"Sermon" is a word that everyone has heard, but no one knows what it still means. In the minds of most people, this term is associated with the promotion or popularization of any religious doctrines and ideas. In general, this is so. However, this concept has many different shades in which it would be nice to understand a person living in a multi-religious country. So what is a sermon? We will try to figure this out in this article.
Precise definition
In fact, there is no single answer to the question of what a sermon is. This concept is very broad, and it is impossible to give one capacious, concrete definition. The religious way of life itself is already a sermon, and therefore it is impossible to separate the life of a believer from his messages to the outside world. In the narrow sense of the word, a sermon is a speech intended to convey to the addressee a certain idea of a religious nature. Such an understanding is most common, but in fact it is only one of the facets of the term. Below we will try to deal with all of them, but first we turn to etymology.
Origin of the concept
To clarify what a sermon is, the Old Slavonic language will help us, in which this term is used in three main meanings. The first is the sermon proper, that is, the dissemination of religious ideas. The second is foreshadowing, prophecy. The third is a petition. A word is formed from the root of the Vedas, meaning “to know,” “to know,” and going back to the pre-Indo-European language. The term “sermon” translates into Russian many concepts from the Greek and Hebrew languages used in the Bible. Therefore, talking about the exact meaning of the word is possible only taking into account the context.
Kerigma
The first and most important for our culture is the concept of kerigma as a basic religious sermon. Spreading their doctrine, Christian missionaries of the first centuries called the message in which the foundations of faith were contained in a concise and generalized form without going deeper into the dogma and mystery component. As a rule, Kerigma included the proclamation of the death and resurrection of the messenger of God Jesus Christ. Its purpose was to interest the other believer and draw him to Christianity.
Message
God's preaching as some special message, the news (often good or good) is also a characteristic, almost technical term of the New Testament. It is based on the Greek term "angel" - "to inform." It should be noted that in the form of the good news (“gospel”) it was often left without translation.
Speech
The two Greek words “Lego” and “Laleo”, which mean “to speak”, “to pronounce”, can also be translated as “sermon”. This becomes possible if it is a speech dedicated to God, or a word inspired by God.
Call, testimony
Public speech, which means the Greek word parisiasome, can also have the character of a sermon. Christian apostles and evangelists often testified of their faith in squares and city forums, which was accepted during the time of the Roman Empire.
Other synonyms
There are other concepts in the Bible that are translated into Russian and Slavic as “preaching”. It can be an inventory, a story, and even a testimony. However, these are isolated cases, and it makes no sense to analyze them in detail.
Oral Sermon
If we analyze religious, including Orthodox, sermons, then usually we are talking about oral teachings. In this case, again, various forms are possible. In part, they intersect with those that we described above. The main forms of such a message are messages, prophecies, teachings, and agitation.
Message
Orthodox sermons (and not only Orthodox ones), which have the character of a message, have as their goal to convey to the listener a certain set of information. This is a kind of training, which can be of a different nature, based on who the recipient is - an unbeliever or already a believer and a church person. In any case, the purpose of such a sermon is to arouse interest in the product of spiritual culture.
Prophecy
What is a prophetic sermon is difficult to say if we discard the definition, which can be translated as “inspired by God.” From a religious point of view, such speech is not a product of the human mind. The latter only encapsulates the message embedded in him from above, for the content of which he is not responsible. The purpose of this sermon is to indicate to people their true position in the context of a situation and the proclamation of God's will about them. Sometimes this sermon may contain elements of divination. The prophet does not speak on his own behalf, he is a mediator between divine power and the addressee. Literally, Greek "profit" (prophet) means "calling." His task is to convey to people what God wants and expects of them, to call them to action in order to obey the higher will. But the prophet is only a mediator, he does not have the goal of convincing anyone. In addition, such a preacher does not have the right to proclaim what he wants, what seems right to him if he does not receive sanction from above.
Teaching
This format is also called diadascalia (from the Greek “diadascal” - “teacher”). A preaching is, for example, the sermon of a patriarch or other clergyman after a service. It is aimed at already believing people and aims to maintain religious interest, lifestyle and spiritual practice in them, recalling already known things and explaining their various aspects.
Agitation
This is a fully missionary sermon. It is mainly aimed at unbelievers in order to convert their faith. Sometimes, however, the target audience for such a sermon can consist of religiously held people when they need to be involved in a business. So, for example, in the Middle Ages, bishops campaigned for their flock to mobilize for the Crusades. Likewise, Protestant preachers attract their parishioners to pay tithing, and some Orthodox pastors to the war with Jews, Masons and the LGBT community. In all cases, the purpose of the propaganda sermon is to encourage listeners to any particular activity.
Other types of preaching
In the broader sense of the word, a sermon can be understood as a written work or musical creation. In addition, iconography and in general the material component of spiritual culture are often regarded as a form of religious proclamation. As already mentioned, a person’s way of life can also serve as a sermon. In the end, even death can testify of faith and have missionary significance, as was the case with the martyrs.