Sermon

The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1877

A Reformed Christian minister preaching from a pulpit, 1968

Martin Luther Preaching to Faithful (1561)

In Christianity, a sermon is typically identified as an address or discourse delivered to a congregation of Christians, typically containing theological or moral instruction. The sermon by Christian orators was partly based on the tradition of public lectures by classical orators.[4] Although it is often called a homily, the original distinction between a sermon and a homily was that a sermon was delivered by a clergyman (licensed preacher) while a homily was read from a printed copy by a layman.[5] In the 20th century the distinction has become one of the sermon being likely to be longer, have more structure, and contain more theological content. Homilies are usually considered to be a type of sermon, usually narrative or biographical[6][7] (see § Types below).

The word sermon is used contemporarily to describe many famous moments in Christian (and Jewish) history. The most famous example is the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus of Nazareth. This address was given around 30 AD,[8] and is recounted in the Gospel of Matthew (5:1–7:29, including introductory and concluding material) as being delivered on a mount on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, near Capernaum. It is also contained in some of the other gospel narratives.

During the later history of Christianity, several figures became known for their addresses that later became regarded as sermons. Examples in the early church include Peter (see especially Acts 2:14b–36), Stephen (see Acts 7:1b–53), Tertullian and John Chrysostom. These addresses were used to spread Christianity across Europe and Asia Minor, and as such are not sermons in the modern sense, but evangelistic messages.

The sermon has been an important part of Christian services since early Christianity, and remains prominent in both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Lay preachers sometimes figure in these traditions of worship, for example the Methodist local preachers, but in general preaching has usually been a function of the clergy.[9] The Dominican Order is officially known as the Order of Preachers (Ordo Praedicatorum in Latin); friars of this order were trained to publicly preach in vernacular languages, and the order was created by Saint Dominic to preach to the Cathars of southern France in the early 13th century. The Franciscans are another important preaching order; Travelling preachers, usually friars, were an important feature of late medieval Catholicism. In 1448 the church authorities seated at Angers prohibited open-air preaching in France.[10] If a sermon is delivered during the Mass it comes after the Gospel is sung or read. If it is delivered by the priest or bishop that offers the Mass then he removes his maniple, and in some cases his chasuble, because the sermon is not part of the Mass. A bishop preaches his sermon wearing his mitre while seated whereas a priest, or on rare occasions a deacon, preaches standing and wearing his biretta.

In most denominations, modern preaching is kept below forty minutes, but historic preachers of all denominations could at times speak for several hours,[11] and use techniques of rhetoric and theatre that are today somewhat out of fashion in mainline churches.

During the Middle Ages, sermons inspired the beginnings of new religious institutes (e.g., Saint Dominic and Francis of Assisi). Pope Urban II began the First Crusade in November 1095 at the Council of Clermont, France, when he exhorted French knights to retake the Holy Land.

The academic study of sermons, the analysis and classification of their preparation, composition and delivery, is called homiletics.

A controversial issue that aroused strong feelings in early modern Britain was whether sermons should be read from a fully prepared text, or extemporized, perhaps from some notes.[12] Many sermons have been written down, collected and published; published sermons were a major and profitable literary form, and category of books in the book trade, from at least the Late Antique Church to about the late 19th century.[13] Many clergymen openly recycled large chunks of published sermons in their own preaching.[14] Such sermons include John Wesley's Forty-four Sermons, John Chrysostom's Homily on the Resurrection (preached every Easter in Orthodox churches) and Gregory Nazianzus' homily "On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ" (preached every Christmas in Orthodox churches). The 80 sermons in German of the Dominican Johannes Tauler (1300–1361) were read for centuries after his death. Martin Luther published his sermons (Hauspostille) on the Sunday lessons for the edification of readers. This tradition was continued by Chemnitz and Arndt and others into the following centuries—for example CH Spurgeon's stenographed sermons, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.[15] The widow of John Tillotson (1630–1694), Archbishop of Canterbury received £2,500 for the manuscripts of his sermons, a very large sum.

