Homiletics

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HOMILETICS

Homiletics in its broadest sense may be defined as the theory of preaching, and as such it is a part of pastoral theology, coordinate with catechetics and liturgy. The part of this theory that considers the Church's mission to preach, the role of preaching in the economy of salvation, the supernatural efficacy of preaching, and the relationships of preaching to Sacred Scripture, to the liturgy, and to the hierarchical powers of teaching, Orders, and jurisdiction is more commonly called the theology of preaching. In a restricted sense, however, in which it is also sometimes called sacred eloquence or sacred rhetoric, homiletics may be defined as the body of concepts and principles that govern effective preaching. In this sense it is concerned with both the matter and the form of the preacher's discourse. To the extent that it is concerned with the actual substance of what is to be preached, it is known as material homiletics. To the extent that it is concerned with the investigation, arrangement, and expression of ideas, it is formal homiletics. Both material and formal homiletics may be general or special. General homiletics is the body of concepts and principles that govern all effective preaching. Special homiletics is a more limited body of concepts and principles, applying only to the preaching of a particular area of doctrine or discipline, or to a particular type of audience, or in a particular situation. Special homiletics has not achieved any typical systematization or organization of its concepts and principles, and therefore a synopsis of its content is scarcely possible. It must treat, however, the specific problems of missions and retreats, religious conferences and recollections, cursillos, novenas, and other types of preaching beyond the usual preaching during the Mass, all of which have their own characteristics.

General homiletics, concerned with all effective preaching, draws its concepts and principles from reflection on the example of Jesus Christ and His Apostles and Christian preachers who have followed them down through the centuries. Counsels for the preparation and delivery of effective discourse derived in this way have been organized in many different systems by various authors in the long history of the theory of preaching see preaching, ii (homiletic theory). The most typical system over the centuries has employed the framework of the perennial rhetoric, with its fivefold process of invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Employment of this rhetorical canon as a form of organization, however, indicates that general homiletics depends on the perennial rhetoric not as its foundation, but rather as its framework. This relationship is analogous to that between Catholic theology and scholastic philosophy, which are sciences independent of each other and yet of the greatest mutual assistance.

A synopsis of the content of general homiletics may therefore be given under six headings. The first of these, an introductory tract, stands for preliminary discussion of the whole of preaching, such as the role of the preacher, his personal qualities, his duty to preach, his mandate from the Church, his habits of study and work. For this tract, see preaching, iii (theology of). The other five, corresponding to the rhetorical canon, are concerned respectively with finding the ideas (invention); putting then into effective order (arrangement); expressing them in words and sentences (style); fixing them in mind (memory); and uttering them with effective voice and action (delivery).

Invention. This tract deals with finding what is to be preached. It explains the principles of searching out the material, sifting it, rejecting what is less suitable, and finally selecting the ideas to be expressed. Important in this tract is the discussion of the psychological phenomena of the creative process in all its phases, to which the preacher, as any other creative worker, is subject. Principles are established for determining the preacher's theme in a given situation, such as the principles of adequate instruction, liturgical unity, and audience analysis. Methods of investigating the selected theme by reflection, discussion, and reading are expounded, with particular attention to the standard current reference works and available research tools. The various aims of preaching are then discussed: transcendent, generic, and specific. The ultimate or transcendent aim is the glory of God through the salvation of souls, from which it follows that preaching is a supernatural act and that all of its norms of effectiveness must not be literary or aesthetic, but functional and pragmatic. Moreover, since this aim is to be achieved through human cooperation with grace, which requires an act of will, Catholic preaching as a whole is persuasive and must lead ultimately to moral resolution and action. This, however, is not to say that every individual sermon must be persuasive. On the contrary, the intermediate or generic aims of preaching are traditionally to instruct, to affect, and to persuade, these three being English terms evolved from the docere, delectare, movere of St. Augustine after Cicero and Quintilian; and although they are seldom isolated from each other, each of the three aims suffices by itself for a single discourse. The specific or proximate aim of preaching is, finally, the particular good that the preacher intends to achieve in a given discourse.

In further discussion of the creative process a complete homiletic theory explains the topoi, otherwise known as "topics" or "commonplaces," after the τόποι and loci communes of the ancients. These are a list of general headings or concepts that the preacher will learn to check off in sorting out the ideas he has accumulated in his remote and proximate preparation for preaching on a given theme. Sometimes the topoi are broadly distinguished as instructive, affective, or persuasive, corresponding to the three generic aims served by the ideas to which each of the respective topoi are related.

