As far as Italy is concerned, several
collections of sermons of the IVth and Vth
centuries have been kept. Among them, the sermons of Zeno of Verona,
Gaudentius of Brescia, Chromatius of Aquileia, Maximus of Turin,
Peter Chrysologus (for Ambrose of Milan, Explanationes in XII
palmos and De sacramentis are concerned) provide a
consistent and coherent set of a geographically and culturally
bounded area. The paper shall consider the role of sermons over the
period from the 360s to the 450s in Northern Italy in a twofold
perspective. It is actually about understanding the extent to which
preaching, as a major driver of faith, served as a means of unifying
and spreading the ecclesia. It is also about analyzing how
preaching was also used to categorize individuals according to their
degree of spiritual advancement by creating some boundaries inside
the community. Becoming Christian in Late Antiquity implied to follow
a spiritual progression which could be enlighted by the study of
preaching. As rallying as splitting point, the sermon established the
place of the faithful in Church. From a liturgical point of view, I
will focus then on the lectures that were marked out for some of
these status, especially catechumeni, competentes,
neophyti (for example, the lifes of the Patriarchs were read
to the competentes in Milan), and on the exegetical discourse,
spiritual or moral, that was related to these lectures. Such an
analysis on sermons must also include a sociological approach.
Therefore, it will highlight the variety and composition of
audiences: was it really a selection that came to worship (MacMullen
1989) ? Did that make a difference preaching in a small town or
in an imperial capital ? Finally, the interactions between preachers
and audiences (adresses, questions etc.) will be analyzed from
a pastoral point view. The whole approach should help to understand
how the process of becoming Christian was anchored in a pedagogy of
faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment