| The purpose of this dissertation is to produce a “preaching life” of Hugh Latimer which is neither a work of intellectual or confessional history nor a literary analysis of discrete sermon texts. Rather, it is a work in Henrician and Edwardian homiletic history which attempts to draw from the details Latimer's religious and social milieu to construct an interpretive framework for his sermons, but without allowing these details to overshadow the preaching performances that the core of his identity as a religious reformer who successfully mediated between the Crown and people.; In light of renewed interest in preaching as an instrument of reform in Tudor England, Latimer's sermons are viewed as pastoral discourse spoken to and for particular times, places, and people, and to accomplish particular purposes and effects; they are construed as improvisations of a persistent theme which was sounded throughout Latimer's preaching career: the urgent need for religious and practical reform of church and society by means of the spoken word. Moreover, Latimer's sermons are treated as both text and context; the respective themes, forms, and rhetorical strategies of individual sermons are discussed in relation to their final textual shape and their physical, ceremonial, and liturgical circumstances are described. The goal of this historical and homiletic interpretation is to illumine the practical wisdom embodied in the content, form, and style of Latimer's preaching, and to capture a sense of its over-arching purpose, movement, and force. A “preaching life” therefore, provides an excellent medium through which to demonstrate the significance of Latimer's contributions to “reformation through practice.”... |
