A History of Preaching, Vol. 1
Overview
In this first volume, Dargan begins his account of preaching over the centuries with the need for such a work. Starting with the first three centuries, Dargan moves systematically through the sixteenth century in volume one. He concentrates on the influence of preaching on culture and vice-versa, in relation to social change, doctrine, literature, politics, science, and education. Dargan also addresses the mechanics and content of preaching and how it has changed over the centuries. Giving a summary of the major historical influences during each century, Dargan provides essential context for the development of preaching. Each section also includes the major preachers of the time period.
- Introduction: The Need of a History of Preaching
- Chapter 1: Preaching During the First Three Centuries
- Chapter 2: The Culmination of Ancient Preaching in the Fourth Century
- Chapter 3: The Decline of Preaching in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries
- Chapter 4: The Low Estate of Preaching in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries
- Chapter 5: Voices in the Night: or Preaching during the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Centuries
- Chapter 6: Heralds of the Dawn in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
- Chapter 7: The Culmination of Medieval Preaching in the Thirteenth Century
- Chapter 8: Decline and Mysticism in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
- Chapter 9: The Renaissance, and Preaching in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
- Chapter 10: Preachers of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
- Chapter 11: The Reformation, and Preaching in the Sixteenth Century
- Chapter 12: Preachers of the Reformation in German and German Switzerland
- Chapter 13: Preachers of the Reformation in France and Other European Lands
- Chapter 14: Preachers of the Reformation in England and Scotland
- Chapter 15: Roman Catholic Preaching and Preachers in the Sixteenth Century
- Chapter 16: Preaching at the Threshold of the Modern World
- Bibliography
- Index
Top Highlights
“In the work of Jesus himself, however, lies the main foundation of Christian preaching for all time” (Page 22)
“‘It was by no means the main business of the prophets to predict the future, as people are now apt to suppose from our modern use of the word prophet, but they spoke of the past and the present, often much more than of the future. The prophets reminded the people of their sins, exhorted them to repent, and instructed them in religious and moral, in social and personal duties; and when they predicted the future it was almost always in the way of warning or encouragement, as a motive to forsake their sins and serve God.… The prophets were preachers.’ These words of Dr. Broadus state the case clearly and well.” (Page 19)
“The Græco-Roman oratory at its best estate was lacking in one great essential to the highest eloquence. It had no religious content, and but incidentally a moral one. The accepted division of oratory into its kinds was threefold: deliberative, or political; forensic, or judicial; and epideictic, or declamatory.” (Page 18)
“There are three great converging lines of preparation in the way of materials, tendencies and events, which under providential guidance conspired to start, in the age immediately following the Apostles, that series of causes and effects which we are to study under the name of the history of preaching. These three elements of origination, named in the ascending order of their immediacy and importance, are the ancient oratory, the Hebrew prophecy, and the Christian gospel.” (Page 14)
- Title: A History of Preaching, Vol. 1
- Author: Edwin Charles Dargan
- Series: A History of Preaching
- Publisher: A.C. Armstrong & Son
- Publication Date: 1905
- Pages: 596