Those familiar with Dr. Old’s previous volumes will not be disappointed with his work here, and those who come to the developing series for the first time will join them as they are exposed to a tour de force on Reformation-era preaching. Westminster professor William Edgar says that “studying these volumes is like walking around a great cathedral: every section, however distinctive, unites in a grand design whose aim is to restore preaching to its rightful place.” He continues, “this multi-volume work is easily the best history of preaching ever written, one that will serve generations of those whose faith comes by hearing.” Old, a scholar at the Center for Theological Inquiry at Princeton, N.J., provides both depth and breadth in this survey of Reformation era preachers. Beginning with Martin Luther, Old works through Zwingli, Oecolampadius, Capito, Bucer, Brenz, Calvin, Latimer, and Hooper, among others, to provide as exhaustive an exposure to the subject as is possible in a single volume. One highlight is the rediscovery of the early church practice of the lectio continua in which a preacher systematically preaches through whole books of the Bible. Old helpfully rounds out the volume with material on preachers of the counter-Reformation and the Puritan era as well. - Jeff Waddington - Westminster Bookstore Staff
Publisher Review: The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church is a multivolume study by Hughes Oliphant Old that explores the history of preaching from the words of Moses at Mount Sinai through modern times. In Volume 4, The Age of the Reformation, Old focuses on changes in preaching due to the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. This is the pivotal volume in Old's project, covering as it does not only what the Reformers and Counter-Reformers preached but also their reform of preaching itself. Old traces the main events and people involved in the development of preaching at this time — Luther, Calvin, Thomas of Villanova, Francis Xavier, William Perkins, John Donne, Johann Gerhard, Jacques Bossuet, and many more — while also giving due attention to how preaching was itself an act of worship. |
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