Book contents
- Gerard Manley Hopkins in Context
- Gerard Manley Hopkins in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Note on Editions and Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Places
- Part II Aesthetic and Cultural Contexts
- Part III Religious, Theological, and Philosophical Contexts
- Part IV Nature, Science, and the Environment
- Part V Gender, Sexuality, and the Body
- Part VI Form, Genre, and Poetics
- Chapter 25 Rhythm
- Chapter 26 Language
- Chapter 27 Address
- Chapter 28 Syntax
- Chapter 29 Rhyme
- Chapter 30 Ode
- Chapter 31 Sonnet
- Chapter 32 Letters
- Chapter 33 Journal Prose
- Chapter 34 Sermons
- Part VII Reception and Influence
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 34 - Sermons
from Part VI - Form, Genre, and Poetics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2025
- Gerard Manley Hopkins in Context
- Gerard Manley Hopkins in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Note on Editions and Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Places
- Part II Aesthetic and Cultural Contexts
- Part III Religious, Theological, and Philosophical Contexts
- Part IV Nature, Science, and the Environment
- Part V Gender, Sexuality, and the Body
- Part VI Form, Genre, and Poetics
- Chapter 25 Rhythm
- Chapter 26 Language
- Chapter 27 Address
- Chapter 28 Syntax
- Chapter 29 Rhyme
- Chapter 30 Ode
- Chapter 31 Sonnet
- Chapter 32 Letters
- Chapter 33 Journal Prose
- Chapter 34 Sermons
- Part VII Reception and Influence
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Hopkins centred his life on the Gospel and the Incarnation from the time of his conversion to Catholicism in 1866 onwards, and the exposition of the faith in the Mass became his life’s central activity when he joined the Jesuits in 1868. His sermons deserve to be read as ardent yet stylish examples of the genre as well as for their relevance to Hopkins as poet and to Hopkins as original thinker. This chapter examines the liturgical context of the sermons and ways in which they relate to the context of Victorian preaching and Jesuit homiletics. Hopkins’s sometimes baroque preaching style was not always orthodox, running counter to the simple language advised by Jesuit preaching manuals. In the texts of his sermons, it is nevertheless possible to find moving autobiographical testimony to Hopkins’s psycho-spiritual struggles, as well as his desire to empathize with his congregants’ lives and work.
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- Gerard Manley Hopkins in Context , pp. 292 - 298Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025