> Date sent: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 11:14:33 +1200
> To: [log in to unmask]
> From: Marcus Johns <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: sermons and homilies
> Send reply to: [log in to unmask]
> Could someone out there define for me the difference between a
> sermon and a homily? I know that homilies were based on traditional
> liturgical sources and usually tied to a particular day of the liturgical
> calendar but so to were the majority of fourteenth century sermons so what
> exactly is the difference?
> Cheers,
> Marcus.
>
>
Dear Marcus,
There have been some answers to your question already, but
nevertheless, I'd like to add something.
During the Middle Ages there were two main types of preaching (which
can be roughly dated like suggested in De ore Domini). The homily is
merely a commentary of the days gospel or epistle pericope. It
explains in simple terms what is actually said in the scripture and
what it is suppose to teach for the audience. The matter of
presentation is normally strictly following the text, i.e. from the
beginning to the end of the pericope.
Sermon or sermo moderna as it was then known takes a small part of
the pericope and uses it as a theme (thema). Then the chosen theme
is divided to different parts which are handled in the actual
presentation (most commonly to three parts). Then each of these
parts is meticulously analysed and commented. Opinions of the
preacher are confirmed with logical rationes, similitudines,
auctoritates or exempla.
Thus the main difference is, as indeed said already by others, the
approach to the pericope, which in sermon is very much more
sophisticated. I wouldn't, however, draw straight chronological line
between the usage of homily and sermon, since the old homily style
lived on as an alternative way of preaching till' the end of the
Middle Ages, and further.
All having said I need to remind you that this is highly simplified
description of the both types. The book to read more is:
Th. M. Charland, Artes praedicandi, contribution a l'histoire de la
rhetorique au moyen age. Paris - Ottawa 1936.
Cheers,
Jussi Hanska>
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