Learn from the early church's greatest preacher. John of Antioch, later called "chrysostomos" ("golden mouth"), preached over 600 extant sermons. He was one of the most prolific authors in the early Church, surpassed only by Augustine of Hippo. His example and work has inspired countless Christians through the ages. In Preaching the Word with Chrysostom, through a combination of storytelling and theology, Gerald Bray reflects upon 1,500 year-old pastoral wisdom from one of church history's most prolific Christ-centered preachers. Chrysostom's eloquent preaching and influence on Christian teaching left a legacy that is still recognized today. The Lived Theology series explores aspects of Christian doctrine through the eyes of the men and women who practiced it. Interweaving the contributions of notable individuals alongside their overshadowed contemporaries, we gain a much deeper understanding and appreciation of their work and the broad tapestry of Christian history. These books illuminate the vital contributions made by these figures throughout the history of the church.

John Chrysostom, or "Golden Mouth", was a famous ascetic and preacher of the fourth/fifth century, a controversial bishop of Constantinople, and a brilliant orator - hence the epithet. This is the first comprehensive study of him in the English language in over a century. In the early chapters John Kelly highlights Chrysostom's youthful experiments with asceticism at Antioch in Syria, his six years as a monk and then a recluse in the nearby mountains, and his influential role as Antioch's leading preacher. The central section of the book shows him as a fearlessly outspoken populist bishop of the capital. Kelly focuses on his authoritarian style, his interventions in political crises, and his clashes with the Empress Eudoxia, as well as his efforts to promote the primacy of the see of Constantinople in the east. The final chapters reconstruct the plots that led to Chrysostom's downfall, the drama of his trial, and his exile and death. Golden Mouth also provides fresh analyses of Chrysostom's principal treatises and public addresses, and discussions of his views on monasticism, sexuality and marriage, education, and suffering.

This book examines John Chrysostom's role as preacher and his pastoral activites as deacon, presbyter and bishop. It also provides fresh and lively translations of a key selection of sermons and letters.

This great orator addresses the question of wealth and poverty in the lives of people of his day. Yet Chrysostom's words proclaim the truth of the Gospel to all people of all times.

Preaching has always been one of the primary means by which the Holy Spirit has worked, and is working, to renew the life of the Church. Herein also lies its priority. Thus, the priority of preaching established by Jesus, lived out in the ministry of the early apostles and the Church Fathers, incorporated into the very Liturgy itself, calls on us to "preach the word...in season and out of season" (2 Tim 4.2) "rightly handling the word of truth" (2 Tim 2.15). At the close of the anaphora or eucharistic canon, the priest commemorates the holy Orthodox patriarchs and the local bishop, beseeching God to "grant them for your holy churches...to rightly define the word of your truth." Thus preserving and proclaiming the faith "once delivered to the saints" through the medium of preaching occupies a central role in the divine economy of salvation. Although directed primarily to those who preach or wish to preach the word of God, the present volume offers much more in terms of spiritual nourishment to all Christians. It is in fact a book that can be read with great profit by everyone interested in a living faith.