The Art of Preaching in the Light of Its History
by Edwin Charles Dargan

My Professor of Homiletics in the Southern Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. Author of “a History of Preaching ” Etc. the Holland Lectures Given At the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas, October, 1921.

New York
George H. Doran Company
Copyright, 1922,

by Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention Printed in the United States of America

In this 8 chapter work by Dargan (Baptist, Bible Professor), he presents an overview of preaching, from biblical and classical bases, to the origin and art of preaching, to some historical tracing through the middle ages and the through the revivals of the fifteenth and sixteen centuries. He also deals with the theory of preaching as well as Homiletics in Europe and America.

Contents

 

I. Biblical and Classical Bases of Preaching as an Art 13

II. The Origin and Early Development of an Art or Theory of Preaching 42

III. Instruction in the Art of Preaching During the Middle Ages 67

IV. The Art of Preaching as Influenced by the Revival of Letters in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries 93

V. The Theory of Preaching as Affected by the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century 122

VI. The Theory of Preaching as Taught During the Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries 146

VII. Modern Homiletics Europe . . . 179

VIII. Modern Homiletics America . . .213

Index 243

PREFACE

MOST of the material in these lectures was gathered during a service of fifteen years in teaching Homiletics in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and in the writing of a History of Preaching. Nearly all of the first four lectures and a great deal of the fifth appeared in a series of articles in the Review and Expositor (Louisville, Ky.) during the year 1908. Thanks are due and hereby rendered to the managers of that magazine for their kind permission to use the material in this form.

The lectures were given on the Holland Foundation at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Sem inary near Ft. Worth, Texas, October 25-28, 1921.

In the delivery there were necessarily some condensations and omissions for the sake of brevity, and some verbal changes here and there in order to make the lecture more acceptable to a popular audience.

The author greatly valued the privilege of addressing a fine body of young ministers, together with other listeners, in a series of addresses upon the great work of the ministry as unfolded in the story of homiletical teaching. He trusts that others who are interested in the work of preaching may find some help and profit in the use of this volume. It is sent forth with the prayer that it may be a help to many whose glorious privilege and exalted duty it is to preach Christ and him crucified.

E. C. D

Nashville, Tennessee.