenvolvimento da pregação cristã, dando espaço para pensar a relação entre a pregração cristã com teologias relevantes para o contexto, como a Teologia da Libertação, para, finalmente, apontar alguns desafios para a pregação cristã em tempos de transição. Devido a delimitação do artigo, o enfoque estará concentrado no desenvolvimento homilético das igrejas protestantes históricas do continente, sobretudo do contexto brasileiro.

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In this paper, a brief overview is given of two research projects that were done in South Africa during 1987 (a particularly difficult time under apartheid), and 1994 (the year that the first democratic elections took place), respectively. Some of the findings are discussed under the keywords: silence, transition, reservation, new vision. Reference is made to a historic sermon preached by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town only three days before the first democratic elections were held in South Africa on the 27th of April, 1994. The paper concludes with a reflection on an artwork by the South African artist, Willie Bester.

In this article, I present insights from an empirical study of a congregation which consists of a medley of refugees from the Middle East who have recently converted from Islam and ethnic Danes whose families have belonged to the Lutheran Church for generations. The empirical material is analyzed in light of Søren Kierkegaard’s category of repetition, in the sense of receiving anew, because this phenomenon appears crucial, not only to the genre of preaching but to preachers and listeners alike – especially, in times and situations of transition. I suggest that the Kierkegaardian notion of repetition may be useful as a homiletical category with regard of scholars’ method, preachers’ preparation and listeners’ appropriation of preaching.