Anita Desai Essay

The main characters who struck me the most are Uma and her brother Arun; to them are dedicated the two parts of the novel. Personally I think they have a lot of things in common and I’m not only considering the fact that they belong to the same close-knit family: they are somehow subjected to a reality from which they both want to escape. Uma is the plainest character of the novel, I think: she always obeys her parents and makes everything they want her to do. This is not completely a negative point but, reading the first pages of the book, I admit that I would like to react for her to the commandments of her MamaPapa, as they are often mentioned†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Go to the cook†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ Prepare the packet for your brother†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ Write a letter†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦but how can she manage to do all these things together?! In my opinion Uma is also naà ¯ve, she seems to be somehow tied by a sense of duty to her parents, especially after the failure of her two arranged marriages, and what about the dowry she has squandered?! as her father reminds her. The only â€Å"pause† of her life is given by the visits of Mira-masi, a particular woman who deeply fascinates Uma for the stories she tells her: she represents a ray of hope into the life of the girl, although her parents don’t approve the complicity created between them. Arun, whose birth was really longed for, is sent to the USA where he attends the college: being the only son of the family he has the honour of receiving a good education and he has also the possibility to live far from the oppressing reality of his homeland. But his life remains very unhappy: also the family to which he lives while in America is a sort of weight for him. The second part of the novel seems to me a long digression about food, I think that the food itself is the only reason for a link between Arun and the new family, Mrs Patton in particular. I think both brother and sister are oppressed voices who want to live in peace and to escape from the world they live in, although they aren’t able to rebel against it. For this very reason I would like them to write to each other, what does not happen in the novel. Dear Arun, Maybe for the first time in my life I admit that I’m very sad but what troubles me the most is the fact that I’m not able to find a way out†¦ Our cousin Anamika is dead. Everybody here is trying to give an explanation but†¦what for, she won’t ever come back and there are no acceptable explanations for her death†¦ I absolutely can’t imagine that the urn in front of me contains her ashes†¦she is dead†¦ but I’m dead too. Her awe for the family led her towards death, but what about me? I will stay forever with MamaPapa, I can’t abandon them, they are†¦my life! When mama grips my hand I know, I feel that there is something strong between us and I can’t, I can’t leave†¦ MamaPapa is calling me†¦I have to go. I don’t know if I will ever send this letter to you: perhaps I will burn it. Uma Dear Uma, A new semester at the college is beginning and my stay with the Pattons is over. I’m happy because I can leave this strange family: it wasn’t my place, I didn’t feel comfortable with them, I felt oppressed and obliged to be part of it, maybe only because I felt sorry for Mrs Patton and I didn’t want to disappoint her. This is the reason why I gave her the presents you sent me (but please don’t reveal anything to MamaPapa!): I didn’t want her to be worried about me when I silently walked out of her life. Arun Alice Bravin 5 H Liceo Scientifico â€Å"M. Grigoletti† Pordenone Anita Desai â€Å"FASTING, FEASTING† The novel by Anita Desai appeared insipid to my eyes. If I were asked to collect all the emotions that the book has stirred in my heart, I would find myself in anguishing troubles, for I’m quite numb to it as well I am frustrated by each work of art dominated by a sense of heaviness. The characters are imbued with, or even better, they are emblems of this heaviness which reveals itself mainly in the temperament of Uma, who is the best-built character of the novel. Anita Desai succeeded in the enterprise of creating a character without personality, a woman deprived of her soul. She is the designated victim who is doomed to endure the burden of life, symbolized first of all by her parents. Uma doesn’t strike my sensibility: I don’t feel pity for her, nor would I establish a sort of sympathetic relationship with her; her ineptitude doesn’t arouse my anger, nor would I shake her out of the status of torpor she experiences. I am quite interested in one of the psychological aspects of Uma, that of repression. Uma is not free to be what she wants to be, to do what she wants to do, so she is utterly repressed in her passions, in her feelings, in her personality; this last dimension is completely neglected to her. These inner forces run inside her veins and arteries, like water permeating through the cracks of a rock and when temperatures gets colder, it becomes ice and causes the explosion of the rock. The same happens inside Uma and the implosion is disguised as a sort of disease. Convulsions, nausea which leads to vomit, suffered cries, these moments are the most involving – and at the same time disturbing – moments and situations of the novel. I would have appreciated if Anita Desai had developed this edge of the prism of Uma. Sigmund Freud stated that mental patients are like diamonds, whose structure is based on its corners. In these lines the diamond would break in case it fell on the ground. Uma is like that. Her body seems possessed by a demoniac spirit, her limbs, her bowels are rocked by the unique act of rebellion which is allowed to her. I wonder why the writer has snobbed this issue, which probably assumes a religious and philosophical value and is strictly connected to Indian culture. The heaviness that haunts the book is expressed even by the settings. Concerning this point I would like to recall the image of Uma and her aunt who leave together on a spiritual trip. The bus they catch is incredibly crowded: this episode evokes the image of mingled noises and smells within the dusty and sandy air of India. The writer enables us to appreciate each aspect of the setting – thanks to her detailed language – so that the reader manages to broaden his sensorial perceptions and is caught by the use of synaesthesia. ( The description of the believers bathing in the Gange becomes meaningful in this sense ). Before starting reading the book I thought it would be quite precious for me in order to learn more about the Indian world, even appreciating it by means of the parallel Anita Desai draws with Northern America. But I was wrong: â€Å"Fasting, feasting † doesn’t seem so representative of India: the impression I get is that of a character – Uma – who might be possibly Irish or even Italian. Westerners share the same common imagery about India and this common imagery is banal and dominated by prejudices. The book is ambiguous, in the sense that neither supports this statement, nor deny it. The same ambiguity lies in the second part of the novel – that dedicated to Arun – which takes place in the United Stated of America. Anita Desai gives us tenets and traits of the American Society coming in the story of an American family. Here there aren’t crowded busses or temples, but televisions, junk food, couches, barbecues, baseball matches and people who enjoy all these objects and events. The same dusty air is breathed by Arun when he goes back home walking on the boundaries of the street. The same atmosphere of heaviness which degenerates into disease. For these very reasons I state that Uma and her story are not so â€Å"Indian†. Moreover, I have some perplexities about the last chapter – really shorter than the first one – which doesn’t find a proper literary justification. It is a sort of appendix, even if only almost at the end of the book there’s the precise reference to the tile â€Å"Fasting, feasting† and is embodied by the bulimic girl. Alessandra Crimi 5 H Liceo Scientifico â€Å"M. Grigoletti† Pordenone Anita Desai – Fasting, Feasting Fasting, Feasting