Open Call for Authors for a Handbook on Latin Patristic Sermons in Brill series A New History of the Sermon

Leuven, May 2013.

 

Open Call for Authors for a  Handbook on Latin Patristic Sermons in Brill series A New History of the Sermon.

 

To all who might be interested,

 

Patristic sermons have enjoyed a particular academic interest during the last decades. Several aspects of this genre have been explored through a variety of methodologies. More than a few conferences, articles, and monographs have been devoted to this topic. In collaboration with Brill’s series, A New History of the Sermon (http://www.brill.com/publications/new-history-sermon), the Research Departments of Latin Literature (Arts Faculty) and History of Church and Theology (Theology Faculty) of the University of Leuven (Belgium) will compose a handbook on Latin Preaching in the Patristic Era: Sermons, Preachers, Audiences (working title).

 

In this volume we would like to bring together an up-to-date state of the art of the study of the sermons of Latin Patristic authors. The intention of this handbook is to outline the available sources, the approaches and methodologies appropriate in handling them, the research issues that arise in the study of the sermons, and to offer an overview of how these issues have been dealt with, leaving room for disagreement. The aim of this volume is not so much to compile a new narrative history, but to provide a graduate-level synthesis of debate and the state of scholarship, with balanced and general accounts. The contributions should avoid being limited to an abstract-theoretical presentation. The authors are encouraged to illustrate their overview/analysis with concrete textual examples, and if possible to add a case study/case studies. The contributions are not primarily intended for specialists, but should explain and show through examples the discussed subject for non-specialist scholars. The purpose of the volume is to allow graduate students and scholars versed in one area of the study of sermons but interested in another to find here the tools to further develop their knowledge. A provisional table of contents is added below.

 

The scholars who have already agreed to write a contribution for this volume include Pauline Allen, François Dolbeau, Bronwen Neil, Maureen Tilley.

 

Contributions should be written in English [Brill insists that the English of the contributions be thoroughly checked before submission] and be limited to ca. 7.000  words (including footnotes). The deadline for the submission of manuscripts would be 1 June 2014.

 

You may find the table of contents, provisional instructions, and available topics (indicated with an asterisk *), here below. If you are interested in writing a contribution on one of these topics, we would like to invite you to contact us, and send us (before 1 July 2013) your CV and a short abstract of how precisely you would like to deal with the subject of the chapter of your choice (indicating also preliminary thoughts on a possible case study/possible case studies you would like to develop).

 

Please, do not hesitate to contact us in case you have any questions or suggestions.

 

If you are interested in participating in this project, please send an email to:

latinpatristicsermons@arts.kuleuven.be

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Dr. Anthony Dupont                                                              Prof. Dr. Gert Partoens

Dra. Shari Boodts                                                                   Prof. Dr. Johan Leemans

 

 

 

Latin Preaching in the Patristic Era: Sermons, Preachers, Audiences

Provisional table of contents and Preliminary Instructions

Introduction (by the editors)

Part I: Text, Context and History

1.      Manuscripts and transmission

2.      History of liturgy, sermons as a form of liturgy

3.      Exegetical study

4.      Visual Arts and Iconography

Part II: Sermons: Delivering, Listening and Reading

1.      Historical-critical approach of sermons

2.      Rhetorics – Style – Linguistics

3.      Impact – Influence – Identity

Part III: Latin Patristic Preachers

Each separate contribution (devoted to one specific patristic author, or to a specific group of authors), should treat (to a greater or lesser extent) each of the following parts:

1.      Sources and (history of the) corpus: where can we find these sermons today, what is their place within the oeuvre of the discussed author, do we have chronological information?

2.      How did the patristic author himself think about preaching in general and his own sermons in particular?

3.      What is the content, style, aim, target group of the sermons?

4.      Survey of the state of the art of the research into these sermons during the last decades. What is the importance of studying these sermons (in general and more specific in relation to the rest of the oeuvre of the specific author)?

5.      Pseudo-tradition: inauthentic sermons ascribed to the discussed author(s). (only when applicable)

6.      Concise bibliography

a.       Critical editions, translations, …

b.      Studies.

The authors of the volume are encouraged to illustrate their analysis with concrete textual examples.

Ambrosius

Augustine (+ ps.-tradition)

*Caesarius of Arles

Gregorius Magnus

*Jerome/Hiëronymus (+ ps.-tradition)

Leo Magnus

*Maximus of Turin (+ ps.-tradition)

Arian sermons (Maximinus)

*Petrus Chrysologus (+ ps.-tradition)

*Zeno, Chromatius, Gaudentius

Gallic preachers (Valerianus)

North-African preachers (Donatists)

Preaching in Spain (Priscillianus)

*Latin translations of Greek sermons

 

Epilogue (by the editors, or by an established protagonist in the study of (Latin) Patristic Sermons)