In The Power of Patristic Preaching: The Word in Our Flesh, Fr. Andrew Hofer OP has offered the academy a valuable resource devoted to the act of preaching in the early Church. There are many books and resources devoted to the art of homiletics and public speaking, and they are valuable in their own way. This text is not of such a kind; rather, it is an investigation into the living witness of seven great Christian witnesses whose preaching set the early Church on fire and from whom we can learn today.
Offering a commentary on the title of the book in the introduction, Fr. Hofer explains: ‘Rather than being a how-to compendium of homiletics, the book serves as a resource to show the power of patristic preaching conveying the Word in our weak flesh… In patristic preaching, we find the Word in our flesh’ (p. 3). In such a study, the book is a showcase for how the fruitfulness of a preacher’s words lies not simply in their study and academic prowess, but in their ability to incarnate the very reality to which their preaching should direct their audience.
In choosing these particular figures – Origen of Alexandria, Ephrem the Syrian, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Augustine of Hippo, Leo the Great, and Gregory the Great – the author has chosen wisely in offering to the reader these giants of the Christian Tradition for contemplation. While cognizant of their failings, freely admitting that ‘not a single one was or is now universally recognized as perfect’ (p. 13), Hofer draws on their wisdom and intimate familiarity with Christ and the Gospel to elucidate the power of preaching in the life of the Church.
Throughout the book, Hofer continually returns to three main themes, ‘incarnation, deification through the virtues, and proclamation’ (p. 14), and insists that such a study is necessary in order to prevent the words of the Church Fathers from falling into disuse as dead letters. ‘[M]y concern’, he writes, ‘is for the people who deserve to receive the Word through the lives and speech of preachers and all those in ministry. I also have a concern that the academy’s use of the lives and texts from the early Christian era do not resemble the dissection of what is dead’ (p. 38). By offering a rich study such as this, Hofer has assuredly achieved his goal.
Since a simple review could not do justice to the book as a whole, nor to the seven great preachers contained within, one example must suffice. In the second chapter, Hofer writes about the least known of his chosen interlocutors, Ephrem the Syrian. A deacon, writing and preaching in the 4th century AD, Ephrem is ‘the greatest teacher of the Syriac Christian tradition’ (p. 89), and the sole Doctor of the Church to represent the ancient and venerable Syriac tradition. As such, he represents a unique witness to the life and faith of the early Church that, at times, defies the simplistic division of the tradition into East (Greek) and West (Latin). Focusing the chapter on Ephrem’s teaching on humility, Hofer demonstrates how the virtue is lived out by Ephrem in his own person, and how it is brought to life in his preaching on the moral life and on the life of Christ.
As Hofer writes: ‘Ephrem is in his finest poetic form when he speaks about the incarnation of Christ, the infinite one who becomes finite for our salvation… In exposing this paradox, Ephrem emphasizes that the humble condition demonstrates the loving kindness of God for creatures’ (p. 102). Drawing this chapter to a close, Hofer offers a moral exhortation to allow the theology of humility, as filtered through Ephrem’s poetry and love for Christ, to transform our own self-image and purify our hearts and minds. ‘We can speak humbly to the Lord and make Ephrem’s awe-inspired prayer our own: “Make me worthy, even me, to offer praise to you”’ (p. 119).
In the introduction, the author draws a connecting thread from the Incarnation to the lives of those who would teach (and be taught) in the life of the Church: ‘the Word was made flesh and is in the flesh of preachers for the flesh of their hearers’ (p. 10). The Incarnation is for the sake of those who would benefit from it, and the glory of Christ and the Church is in the continual re-incarnation of Christ in the hearts of those who hear and have faith. Fr. Hofer is open about the need for repentance and renewal in the Church today, and he offers this book as a (partial) means to that end. As he notes, ‘we need renewal, far reaching renewal that shines forth as light for the world… In age after age and place after place, Christian renewal has occurred through preachers preaching what is most important’ (p. 314).
The act of preaching is not simply an act of the human teacher, but is – as the author reminds us repeatedly – a liturgical act, meant to be breathed forth in the same spirit that inspired the scriptures. It is also an act of worship, a doxological act that glorifies God and, in so doing, illuminates the hearer who worships God by the very act of their participation in hearing the words of the preacher. It is a commonplace among faithful Catholics that the preaching to which they are subject every Sunday leaves much to be desired. With the publication of this book, we can hope that the importance of the act of preaching can be highlighted for all those to whom this responsibility has been granted; the rich fare of The Power of Patristic Preaching should be enough to sate any appetite, and it will hopefully inspire other learned men and women to conduct research on parallel lines, and publish similar studies of their own.