is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Thanks to the brilliant descriptions and the elegant narration the reader has the opportunity to create an imaginary but precise setting were characters develop during the story. I think that this novel is like a mirror because it gives the opportunity to reflect, in both meanings of the word. We can reflect ourselves in the protagonists (mirror-like effect) and we can reflect, think, about the different values and importance that people from different societies give to ideals they believe in. In my opinion the rhythm of the narration is sometimes too slow, but I can understand that it is due to the fact that, once again, it mirrors the context where the story takes place. In India, in fact, there is no frenetic life, no stress, no anxiety of living and for this very reason people can pay attention to little events that we probably ignore. When the father asks for his drink, it seems to me that everyone in the family has to stop and be there for this event; when a guest arrives unexpectedly, all the attention is directed to him; even the choice of one kind of food rather than another seems to be one of the most important problems of the day. . The character of Mumdad is what emotionally touched me most, maybe because to a certain extent I can detect in them some traits my parents have. The image of Mumdad on the swing describes their indissoluble bond. Mumdad are a unique person/entity made up of two different souls. These two souls are always at unison, they never take opposite decisions, they argue but they always find a compromise, they are, in a word, complementary. I always admired this ability to build little by little a life together even if, for a child, sometimes it’s not so easy to accept their decision, or rather, their impositions. Uma is my favourite character. In some parts of the novel I felt really involved in her problems, in her thoughts and desires. She loves school even if she isn’t able to get good marks; she loves learning, she wants to try again, to spend another year at school, she’s sure she will improve. She suffers when Mumdad decide she should give up her studies. She suffers when she understands she is not as beautiful, intelligent as her sister Aruna, and so she is considered a lesser woman. Uma suffers silently, she accepts her condition of inferiority, yet she is always looking for a moment of glory that, unfortunately, never comes. She is like the most humble flower that grows up silently, that is trampled from the gardener that gave her birth, because a rose is blooming next to the humble flower and he must be there to praise the perfection and beauty of the rose. I’m not saying that I reflect myself in Uma , absolutely not, on the contrary, I’m saying that all my life I have been an Aruna, and I didn’t know about it. I’m an only child, there is no Uma in my family, but thanks to the juxtaposition of the two characters I have understood that I have always been loved and pampered and nursed and highly considered and I don’t really know if I deserve all this. This book has really been a great opportunity for me, it has made me reflect on my values and on the meaning of my â€Å"little† life: too often we don’t realise what is around us. But now I want stop talking about me. I would love to write a few lines about arranged marriages. In our Western society, marriage is generally viewed as a value strongly linked with the concept of freedom, the freedom to choose the person with whom we would like to spend all our life. We have this great opportunity and we often waste it. We are free to love a person for his peculiarities and not for his money and often people choose the partner for his richness, we get married and then we divorce and kids are treated as merchandise, we often get married for reasons that sometimes are far away from love and we claim to judge a society where parents choose a spouse for their children. I think that Western people are more contradictory than what they want to admit and perhaps less happy. Perhaps it is this very feeling that leads plenty of us to judge other cultures. DA PIEVE LUCIA 5 H Liceo scientifico â€Å"M. Grigoletti† Anita Desai â€Å"Fasting,Feasting† This is the first book by Anita Desai I have ever read. Her observations are astute whether they are on living conditions in India or USA. Anita Desai uses her words perfectly to convey exactly what she feels,but even if it could seem a contradiction,I think that the problem with the book is its dry, clinical approach in chronicling the lives of the characters, the book lacks passion. I was always on the outside, looking into the lives of people. The book offers few chances of getting involved with the characters ,in fact while reading the book I didn’t feel the compulsion of finishing it quickly. The part I liked better is the first half of the book that deals with life in a small, slow town in India, with rigid parents and well-drafted routines. The †Indian half† is more detailed than the other half which deals with the â€Å"rule-less† life in suburban USA. In the first half there is a partly successful, proud father, who goes through life, with set patterns and no passion. A mother who goes along with her husband, doing what is supposedly right and expected of her, curbing and killing all her innate desires. Three children. The eldest, Uma, clumsy . The middle daughter Aruna, pretty, ambitious and smart, but eventually also a victim of her choices. The last, a son, Arun, on whom the parents put all their dreams and energies. All of them, along with members of their extended family, go through some form of deprivation (of will, of fun, of passion and of love). I think that a merit of this book is the way it highlights the Indian traditions, cultures and mostly the place of a woman in an Indian family. I liked the character of Uma in the book because she is both willing to take a chance with life and at the same time dedicated to her family.She takes whatever happens to her life with such grace that she does not give me a chance to cry for her. I like her inner strength. The story in itself is told from the perspective of the protagonist, Uma, who starts out as a wideeyed child at a convent who shows an enthusiasm for education but with the birth of her brother Arun, Uma takes on the role of nanny. Here, one encounters the distinct preference parents have for the male child. Desai next explores the conventional belief that ties a woman’s worth to her physical appearance. A woman who lacks beauty is often rushed into the first marital offer she receives, only to pay a heavy price later on. Desai shows the challenges a single woman faces regardless of how successful she is. By contrast, Uma’s cousin is portrayed as the ultimate success because she is able to marry well thanks to her looks. She makes the reader wonder how happy she truly is, when she eventually takes her own life. Uma is the main character in the first half of the novel. She is a clumsy, uncoordinated woman who finds it difficult to succeed in almost everything she does – she fails in school, can’t cook, spills food and drink and can’t find anyone worthwhile to get married to. Her father feels that Uma is incapable of fending for herself, as she is too clumsy, uncoordinated and proves a failure in almost everything she does.Uma fails in school, in the kitchen and she even fails to find anyone worthwhile to get married to. The father asks Uma to interrupt her studies in the Christian convent when he find out she not doing very well at school. He feels that it was a waste of time and money to provide Uma an education ;he has other plans for her.She will look after her baby brother Arun and take care of the household while her mother rests after giving birth. Uma’s life is constantly planned by her father.Uma cannot resist her father’s oppressive patriarchal ideology, as she is afraid of the consequences that would befall her if she angered the colonial characteristics of her father. Uma’s entertainment comes in the form of her cousin, Ramu. When Ramu is around, Uma feels at ease. But the father feels that Ramu is a bad influence on Uma. He does not want Uma to be influenced by other men who are capable of brainwashing her to resist the demands of his patriarchal nature.

