INTERDISCIPLINARITY AND THE STUDY OF EARLY MODERN SERMONS

Abstract

This review surveys the study of early modern sermons by historians and literary critics in recent years. It argues that sermons are becoming more important to research in the period, particularly given the revisionist historians' emphasis on religious politics and the shift to historicism in literary studies. None the less, sermons are rarely scrutinized by either group of scholars in a way that utilizes both their rhetorical artfulness and their political engagement: they are not studied as both texts and events. This is partly a result of the different perspectives from which they have been examined by previous generations of scholars. Although two recent monographs, Peter McCullough's Sermons at court and Lori Anne Ferrell's Government by polemic, demonstrate ways in which this might be corrected, it must still be acknowledged that much work remains to be done.