Mary B. Cunningham

Preacher and Audience. Studies in Early Christian and Byzantine Homiletics

13 studies on Greek-speaking preachers and audiences in a period from the beginning of the second century A.D. to the beginning of the tenth century cover themes including the identity of Greek-speaking preachers, the circumstances of delivery, the different genres of homiletic, the adaptation of the tropes of Classical rhetoric by Christian preachers, the subject matter of sermons, exegetical approaches, the preparation, redaction and transmission of sermons, the audiences for sermons and their composition, the location and circumstances of preaching, and the interaction between preacher and audience. Each chapter is accompanied by a summary biblography of the most important primary source and secondary literature.

The Life of the Virgin Mary According to Middle Byzantine Preachers and Hagiographers : Changing Contexts and Perspectives

This article examines the Byzantine homiletic and hagiographical treatment of the Virgin Mary, “Theotokos” or “Birth-giver of God”, seeking to determine why diverse narratives concerning this holy figure began to appear from about the early ninth century onward (assuming, in agreement with Phil Booth’s recent article, that the Greek prototype for the Georgian Life of the Virgin that is attributed to Maximos the Confessor should more probably be dated to the tenth century). The divergences, which may reflect various early apocryphal traditions, follow somewhat generic lines : whereas homilies, which were delivered in the context of liturgical vigils or eucharistic celebrations and incorporated well-known narratives such as the Protevangelium of James and versions of the Transitus Mariae, three Marian hagiographical works reflect a variant version of the Virgin’s legendary biography. The present study seeks not only to identify some of the more important variations in post-ninth-century narrative traditions...

The Meeting of the Old and the New: the Typology of Mary the Theotokos in Byzantine Homilies and Hymns

This article presents a preliminary report on a research project which will examine the homiletic and hymnographic treatment of the Virgin Mary in eighth-century Byzantium. The texts requiring detailed study are numerous and not without their problems. Some of the surviving hymns and homilies remain unedited, while the authorship of many texts, including those which have been edited, is still disputed. The first stage of the project will therefore be concerned with identifying all eighth-century Marian homilies and hymns; only after that will it be possible to study the historical, theological, and spiritual content of this material.