Wilfred Owen ‘Dulce et Decorum est’

The poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est' is a poem which shows us the horrors of war. It shows us how innocent lives are being wasted on a war. The poem tells us about how the poet feels about war. The first stanza tells us about the condition of the soldiers. It shows us that the soldiers are sick, tired and are not aware of themselves. It also tells us that the soldiers were in bad condition. They did not care about the shells that dropped behind them. In the first line the soldiers are compared in a simile to old beggars. This implies that they look shabby, which is not the image of soldiers in bright shiny uniforms, which would be in keeping with the glorious image of war. The line has a slow pace with no sound described, which is also a contrast to the image of war, as people at home might expect the soldiers to be marching along at a brisk pace. The second line continues this them as it compares the soldiers to hags, which are very like beggars. It tells you that the soldiers are knock kneeded and coughing, which implies a very low morale. In the second stanza, the poet has written about a gas attack that he has witnessed. This stanza tells us about the confusion and panic, which arises when the soldiers' lives are in immediate danger. The pace of this verse is a lot quicker in order to demonstrate this, and also provides a contrast to the previous verses as it is written in the present tense to make it seem more real, whereas the first verse is written in the perfect tense, which makes it seem more distant. During the gas attack, many soldiers managed to get their gas helmets on time. But one soldier could not make it. He was yelling and stumbling as the gas overcare him. The poet has seen the unfortunate man die a slow and painful death. The third stanza is short. It expresses the poet's fears and nightmares he has because of the dying man reaching his hand out for help. But Wilfred Owen was helpless. The poet tells us that the dying man was guttering, choking and drowning as the gas made its way through his lungs. The fourth stanza is telling us a little bit about what the soldiers did to the dead soldier. They flung him in the back of a wagon. His condition was still bad. There was blood coming out from his mouth and his face was hanging in bad shape. The poet then tells his ‘friend' that it is not right to tell keen and young soldiers eager for glory that ‘ It is a good and noble thing to die for your country' as it is a lie. Moreover, the last verse is a plea to the reader to renounce their opinion that dying for your country is sew and honourable. Wilfred Owen is saying that if the reader was there, and saw this man dying in the back of the wagon then they would not tell the old Lie. Owen, by his graphic description of the man's death, is intending to shock the reader into believing they have been tricked by the Old Lie i.e. it is good to die for your country, and make them think more deeply about the values of war and how they can become heroes. Wilfred Owen is creating a horrific picture of how bad war is. He has done this by making use of similes. In the first stanza, Owen describes the exhaustion of the soldiers by saying: â€Å"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks† In this quote we can see that Owen is telling us that the soldiers are too tired to walk properly and that they can hardly stand up. He re-enforces his words by saying: â€Å"Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots† This is giving us a vivid image of how tired and ill the soldiers are from war. To add to the atmosphere of depression, the ‘haunting flares' imply that the scene is taking place at night, as flares are not visible in the daytime. The fact that the flares are ‘haunting' adds to the misery of the soldiers, as it could be that they are remembering past horrific incidents involving the flares that haunt them. The ‘distant rest' in line four could mean that the soldiers are going to sleep for the night, but they will not be able to sleep because of the poor conditions. The word' trudge' implies that they are walking with difficulty, and slows down the line, which indicates the slowness of the soldiers' walk. The alliteration in the fifth line emphasises what Wilfred Owen is saying. It makes the metaphor ‘men marched asleep' seem more real and holds the line together over the full stop. ‘Men limping blood shod' emphasises their predicament and how different i t is to the glorious battle they had expected. The two lines in this verse create the impression that the soldiers are somehow in a daze and do not hear sounds fully. It is as if they have become isolated within themselves. Their illness is further emphasized when the poet says: â€Å"†¦ coughing like hags†¦Ã¢â‚¬  From these sentences in the first stanza, we can imagine how tired and worn-out the soldiers must have been due to the war they are forced to fight. Wilfred Owen is also making use of metaphors to strengthen the lines of his poem. In the second stanza, Owen tells us about a dying man when he inhaled the gas. â€Å"But someone was yelling out and stumbling And floundering like a man in fire or lime† From this quote, we get a picture of how the dying man felt just as he had inhaled the smoke. Wilfred Owen has made use of other literary techniques such as Direct speech, Alliteration and Onomatopoeia. In the second stanza, Owen has made use of direct speech to give the reader a realistic feeling about what is happening in the poem. â€Å"Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!† The poet has also made use of Alliteration. In the third stanza, the poet says: â€Å"Behind the wagon we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face† Here the poet is telling us about the state in which the dying man was. The poet has also made use of two special features, enjambement and caesura. Wilfred Owen has made use of enjambement very often from the second stanza. This increases the pace of the poem which gives the reader an inside look into how fast people had to work at war. On the other hand, Owen has also made use of caesura. This slows down the pace of the poem and allows the reader to think about what the poet is saying. In the third stanza, Owen says: â€Å"His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin† Here the poet is letting the reader to know how the dying man looked like after he inhaled the gas. In the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est', there are four verses with 28 lines. Each verse has a number of lines that vary in every verse. The poem does not have a definite rhyme but mostly it goes like a, b, a, b, c, d, c, d and so on but this pattern is disrupted a little bit in the later part of the poem. Stanza 3 is short as it sums up the nightmares Wilfred Owen is going through. Since the two lines are in the middle of much longer verses, the reader's eyes get attracted to those lines. The poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est' was written by Wilfred Owen during the First World War. In 1914 the First World War broke out on a largely innocent world, a world that still associated warfare with glorious cavalry charges and the noble pursuit of heroic ideals. This was the world's first experience of modern mechanised warfare. As the months and years passed, each bringing increasing slaughter and misery, the soldiers became increasingly disillusioned. Many of the strongest protests made against the war were made through the medium of poetry by young men horrified by what they saw. One of these poets was Wilfred Owen. World War I, military conflict, from 1914 to 1918, that began as a local European war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia on July 28, 1914; was transformed into a general European struggle by Germany's declaration of war against Russia on August 1, 1914; and eventually became a global war involving 32 nations. The immediate cause of the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was the assassination on June 28, 1914, at Sarajevo in Bosnia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; now in Bosnia and Herzegovina), of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir-presumptive to the Austrian and Hungarian thrones, by Gavrilo Princip, a Serb nationalist. The fundamental causes of the conflict, however, were rooted deeply in the European history of the previous century, particularly in the political and economic policies that prevailed on the Continent after 1871, the year that marked the emergence of Germany as a great world power. The living conditions for the soldiers were terrible during the First World War. Many died due to diseases, epidemics and injuries caused through battle. Sometimes, the soldiers had no ammunition to fight with at all and hence were left helpless. Living conditions were as bad. Many had no proper shelter, or clothing. Wilfred Owen had made these conditions a reality in his poem. The vividness of the poem gives us an impression of how bad the conditions must've been for the soldiers during the war. Moreover he is saying this because he feels the soldiers are giving their life for nothing. Therefore he is stressing on the terrible conditions the soldier were living and fighting in. Wilfred Owen has written negative account of his feelings for war. He has written about the tiredness of the soldiers when he says: â€Å"Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind; Drunk with fatigue; drunk even to the hoots† In this quote we can see that Wilfred Owen is trying to tell us that the soldiers were very tired. This tells us that Wilfred Owen is giving us a negative impression of war This poem was written by Wilfred Owen, who was a soldier in the First World War. He therefore gives a very vivid account of what it was like to be there, as he has had first- hand experience. The title of the poem means ‘it is sweet and honourable', and the phrase is continued at the end of the poem†¦'to die for your country.' Just before this is stated at the end of the poem, Wilfred Owen chooses to write' The Old Lie.' This tells us he does not believe this statement to be true. The poem is filled with horrible stories about what really happened, and so Wilfred Owen is saying how can all of this suffering be sweet and proper? In my opinion, I do not like the poem very much. It gives a very horrific image of war. Although Wilfred Owen is right about ‘Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori' I still think that the poem is written quite harshly. The language used by the poet is not bad but the content is. The examples that Wilfred Owen has given us of warfare are very horrific. A man drowning in a gas of poisonous gas, a group of soldiers in ill condition etc, all this reflects upon the horrific accounts of warfare. If the poet were trying to stress his point through non-horrific examples, then the poem would've been a lot more enjoyable. But that doesn't mean I am criticizing the poet. Needless to say the poem is very well written. Its what the poet feels about warfare, which obviously I wouldn't criticize that at all as it is the poet's opinion.

