What is preaching? How does the liturgical setting affect human discourse? How is preaching effective?

To answer these questions, preaching is sometimes compared to the sacraments of the Catholic Church. In both cases, God gives himself through visible or audible human mediation. In both cases, the human being is not only instructed but also enlightened, saved and healed.

This comparison was used extensively in the Baroque period but hints of it of it can be found as far back as Antiquity in Origen, Jerome and John Chrysostom; in great doctors such as Augustine, Bernard and Bonaventure; in the East and in the West.

But what exactly is being compared? In this book, specialists explore this comparison: over a period stretching from the third to the seventeenth century, they analyse the statements and images that support it. This historical investigation opens up a new way of thinking about the nature and meaning of preaching in today's churches.