Preaching to the Whole Person: Classical Wisdom for the New Evangelization | Fr. Michael Dominic O'Connor, OP | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
St. Augustine was convinced the pagan rhetorical tradition had great insights to offer Christian preachers about the art of good preaching.
“Given the importance of the word of God, the quality of homilies needs to be improved.” 1 Pope Benedict XVI wrote these words in his 2007 Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis. The Holy Father then repeated this admonition in his 2010 Apostolic Exhortation, Verbum Domini, adding: “The art of good preaching…is an art that needs to be cultivated.” 2 This need is all the more pressing as the Church embraces the call and challenge of the New Evangelization. A renewed effort on the part of preachers—to improve the quality of homilies, and to cultivate the art of good preaching—must be central to the work of the New Evangelization. The question is: How is this to be done? How can the art of good preaching be learned and cultivated? This is an age-old question, and there are some age-old answers to this question which, I believe, can serve preachers very well in meeting the challenges of evangelization in our day.
St. Augustine is the Church’s foremost teacher in the classical art of Christian preaching, and it is to him that we will turn in order to learn something of the classical wisdom on preaching effectively. This master rhetorician, and former teacher of oratory, was convinced that the pagan rhetorical tradition, which was so important to the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome, had great insights to offer Christian preachers about the art of good preaching. 3 We shall explore Augustine’s appropriation of this classical wisdom—first, in his own theory of preaching, and then, in his actual practice—with the hope of discovering that the perennial wisdom contained in Augustine’s theory and practice of preaching can provide a firm foundation for the work of the New Evangelization.
Augustine’s Theory of Preaching
Augustine wrote a treatise on Christian oratory called: De doctrina christiana (On Christian Doctrine), applying what he had learned as a rhetorician to the task of preaching Christian doctrine. 4
His objectives in writing this work were simple: first, to teach
bishops (preachers) how to attain an understanding of the meaning of
scripture (Books 1-3); and second, to teach them how to communicate what
they have learned (Book 4). 5 His theory of preaching is laid out very clearly in the fourth book of this treatise.
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