Biblical texts have been used consistently in sermons throughout Christian history. Preachers have transformed the texts into an aural experience, using them to evangelize, educate, edify, exhort, or even terrify, their audiences. Sermons have enabled Scripture to be communicated to people from a wide range of social backgrounds. 'Delivering the Word' examines the power of preaching and its reception across two millennia of homilies: from St Paul, Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine and Hildegar...

How do we begin to carry out such a vast task-the examination of three millennia of diverse uses and influences of the biblical texts? Where can the interested scholar find information on methods and techniques applicable to the many and varied ways in which these have happened?Through a series of examples of reception history practitioners at work and of their reflections this volume sets the agenda for biblical reception, as it begins to chart the near-infinite series of complex ...