The purpose of the instructive topoi is to provide the preacher with a checklist of headings that will help him to take inventory of the ideas he can use to instruct his listeners on a theme, such as definition, derivation, description, distinction, division, distribution, comparison, contrast, causality, quotations, statistics, probability, history, example, and analogy. Affective topoi provide the preacher with a checklist of clues to the inspiring aspects of a theme, such as size, power, magnificence, mystery, solemnity, terror, universality, antiquity, nostalgia, nobility, tenderness, and poignancy. Persuasive topoi are those aspects of his material that give the preacher the power to move his listeners to definite action. Any authentic series of motives or drives discovered in human psychology is a checklist of such topoi. One given by St. Thomas Aquinas consists of the 11 interrelated passions that he describes in the Summa theologiae. The doctrine of the topoi, long an integral part of homiletic theory, but often controversial and recently out of favor, is being revived by contemporary psychological investigation of the creative process.

Arrangement. The tract on arrangement is concerned with putting into the most effective sequence the thought that the preacher has chosen for expression. Its basic principle is that it is important to determine not only what is to be said in a given discourse but also in what order it is to be said, since each thought prepares the listeners either well or poorly for what follows. Principles of good arrangement are therefore concerned with the frame of mind and tone of feeling that listeners have at the outset, during the progress, and toward the conclusion of the discourse. Fundamental qualities to be observed in arrangement are: unity, the relation of ideas to each other and to the specific aim of the sermon; structure, the relationship among the major units of discourse; emergence, the clarity and force with which the essential message stands out from its background of supporting material; and progression, the forward movement of ideas that arouses, sustains, and finally satisfies the interest of the listeners. Basic also is the discussion of the laws of attention and interest and similar psychological factors.

Distinction may be made between static and dynamic arrangement: the former may be defined as a sequence characterized by neat divisions of material, well unified and structured, but in which the earlier part of the discourse does not set up psychological momentum to carry the interest forward; the latter may be defined as a sequence characterized by a kind of tension and involvement in the earlier parts that naturally drive the mind and emotions onward by setting up a need for satisfaction. Although the variety of sequences implementing these concepts and principles is unlimited, there are a number of formulas, or typical outlines, that historically and psychologically have proved themselves as basic plans of arrangement. From patristic and early medieval times there are the various forms of the homily; from late medieval times there is the scholastic thesis and the simple syllogism; from the Renaissance tracts on ecclesiastical rhetoric there is the five-or six-part classical oration; from 17th-century France there is the Little Method of St. Vincent de Paul. All of these have had their vogue in the history of Christian preaching and are worthy of close study on the part of the student even in the 20th century. In addition, a number of formulas derived both from practical experience and from the psychological research of modern times can be brought forward as effective plans, such as those based on the problem-solution arrangement and the motivated sequence. These formulas serve in the creative process as topoi of arrangement, corresponding to the topoi of invention described above.

Style. The tract on style concerns the principles by which the actual words, phrases, and sentences are to be chosen for expressing the ideas already discovered and arranged. The general qualities of language, such as clearness, concreteness, emphasis, and coherence, are discussed. This tract deals also with the levels or types of style, of which three were distinguished by St. Augustine after Cicero and Quintilian and of which three may still be distinguished as corresponding to the generic aims of preaching, namely, the instructive style, the affective style, and the persuasive style. Avoiding any impression that style is concerned with literary ornament rather than with the functional effectiveness that is the touchstone of every other part of formal homiletic theory, the general features of each of these three styles and their relationship is described. A feature of all of them is the use of stylistic modes, a term that may be employed for the "tropes and figures" of earlier ecclesiastical rhetorics, standing for the rhetorical movement of phrases and sentences or even whole paragraphs, the same thought of which can be cast in a variety of stylistic modes, just as the same argument can be framed in a dozen different moods of syllogism. This part of the tract on style, almost entirely atrophied in contemporary manuals, must, like the topoi, be interpreted anew.

Memory and Delivery. The tracts on memory and delivery in general homiletics differ little, if at all, from the corresponding theory in secular rhetoric or public speaking. In these days, when discourses are commonly much shorter than in ancient times, the discussion of memory is limited almost entirely to a consideration of the comparative merits of preaching from manuscript, or from memory, or from nothing more than an outline firmly fixed in the mind. Which of these methods is best has been hotly debated since the time of St. Augustine. The merits of these various degrees of memorizing as against extemporizing may, however, be summed up in an explanation of an extempore-memoriter continuum to indicate the degree of memorizing as against extemporizing in any given type of preparation for preaching. What type is best in any instance will depend on the preacher's experience and aptitudes, the theme, the audience, and the circumstances.

The tract on delivery, finally, includes consideration of vocal variety and bodily action, elements so essential to effective preaching that they must be the object of extensive practice. Under the vocal aspect of delivery comes discussion of variety in the vocal elements of time, pitch, force, and quality. Under the bodily aspect comes discussion of covert and overt action, posture, and gesture.