The vast homiletic corpus of John Chrysostom has received renewed
attention in recent years as a source for the wider cultural and
historical context within which his sermons were preached. Scholars
have demonstrated the exciting potential his sermons have to shed
light on aspects of daily life, popular attitudes, and practices of
lay piety. In short, Chrysostom's sermons have been recognised as a
valuable source for the study of 'popular Christianity' at the end
of the fourth century. This study, however, questions the validity
of some recent conclusions. James Daniel Cook illustrates that
Chrysostom is often seen as at odds with the congregations to whom
he preached. On this view, the Christianity of elites such as
Chrysostom had made little inroads into popular thought beyond the
fairly superficial, and congregations were still living with older,
more culturally traditional views about religious beliefs which
preachers were doing their utmost to overcome. Cook argues that
such a portrayal is based on a misreading of Chrysostom's sermons
and fails to explain satisfactorily the apparent popularity that
Chrysostom enjoyed as a preacher. Preaching and Popular
Christianity: Reading the Sermons of John Chrysostom reassesses how
we read Chrysostom's sermons, with a particular focus on the stern
language which permeated his preaching, and on which the image of
the contrary congregation is largely based. In doing this, Cook
recovers a neglected portrayal of Chrysostom as a pastor and of
preaching as a pastoral and liturgical activity, and it becomes
clear that his use of critical language says more about how he
understood his role as preacher than about the nature of popular
Christianity in late-antique society. Thus, a very different
picture of late-antique Christianity emerges, in which Chrysostom's
congregations are more willing to listen and learn from their
preacher than is often assumed.
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