A look at the key considerations in determinate vs. indeterminate ruling and overcrowded state and federal prisons in America

A look at the key considerations in determinate vs. indeterminate ruling and overcrowded state and federal prisons in America Determinate Sentencing versus Indeterminate Sentencing and Overcrowding The recent switch back to determinate sentencing in the past thirty years has ultimately overcrowded America’s federal and state prison systems. Despite a substantial decline in crime rates since 1991, the number of people being imprisoned increased continuously until 2011 and the imprisonment rate until 2007. Prisons and jails in 1991 held 1,219,014 inmates. The rate was 481 per 100,000 population. By 2008, the number of inmates had almost doubled to 2,308,390. Both the numbers of people admitted to federal and state prisons, and held in them, substantially increased in 2013. (Tonry, 1997.) Determinate sentencing has a specific number of years, no minimum or maximum. Whilst determinate sentencing was created to promote equality of sentencing, it does not always do so. Determinate sentencing and truth-in- sentencing have very limited discretionary/parole release. This laws are based on the justice model introduced by David Fogul and the concept of â€Å"just deserts,† offered by Andrew von Hirsh. These concepts are based on the similar approach that punishment is to be commensurate with the seriousness of the crime. (book) However, these â€Å"tough on crime† sentencing laws are what caused the current prison overcrowding dilemma in our nation. (Abadinsky, 2015.) One goal of determinate sentencing is to rid the system of parole boards. However, parole and parole boards have proven to be helpful to the system. Parole release has been used for upholding prison discipline and decreasing prison overcrowding for years. As I stated before, parole stemmed from pardons issues by governors. This tactic was used when prisons became overcrowded before parole boards were created. During the period of indeterminate sentencing, parole agencies served as a â€Å"safety valve† for crowded prisons. When Texas prisons were overcrowded in the 1980s, Texas increased parole release. By 1983, roughly forty percent of inmates were released on parole after their first hearing. (Abadinsky, 2015) Another pressing issue with determinate sentencing is prosecutorial discretion. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 abolished indeterminate sentencing and was intended to reduce sentence disparity and rid the system of parole release, but the discretion lost by judges was gained by prosecutors which resulted in longer prison terms and overcrowded prisons. Ronald Wright stated in his article Managing Prison Growth in North Carolina through Structured Sentencing, that â€Å"Legislativley mandated determinate sentencing has not proved to be a workable alternative to the traditional indeterminate system.† (Abadinksy,2015.) Sentencing disparity has been another rising concern with the abolishment of parole boards and determinate sentencing. In the determinate sentencing scheme, the role of the parole board to decrease sentence disparity is ignored. Since one of the main functions of the parole board is to review the sentences of all state prisoners, it can act as a mediating factor. The state of Nebraska is a prime example. The parole board there functions as an â€Å"equalizer,† mediating between ninety-three prosecuting offices and multiple jurisdictions. (Abadinsky, 2015.) Prisons are not constructed to house every offender ever given a prison sentence. Prison is meant to work like a circulation system. Unfortunately, the circulation system has come to halt. Politics have had an influence on prison sentence policy change and ultimately, overcrowded prisons. One theory suggests that high rates of incarceration in the United States and the overcrowding of U.S. prisons and jails result from decisions by policy makers to increase the use of prison sentences as well as the severity(Travis, Western, Redburn, 2014). In 1982, when President Reagan declared the war on drugs, law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges alike began to treat drug offenses more seriously and this led to an increase in incarceration. (Javitze, 2009.) Politicians who preach â€Å"tough on crime† statutes are to blame for prison overcrowding as well. â€Å"Clearly, parole was an easy target for those looking for political opportunities,† notes Barbara Krauth, and â€Å" emotional appeal of an attack on the system that released criminals to the streets may have benefited some political careers more than if actually addressed any of the complex problems of criminal justice.† (Abadinksy, 2015.) Some have described sentencing reform as a â€Å"political football.† (Stansky, 1996.) Because of our nation’s democratic system of frequent legislative elections, widely dispersed governmental powers, and election of judges and prosecutors, law makers tend to be susceptible to public opinions about crime and can become vulnerable to pressures from the public and political opponents to quickly enact tough legislation (Javitze, 2009). Indeterminate sentencing schemes are a much better alternative than determinate sentencing. Indeterminate sentencing usually involves a minimum and maximum, with the actual release determined by a parole board or the result of the accumulation of good time. This type of sentencing was first introduced in 1840 when Alexander Maconochie set out a philosophy of punishment based on reforming the individual criminal; the criminal was to be punished for the past and trained for the future. (Abadinsky, 2015.) In contrast to determinate sentencing, indeterminate sentencing is less likely either to permit premature release or to allow prolonged confinement beyond that needed to ensure the safety of society. (Slobogin, 2011). Indeterminate sentencing focuses on a rehabilitative and reformative approach rather than a â€Å"just deserts† approach. Rehabilitative correctional programs cost more than a prison system that merely aims at unsparing punishment, but benefit society and the prisoners themselves more in the long run. Indeterminate sentencing requires regular evaluations and hearings, treatment teams, and means of rehabilitation in the community in addition to places of confinement. However, community programs are less expensive than institutions once they are established, and are better at reducing recidivism, thus better at reducing the overcrowded prison population (Slobogin, 2011.) Indeterminate sentencing serves two important purposes: one being that indeterminate sentences and parole help to prepare prisoners for the outside world. â€Å"In the absence of discretionary release by a parole board, there is little, if any, pressure on prisoners to prepare for post release.† (Abadinsky, 2015.). The second being that this type of sentencing scheme protects the public from violent, habitual offenders while helping the nonviolent offenders gain opportunity in life. (Gault, 1921.) Another benefit of indeterminate sentences and parole boards is that distinctions can be made between inmates deserving early release and those who do not. Assessments can be made to determine which inmates should be released before the expiration of their sentence and which inmates should be denied release. This type of discretion is allocated to parole boards, who evaluate inmates carefully and decide who stays and who goes. Parole boards stem from the power of governors to pardon selected criminals. In states who use determinate sentencing, a similar release function is carried out by prison officials using good time. Although, prison officials do not have the information, time, or expertise to make accurate release decisions. Indeterminate sentencing and parole allows for parole boards to make discretionary decisions based on their knowledge of the offenders, and also provides an incentive for prisoners to develop personals goals and become motivated to be law-abiding citizens. (Abadinsky, 2015.) In conclusion, overcrowded prisons can be attributed to the use of determinate sentencing over indeterminate sentencing. Indeterminate sentencing offer the option of early release at the discretion of a parole board. While critics of indeterminate sentencing and parole boards claim that this discretionary decision should be left up to judges, parole boards are much better equipped to properly handle the release of offenders. Parole boards also provide support for inmates to prepare them for life on the outside. Without parole boards and a variety of other similar programs, there is little pressure on inmates to prepare for post-release life. This situation ultimately leads to higher recidivism rates, and finally, overcrowded prisons.

