Workshop: Michelle Freeman, with a response from Lea Niccolai

We are back in business this semester with an invitation to our first fall session of the virtual Works-in-Progress series, on Friday, October 23, 12:00–1:00 PM (Eastern).

Dr. Michelle Freeman (Southern Illinois University) is kindly offering a pre-circulated book chapter on “Panegyric and Pedagogy.” Dr. Lea Niccolai (Cambridge) will offer a response, before the event opens for Q&A.

• Abstract: This chapter is an excerpt from the author’s book-in-progress on Speaking of Saints: Preaching Martyrs in Late Antiquity. It analyzes late antique sermons on Christian martyrs as forms of ritualized rhetorical practice, showing how most preachers adapted the conventions of classical panegyric to frame the performance of encomium as an act of praise to increase the martyr’s honor. But Augustine and other Latin homilists influenced by him make a striking departure from this “cultural system of honor production.” Shaped by his suspicion of panegyric and by the Donatist controversy, Augustine recasts martyr preaching primarily as moral pedagogy and thereby emphasizes imitation rather than praise. The chapter traces two discrete models of Christian preaching, panegyric and pedagogy, to show how different rhetorical traditions shaped late antique practices of martyr veneration.

If you would like to attend this event, please register for the Zoom. Registered participants will receive a confirmation with a link to the PDF chapter.