Khutbah (Arabic: خطبة) serves as the primary formal occasion for public preaching in the Islamic tradition. In societies or communities with (for example) low literacy rates, strong habits of communal worship, and/or limited mass-media, the preaching of sermons throughout networks of congregations can have important informative and prescriptive propaganda functions[29] for both civil[30] and religious authorities—which may regulate the manner, frequency, licensing, personnel and content of preaching accordingly.[31][32][33]

There are a number of different types of sermons, that differ both in their subject matter and by their intended audience, and accordingly not every preacher is equally well-versed in every type. The types of sermons are:

• Biographical sermons – tracing the story of a particular biblical character through a number of parts of the Bible.
• Evangelistic sermons (associated with the Greek word kerygma) – seeking to convert the hearers or bring them back to their previous faith through a recounting of the foundational story of the religion, in Christianity, the Good News.
• Expository preaching – exegesis, that is sermons that expound and explain a text to the congregation.[34]
• Historical sermons – which seek to portray a biblical story within its non-biblical historical perspective.[35]
• Hortatory sermons (associated with the Greek word didache) – exhort a return to living ethically, in Christianity a return to living on the basis of the gospel.
• Illuminative sermons, also known as proems (petihta) – which connect an apparently unrelated biblical verse or religious question with the current calendrical event or festival.[36]
• Liturgical sermons – sermons that explain the liturgy, why certain things are done during a service, such as why communion is offered and what it means.[37]
• Narrative sermons – which tell a story, often a parable, or a series of stories, to make a moral point.
• Redemptive-historical preaching – sermons that take into consideration the context of any given text within the broader history of salvation as recorded in the canon of the bible.
• Topical sermons – concerned with a particular subject of current concern;

Sermons can be both written and spoken out loud.

Sermons also differ in the amount of time and effort used to prepare them. Some are scripted while others are not.

With the advent of reception theory, researchers also became aware that how sermons are listened to affects their meaning as much as how they are delivered. The expectations of the congregation, their prior experience of listening to oral texts, their level of scriptural education, and the relative social positions—often reflected in the physical arrangement—of sermon-goers vis-a-vis the preacher are part of the meaning of the sermon.

Albert Raboteau describes a common style of Black preaching first developed in America in the early 19th century, and common throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries:

The preacher begins calmly, speaking in conversational, if oratorical and occasionally grandiloquent, prose; he then gradually begins to speak more rapidly, excitedly, and to chant his words and time to a regular beat; finally, he reaches an emotional peak in which the chanted speech becomes tonal and merges with the singing, clapping, and shouting of the congregation.[38]

In informal usage, the word sermon is used in secular terms, usually disapprovingly,[45] to refer to "a long talk in which someone advises other people how they should behave in order to be better people".[46]

Buddhism

• Dharma talk (Dhamma talk)
• Pariyatti
• Agga Maha Pandita

Christianity

• Expository preaching
• Extemporaneous preaching
• Popular Sermon of the Medieval Friar
• Preacher
• List of preachers
• Redemptive-historical preaching

Judaism

• Jewish ethics
• Jewish meditation
• Rabbinical literature
• Midrash
• Musar literature

Islam

• Nahj al Balagha
• Qur'an reading
• The Sermon for Necessities

• Francis, Keith A., Gibson, William, et al., The Oxford Handbook of the British Sermon 1689-1901, 2012 OUP, ISBN 0199583595, 9780199583591, google books

• Corran, Mary Cunningham and Pauline Allen, eds. Preacher and Audience: Studies in Early Christian Homiletics (A New History of the Sermon; Brill, 1998)
• d'Avray, David L. The preaching of the friars (Oxford University Press, 1985)
• DeBona, Guerric, OSB. Fulfilled in Our Hearing: History and Method of Christian Preaching (Paulist Press. 2005) on Catholic preaching
• Donavin, Georgiana, Cary J. Nederman, and Richard Utz, eds. Speculum Sermonis: Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Medieval Sermon. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007.
• Edwards, O. C., Jr. A History of Preaching. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2004. ISBN 0-687-03864-2
• Larsen, David L. The company of the preachers: A history of biblical preaching from the Old Testament to the modern era (Kregel Publications, 1998)
• Spencer, H. Leith. English Preaching in the Late Middle Ages (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993)
• Sullivan, Ceri, 'The Art of Listening in the Seventeenth Century', Modern Philology 104.1 (2006), pp. 34–71
• Willimon, William H. and Richard Lischer, eds. Concise Encyclopedia of Preaching. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995. ISBN 0-664-21942-X
• Szewczyk, Leszek. The Specific Content of Preaching the Word of God in a Secularized Environment. Bogoslovni vestnik 81, no. 3:721-732.

• The dictionary definition of preach at Wiktionary
• Quotations related to Sermon at Wikiquote
• Quotations related to Preaching at Wikiquote
• Media related to Sermons at Wikimedia Commons
• Gosse, Edmund William (1911). "Sermon" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). pp. 673–674.