Teen Suicide Can be Stopped Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Teen Suicide Can be Stopped - Essay Example Teen suicide deprives families of their happiness and subjects parents and the whole community to a sad situation which can be avoided. In 2001 teen suicide stood at 30622. According to Peacock (2000), â€Å"Teen suicide was the 3rd leading cause of death among young adults and adolescents 15 to 24 years of age, following unintentional injuries and homicide. The rate was 9.9/100,000.† The rate at which teen suicide has been occurring in the recent past makes people believe that it may not have a lasting solution. I concur with this view but on a deeper scrutiny, it can be realized that there are possible solutions to the problem. Before, there were efforts made towards reducing these cases. The net effect still doesn’t completely eliminate the problem but reduces it to a remarkable level. Mastering the Psychology of teens who fall victims could be the main barrier to eradicating the problem of teen suicide (Shaffer 1988). The way in which those planning to commit suicide behave is not easy to note without proper skills. However, giving this issue a priority in the school curriculum and back at home can lead to its eradication. The other challenge that may hinder the eradication of this problem is the lack of openness of most teens to their parents. It is a fact that the teens in the 21st century are not very open with their parents and teachers. Lichtenstein (2011) argues that this is mainly due to the advancement in technology that encourages virtual world imagination and interaction. By this, the teens concentrate more on devices such as computers rather than sharing their daily experiences with their parents. Diverting focus on the virtual world and their interactive surfaces can be made in such a way that this information concerning the need to eradicate teen suicide is delivered to them. Giving the problem of teen suicide priority in the school curriculum and teen interaction sites can be a way of eradicating the problem.

Conference wk 5 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Conference wk 5 - Coursework Example This information can be incorporated with intelligence service to provide ground onto which investigations about adversaries and malicious acts can be started. Information can also be used to make the people of the United States resilience. The information sharing strategy is faced with the challenge of the media through which the information can be passed (Purpura, 2007). This is because the cyberspace is believed to be a critical infrastructure faced with threats such as cybercrime. The accomplishment of the protection of critical infrastructure mission is meant to keep the information secure and private. The information must have the sender and the receiver. The receiver acts as the audience. The information must be directed to the right audience. The messages that are sent must be educative and informing. Homeland security department should then look for feedback from the audience. Feedback can then help the department know how to treat the information, the audience or the subjec t (Coppola, 2011). They can know whether or not it is corrupted. Homeland Security department affects the environmental justice through the impact of its operation, regulatory activities and through financial assistance to tribal, state and local governments. The operations made by Homeland Security department can sometimes affect the environment which could be the people, community, organizations and its partners. The cooperation of all the players is required to provide understanding of the mission (Coppola, 2011). Environmental justice can be provided through training and education on the known and unknown threats. For known disasters, Homeland Security, Energy and Justice Departments can launch campaign to train the public on how to deal with specific situations when they happen or before they happen. First responders are usually available to help where individuals and communities fail to deal with disasters (Purpura, 2007). Securing

