Lessons Learned

Last week I was in a week long intensive seminary class called “Learning from the History of Preaching.” Although it was a long week, the following is a summary of the interesting things I learnt through the process:
1) The idea of people “downloading” or preaching other people’s sermons isn’t new but can be traced back as far as Caesarea of Arles in the early medieval period. It would seem that although it was done for good practical reasons, it had negative long-term results.
2) I was amazed at the genius of many of the prominent preachers throughout history. These individuals, for the most part, are the cream of the top, many of them literally geniuses.
3) I was intrigued with the correlation between liturgy and preaching and the development of both throughout history.
I also found the contrast between the Alexandrian school of interpretation and the Antioch school of interpretation through the Patristic period very interesting. I fact, I am doing my major research paper for the course on this.
4) I also found that knowing the history of preaching puts many of the contemporary books of preaching into context. Not that they are good or bad per se, but knowing the history of preaching puts an interesting perspective on the present and future of preaching.