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In Preaching and Theology in Anglo-Saxon England, Professor Gatch
deals with two aspects of the writings of AElfric and Wulfstan that
have been hitherto ignored by scholars of the period. First, he
investigates the uses for which the two homilists prepared their
sermons, analysing the homiliaries of the Carolingian church and
its legislation concerning preaching and teaching, and showing that
one should look not to the model of patristic preaching but to the
development, in the place of exegetical preaching, of a vernacular
catechetical office, the Prone. He also considers the evidence from
England in the time of AElfric and Wulfstan, distinguishing a
number of uses which AElfric intended for his homiletic materials,
but questioning whether users of AElfric's work (Wulfstan perhaps
among them) understood or accepted the basic homiletic practices
that the abbot had in mind. Second, Gatch investigates the
eschatological teaching of the homilists as specimen of the
over-all content of their sermons and as indicator of their
theological method. By throwing their work into relief against the
background of the anonymous Old English homilists, he gives a more
accurate picture than exists in textbook stereotypes of the beliefs
of AElfric and Wulfstan, and also of the general theological scene
in England at the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The
first complete edition of AElfric's Latin epitome of Julian of
Toledo's Prognosticon futuri saeculi, one of the most important of
AElfric's theological sources, is appended to the text. This
interdisciplinary study is an important addition to our knowledge
of Anglo-Saxon culture and medieval church history, and a major
contribution to the study of Old English homilies. For the
uninitiated, it is an excellent introduction to Old English
preaching; for the initiated, it opens a new field for
investigation.
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