Book Reviews ::
The Victorian Pulpit: Spoken and Written Sermons in Nineteenth-Century Britain
by Robert H. Ellison
"This excellent and much-needed study of orality-literacy theory and the Victorian sermon will be of great use to students both of religion and of literature. Ellison demonstrates that Victorian Britain was a 'residually oral' culture, as exemplified by the Victorian sermon which in most cases was written as a draft, then preached afterwards published in book form, and finally commented on in writing or in talking. After an elucidating introduction to British homiletic theory from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century as well as on methods of both the delivery and the publishing of sermons, Ellison examines the work of highly popular Victorian preachers: Charles Haddon Spurgeon, John Henry Newman, and George MacDonald. He contrasts those three with each other, because they occupy different places in the literary canon, belong to dissimilar denominational traditions, and represent different approaches to preaching. He ends with a rhetorical comparison, based on John 11:1-44 (the account of the death and resurrection of Lazarus) about which all three published sermons ABES Vol. 307
Peacemaking in Early Modern Europe: Cardinal Mazarin and the Congress of Westphalia, 1643-1648 <Top>

SU Press (570)372-4175/fax (570)372-4021 | Email: SUPress | Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA 17870