Contextual Homiletic in the Patristic Age
The metaphor of SONG and homiletic
Contextual homiletic in patristic age
The metaphor of song and music turns up here and there, over several millennia, in the terminology of preaching. In the following essay I attempt to show through the metaphor of singing how Hungarian homiletics is related to the so called aesthetical homiletics, which appeared both at the beginning and the end of the 20th century in international theological discourses, the effects of which also reached Hungary, albeit to a limited extent.
Songs are popular topics in the Bible. We find several instances in the Old Testament where praising God was done using musical instruments, songs, and sometimes even with dances. These songs are confessions about the greatness and power of God (e.g. Moses, Miriam, David etc.), in other words demonstrating in a unified sense that contents and form, cognitive and affective parts are closely related in the sense of homiletics. Singing, as a form of preaching, still strongly tied to the Jewish heritage, is found also in the New Testament, especially in connection with the stories of the birth of Jesus. Mary and Zachariah praise the Lord with a song, as a response to the prophecy of the angel about the coming of the Messiah. On the sacred night of the birth, a choir of angels sing and glorify God.
In the patristic period, following the primeval church, the song, as metaphor, originates mainly from the mythic anthropological images of the pagan world. This had an important effect both in preaching and in the cultivation of apology. Later the Christian kerygma, effected by the entering of the Hellenistic world took on the form of eloquence, which defined through several centuries its mainly deductive understanding and explanatory system. After this we find »preaching in song« in the era of the reformation. Martin Luther, in particular, was the great master of this, able to interpret theological concepts by song. (Luther’s preaching by song is discussed in
Contextual homiletic in patristic age
The metaphor of song and music turns up here and there, over several millennia, in the terminology of preaching. In the following essay I attempt to show through the metaphor of singing how Hungarian homiletics is related to the so called aesthetical homiletics, which appeared both at the beginning and the end of the 20th century in international theological discourses, the effects of which also reached Hungary, albeit to a limited extent.
Songs are popular topics in the Bible. We find several instances in the Old Testament where praising God was done using musical instruments, songs, and sometimes even with dances. These songs are confessions about the greatness and power of God (e.g. Moses, Miriam, David etc.), in other words demonstrating in a unified sense that contents and form, cognitive and affective parts are closely related in the sense of homiletics. Singing, as a form of preaching, still strongly tied to the Jewish heritage, is found also in the New Testament, especially in connection with the stories of the birth of Jesus. Mary and Zachariah praise the Lord with a song, as a response to the prophecy of the angel about the coming of the Messiah. On the sacred night of the birth, a choir of angels sing and glorify God.
In the patristic period, following the primeval church, the song, as metaphor, originates mainly from the mythic anthropological images of the pagan world. This had an important effect both in preaching and in the cultivation of apology. Later the Christian kerygma, effected by the entering of the Hellenistic world took on the form of eloquence, which defined through several centuries its mainly deductive understanding and explanatory system. After this we find »preaching in song« in the era of the reformation. Martin Luther, in particular, was the great master of this, able to interpret theological concepts by song. (Luther’s preaching by song is discussed in