Asian Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Asian Management - Essay Example In this context, the management has to be reformed in order to meet the requirements set by the constantly changing environment. Currently, management presents two forms covering the needs of privatised sector and SOEs. Under these terms, SOEs are subjects either to the line system (depended on the central industrial ministry) or the block system (representing the local government institutions). As of the main industrial areas in which SEOs operate, the following ones can be used as an indicative sample: oil, telecommunications, aviation, power and steel. The role of the management team to the performance of the above organizations has been considered as significant, however the presence of particular elements (like the close dependency from the central government or the use of a highly bureaucratic system when applying the managerial plans in practice) often create a net of negative influences to the management’s daily operations. In the modern industrial and economic environment, governments not only ‘shape their countrys economy but also their culture and penetrate deeply into the dynamics of organizations’. Moreover (Tjosvold, 2002, 741) organizations must be understood ‘within their larger context, in particular in terms of their dependence on government’. In this context, facilitative governments are ‘supportive of independent organizations, operate through predictable laws and regulations, and are strong, whereas nonfacilitative governments are hostile, erratic, and weak; organization and management in the embrace of government shows that nonfacilitative governments require managers to accommodate to complex dependencies’. Particularly regarding China, managers in private companies, ‘unsure how to cope with many vague and contradictory laws, indicated that they were dependent upon the good graces of government officials more than established state-owned enter prises (SOEs)’. On the other hand it has been proved (Zhu, 1994, 1, 12)

King Creon and Antigone Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

King Creon and Antigone - Essay Example In the play, a fight between brothers over the control of Thebes resulted to their deaths. Unfortunately, their deaths are perceived differently by Antigone and King Creon. According to King Creon, Polynices who is one of their brothers that had died in the war does not deserve a proper burial because he fought against his people (Sophocles 2). On the other hand, Antigone argues that it is crucial for her brother to be given a proper burial because he is their blood. This variation in thought about the burial of Polynices is the one that led to the emergence of other issues. In the play, it is also evident that there was a clash of wills between Antigone and King Creon. This is evidenced by Antigone’s view about the essence of maintaining and observing the family’s sacredness in making any decision in life (Sophocles 3). According to her, it was the duty of family members to give one of their own a proper burial. On the other hand, King Creon believed that whoever goes against his country does not deserve any respect from anyone including his or her family members. Pride is also another element that contributed significantly to the creation of a big gap between King Creon and Antigone. According to the scenes in the play, it is pride that made King Creon decide not to offer his brother a proper burial. It is also his perception on the position of women in the society that made him ensure that the death of Polynices is not mourned by people. Additionally, it is Creon’s position as a king that made him not to accept Antigone’s opinion about the burial of their brother (Sophocles 2). In addition, Antigone’s pride also barred her from accepting the decision that was made by the king about Polynices’ burial. The decisions made by both the king and Antigone also shows that there was an issue of duties and values. This is evidenced by Antigone’s assertion that it was her duty to ensure her brother was

Urban tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Urban tourism - Essay Example In fact after WWII, Haiti was among the leading countries that had taken advantage of the international tourism that had aroused from the global economic restoration. This had created in Haiti an estimate of more than 60,000 direct and indirect jobs, contributed a 3.5% share to the country’s GDP, and earned an annual income of $50 million. (International Monetary Fund 34) According to Americas, during 1950s and ‘60s Haiti had been one of the strongest competitors in the tourism industry in the Caribbean (qtd. in Pawlowski 1). However, the development of tourism in Haiti has been historically lopsided and marred with many setbacks. Even during the most auspicious times, Haiti’s tourism has never attracted a significant portion of the total Antilles tourist market. Only Labadie on the northern coast has achieved consistent success, being the docking site of tourist cruises in the Caribbean (Lundahl 64). It was in Labadie where the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has been landing in Haiti for nearly 30 years, without informing tourists that it is actually part of Haiti, instead referring to it as an ‘island’ on Hispaniola (Lazar, par. 12-3; Pawlowski 2). Furthermore, the worsened political and social instability since the ending of Jean-Claude Duvalier’s dictatorial regime in 1986 (Hudman and Jackson 134) plus the inadequate infrastructure needed by a flourishing tourist industry – the focus of Duvalier’s later investments, have greatly pulled Haiti’s tourism indu stry backward, leaving a mere 800 hotel rooms available for tourists by the latter part of 1990s (Street 5). After Duvalier’s fall, though Haiti’s political leadership remains unstable, the second ascension to Presidency of Renà © Prà ©val in 2004 has brought a slow yet better changes to Haiti, such as, a stabilizing Haiti’s political climate; a

Hotel Industry Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Hotel Industry - Research Proposal Example An Organizational structure defines how job tasks are formally divided, grouped and coordinated. The main elements to consider while designing an organizational structure are Work Specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization and decentralization and formalization. The most common Organizational designs found in use are The simple structure is characterized by a low degree of departmentalization, wide spans of control, authority centralized in a single person, and little formalization. The strength of the simple structure lies in its simplicity. It's fast, flexible and inexpensive to maintain and accountability is clear. One major weakness is that it is difficult to maintain in anything other than a small organization. The decision making becomes slow as the organization grows in size because of its low formalization and high centralization. A bureaucracy is characterized by highly routine operating tasks achieved through specialization, much formalized rules and regulations, tasks that are grouped into functional departments, centralized authority, narrow spans of control, and decision making that follows the chain of command. The primary strength of bureaucracy lies in its ability to perform standardized activities in a highly efficient manner. One of the major weakness of this structure is that it causes departmental conflicts and highly inflexible always following the rules. There is no room for modification The Matrix structure is characterized by dual lines of authority and combines product and functional departmentalization. IBM adopts a modified version of the matrix structure in its overall operations. The strength of this structure lies in its ability to facilitate coordination and efficient allocation of specialists. The major disadvantage lies in the confusion it creates, its prosperity to foster power struggles, and the stress it places on individuals. The Team structure uses teams as the central device to coordinate work activities. Companies like DaimlerChrysler, Saturn, Motorola and Xerox have made extensive use of self managed teams to improve productivity at the operational level. In smaller companies, the team structure can define the entire organization. For instance, Imedia, a 30 person marketing firm in New Jersey is completely organized around teams. This structure is highly unsuitable for large companies. A Virtual organization is a small core organization that out sources major business functions. Ancle Hsu and David Ji run a virtual organization. Their firm, California based Apex Digital, is one of the world's largest producers of DVD Players, yet the company neither owns a factory nor employs an engineer. They contract everything out to firms in China. This is suitable for small and large organizations. The major advantage is the flexibility and the disadvantage is lack of managerial control in key aspects of business. The Boundaryless organization is an organization

