Abstract
Who should read this book? This stimulating book on the preaching styles of Church fathers is a beneficial read for a number of people: scholars of Late Antiquity, constructive and historical theologians, liturgical scholars, but, most importantly, for Christian preachers, the apprentices of the Word of God. As Hofer says in the work, the book is written ‘primarily for the hearers and preachers of the Word’ (p. 38).
Why does it matter? Why is this book significant? In the introduction, Hofer states the key argument of the book, ‘in patristic preaching, we find the Word in our flesh’ (p. 3). In other words, for the Church Fathers, as Hofer compellingly argues, preaching is linked to the Incarnation and the personal life of a preacher. For the Fathers of the early Church, preaching is not merely about the ‘message’ of the Gospel and how it can be effectively communicated to the audiences of the time. It is about showing and embodying Christ, the Incarnate Word of God in our flesh: mortal, social, gendered, aged, etc. The Word is not about speech alone, but a life impregnated in us through a preacher. In that regard, the subtitle of the book, The Word in Our Flesh, could easily be the main heading of the book.
The work unfolds in eight chapters. Chapter One introduces the main argument and plan of the work. The next seven chapters give us fresh portraits of early Christian preachers with various dimensions of the Word in our flesh. Thus, in Origen, the Word in our flesh places his holiness in us. In Ephrem, the Word humbles himself for our repentance in humility. In Gregory of Nazianzen, the Word dwells in our flesh for purification and faith. In Chrysostom, the Word gives us hope of salvation. In Augustine, the Word shows us love. In Leo, the Word teaches how to love the poor and the weak. Finally in Gregory, the Word shows us how to accept our weakness. The eighth chapter concludes the book.
Through the insightful exposition of seven diverse figures, Hofer shows how these preachers of the ancient Church embodied the Word in their flesh. The book is not a comprehensive or purely academic study, as Hofer notes. It is a conversation. As such, that conversational style opens fresh encounters. For example, the portrait of Leo the Great as a preacher is attractive and of great ecumenical interest for Catholic–Oriental dialogue, where Leo is primarily associated with doctrinal matters.
Yet, unfortunately, Hofer’s illuminating exposition does not have an ecumenical dimension or at least, it is not clearly stated. The book is a stimulating scholarly conversation, but one clearly hears a confessional tone. Although this tone does not undermine the value of the work, it does narrow the resonance it could have on other Christian traditions. For example, the majority of the cited studies are Roman Catholic, yet the Church Fathers belong to the whole Body of Christ, as Hofer rightly says. In particular, in the section on Origen, the relevant works of John Behr, an Orthodox patristic scholar, do not appear. Another example is that Hofer cites only standard works of the Fathers known to the western scholarship and does not bring any work that is lost in the original but preserved in translations, such as the works of Chrysostom in Armenian. While the overall work does not suffer of this, it excludes certain dimensions that could enrich the ecumenical conversation in general and the book in particular.
These critical notes confirm the significance of Hofer’s work that offers a valuable contribution to the study of the Fathers.