Formal research report topic Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Formal report topic - Research Paper Example This section will form the foundation of the research and will assist in development of the comparison between the two companies. Pepsi is one of the leading brands of cola drinks across the world. Pepsi was founded in 1898 when a pharmacist experimented with various juices and syrups and invented the famous beverage Pepsi. With the intense efforts by the company and the highly levels of marketing and advertising, the company became renowned across the world. The company has adopted a number of different strategies for marketing as well as sales and has been able to develop strong brand recognition and brand equity across the globe (Pepsi, 2010). Pepsi owns a major part of the overall markets and the company has been able to build a strong brand image globally. Coca Cola is one of the leading companies throughout the world. Coca Cola has left a major mark on the industry and is recognized for to be the largest and most famous soft drinks company across the world. The company was introduced in 1886 when the company produced a drink with the ‘Coca Cola’ syrup and carbonated water in Atlanta. However over the years the company has grown to become the world’s largest and most well known companies across the world. Coca Cola has also been able to create goodwill and a trademark for itself. which has become invaluable and the goodwill that the company has been able to create for itself is very high. Coca Cola has been able to use its brand image and to develop and recover from the complete physical property loss that the company had been faced with. The company however with the name that it had created had been able to develop and gain back its position in the market (Coca Cola, 2010). Both the companies being giants in the industry will be compared and contrasted on three main areas, a) Strengths and weaknesses, b) financial perspectives and c) a comparison of the two companies as competitors. Pepsi Co. has seen a high

How To Start Palm Readings Essay Example for Free

How To Start Palm Readings Essay Demonstrative Outline by Daphne Lufkin How To Start Palm Readings Topic: How to read palmsGeneral Purpose: To inform and demonstrate Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about how the palm reading started palm and to demonstrate how you can predict someone future by following the steps of palm reading. I. Introduction: A. Attention-getter: Do we hold the secrets of our past, present, and future in the palms of our hands? Are those mysterious lines traced on our hands the blueprint of our character, our fortune, and our destiny? Just like the fortune tellers heres how to gain insight just by holding someones hand. B. Thesis Statement: The lines on your palm speak a language that spins the story of the past and the future; almost like a map saying where youve been and which way youre headed. Believe it or not, palm readers analyze your palm so they can inform you about your life, the past, present and future. C. Preview of Main Points: The art of palm reading has a history that can go far back as the greek world. It is practiced all over the world and the examined in varies different ways in order to predict the future of an individual. Fortunetellers, or palm readers, believe that the lines and patterns in an individuals hand, if read properly, can reveal events of the person. Apart from the lines, there are various other factors taken into consideration in palm reading, such as the hands shape, the shape and length of the fingers, how flexible the fingers and hands are, the thumbs position, the mounts, which are interpreted by their relative sizes and the intersections on them, and other qualities. Transition: IIBody I: A. Main Point 1 The ancient art of palm reading, also called palmistry or hiromancy, dates back thousands of years. Prehistoric caves in Spain and France have hands drawn on their walls with all the major lines shown in amazing detail. Cultures around the world have been turning to the fine art of palmistry for hundreds of years in an attempt to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos Palm reading, otherwise known as palmistry or chiromancy, is practiced all over the world, with roots in Indian astrolog y and gypsy fortune-tellingalmistry or palm reading, also known as chiromancy, comes from the Greek words, kheiros, which means hand, and manteia which means oracle, divination. The history of Palmisty originated in India, and later moved on to China, Egypt, and ancient Greece, gathering many different variations. Palmistry (also known as chiromancy) is the art of reading a persons palms in order to gain insight on certain personality traits and life experiences. Some claim that the ever-changing lines on our hands also provide a glimpse at our futures, There are specific palmistry schools that provide training courses for the same. Any individual interested in palmistry can enroll in the programs and learn how to read palms. However, learning how to palm read yourself for entertainment requires no specific skills. All you need is a little patience to read the palm reading basics and understand them 1. Supporting Point: In a book named Physiognomy Palmistry, Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician, traces the history of palmistry back to 497 B. C. 2. Supporting Point: 3. Supporting Point: Transition: According to palmistry, hidden facts about life can be revealed with the help of palm reading. Each of the palm lines have a significant meaning of their own. III. Body II:. A. Main Point 2: A palm reader starts with the obvious and carries on via innumerous intricate steps of interpretation and judgment, to minute details. The conclusions that are made are not about certainty, but of the tendency or probability. A practitioner of palmistry usually starts by studying both hands; if you are a right-handed person your left hand is thought to be the birth hand, which reveals character predispositions that are inherited, while the right hand is considered as reflecting individuality, potential, and flexibility. For left-handed people, its the other way round. Here is a general explanation of the various types of hands, according to palmistry: So, which of the hands must you look at if you want to find out? Each hand tells a different story. There is an active hand and a dormant hand Traditionally, most palmists have advocated examining the left hand of women and the right hand of men. However, this approach will only give you half of the story of your volunteer’s life. Instead of limiting yourself to just one hand, take a closer look at both hands to see what deep secrets can be revealed. Many modern palmists now believe that a person’s non-dominant hand will show you their personality and proclivities, while their dominant hand will show you how they have applied their talents and ambitions in life. By using both hands when you read palms you can see where your volunteer has been and where they’re going to go. In palm reading, According to Chinese palm reading, the left hand is used for men below 30 years old; while for women below 30 years old, the right hand is referred for palm reading. The Hands Lean and firm hands indicate that the person is very economical. †¢Firm and strong hands mean that the individual has a dependable character. †¢If the palms of the hands are cupped deeply, it usually is indicative that the person will not be good in business. †¢A flabby and soft hand is a sign that the person likes an easy life. For females, the right hand is what youre born with, and left is what youve accumulated throughout your life For mal e, the left hand is what youre born with, and right is what youve accumulated throughout your life. Your dominant hand represents changes and developments in your talents and personality the right side represents individual talent and personality; The active hand represents how you will be able to change your life and your future Your weak hand tells you about your natural personality, the traits you were born with. while the left side indicates potentiality. the dormant hand denotes your inherent qualities and hidden potential by ways of genetics or those which are hereditary. Size: A person with large hands is somebody who would think first and then act while a person with small hands is more active and impulsive and thinks a lot less. The texture of the hand is also a key to the persona of the person. This has to be observed for both, the back and front of the hand or palm. A soft textured hand shows sensitivity and refinement. A coarse textured hand will depict a coarse nature. Calluses will show that the person is either a hardworking person or has a job where he has to work with his hands a lot. Note the texture of the hand, front and back. Soft hands signify sensitivity and refinement, while rough hands signifies a coarse temperament Flexibility of the Thumb: If the persons thumb is flexible to a certain extend, it would mean that he/she is quite accommodating, easy-going and adaptable, while people with more rigid thumbs are pretty obstinate. The flexibility of the hand shows the adjustable nature of the person. The more flexible the hand, the more adjusting his nature is. On the contrary, if the hand is stiff, the person has a rigid personality. People whose fingers can be very easily bent back (90 degrees to the palm) are pushovers. This is also an important aspect to consider in palm reading. The shape of the nails also gives us an insight into the personality traits of the person. Long nails which taper at the tips show creativity; while square nails show orderliness. The color of the hands shows the nature of blood circulation in the persons body. A pinkish colored hand, therefore, shows a healthy individual. Yellow denotes excessive bile production. Blue color shows a circulation problem. 1. Supporting Point: For instance, if youre right-handed then your right hand is the active hand and left hand is the dormant one. And if youre left-handed, its vice versa 2Supporting Point: 3. Supporting Point: Transition: It is a mysterious occurrence that the lines on our palms happen to depict the small and large changes in our lives. These lines are also constantly forming, changing, and disappearing. These lines have fascinated mankind for ages IV. BODY IV: , Palmistry with Mounts A. Main Point 3: The study of palmistry includes deciphering the meaning of lines on the palms. Apart from these lines, there are various mounts on the hand, which stand for certain qualities. These are also important, as are the lines that are on or emerge from these mounts. T he palm mounts are the little mounds of flesh that raise out of the palm (like at the base of each finger. ) The Institute of Palmistry says that mounts are representative of various types of brain activity The mounts are indicative of many traits including ambition, artistic appreciation, courage, and imagination among many others . Texture, firmness, and size are a factor in analyzing mounts 1. Apart from the lines, the texture of the palm, the color, flexibility, shape and size of fingers and nails, etc. also tell a lot about the persons nature Here is some general information about these mounts. 2. SP1: The Mount of Jupiter The mount at the base of the index finger is the Mount of Jupiter and it denotes ambition, leadership, religion, and love of nature. 3. SP2: The Mount of Saturn The mount at the base of the second finger is known as the Mount of Saturn, and it denotes soberness, wisdom, sadne ss, and balance. 2. SP3: The Mount of Sun The mount at the base of the ring finger is known as the Mount of Apollo. It denotes brilliance, artistic tendencies, happiness and success.

17th Century Treatment of Woman in Literature Essay Example for Free

17th Century Treatment of Woman in Literature Essay By the Middle Ages, it was commonly accepted that Eve was principally to blame for the disobedience that led to the fall of humanity. Greek ideas had replaced Jewish in Christian thinking, including the notion that the soul was good but the body evil. Heretical though this might have been, it didn’t stop sexuality being regarded as somehow evil. One of the few recorded medieval women writers, the mystic Margery Kempe, aspired to celibacy even within marriage. As it becomes apparent in a few select works representing women in medieval literature, includingThe Book of Margery Kempe, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Le Morte Darthur, in the middle ages or medieval period, restrictions placed on women underwent a significant change. At the beginning of this period, women’s roles were very narrowly prescribed and women did not have much to do with life outside of the home. As this age went on, however, women gradually began to express more opinions and have a greater and more equal role in society. Two earlier medieval texts, Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight offer readers two simple categories of women, those who are or are not confined. Later, with the writings of Margery Kempe, the strict duality begins to disappear and the reader is confronted with a woman who is blend of each of these ideas of women. While she is confined by her society, she is unconfined by its conventions such as marriage and traditional gender roles. In general, however, each text presents an example of a â€Å"proper† and confined woman as well as the complete opposite; almost so that the reader can see what evils can occur if a woman is not confined. The women in Beowulf, at least on first glance, might appear to be glorified waitresses and sexual objects, but their role is far more complicated than this. When it is stated in one of the important quotes from â€Å"Beowulf† that, â€Å"A queen should weave peace† As confined in a marriage, women in Beowulf are assigned the role of peace weaver, â€Å"queen and bedmateAll of the human women in Beowulf are queens and adhere to their duties as such with grace and obedience. The only exception to this model of medieval femininity is Grendel’s mother who is technically a woman but is so hideously described that the idea of gender becomes grossly distorted. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight even though it was written some years after Beowulf. In this text, the reader is first confronted with the ideal woman, Guenevere, who is confined and is serving her role as peace weaver and object for the male gaze. â€Å"the goodly queen gay in the midst/ on a dais well-decked and duly arrayed / with costly silk curtains†¦all broidered and bordered with the best gems† Chaucer’s womenAlthough women feature strongly in Chaucer’s earlier works, such as The Boke of the Duchess and Troilus and Criseyde, we only find three women on the pilgrimage described in The Canterbury Tales: * The Wife of Bath * The Prioress * ‘Another nun’ who accompanies her but is hardly mentioned again. The two principal women reflect the only ways that women at the time could achieve independence and status: in the Church or in a trade. The Wife of Bath represents those whose skills, such as weaving, gave them financial independence, though Chaucer’s character seems to have grown wealthy mainly by marrying a series of rich old men. is tempting to see the Wife as a champion of female rights, and her Tale brings out the idea that women should have maistrieover men, but the Wife is of course a character in a story written by a man. She has had five husbands, like the woman of Samariawho is challenged by Jesus (in John 4:17-18), ’withouten oother compaignye in youthe’. Her fifth husband, whom she married for love rather than riches, proved to be less compliant – and very well read. She claims to have put him in his place eventually, but Chaucer enjoys making the Wife recount (and try to refute) all the misogynistic tales with which he has assaulted her.  Women in Renaissance and after: Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the social standing and the legal and economic rights of women continued to be restrictive, limiting them to the domestic sphereDuring the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century and the resulting Catholic Counter-Reformation, the depiction of women in domestic roles became increasingly important. The social system of patriarchy matured during the early modern period, particularly during the Reformation. The concept of patriarchy involved male control over nearly all facets of society. The assigned works from the English Renaissance primarily portray women unrealistically. Despite a few exceptions, these works depict women as being idealistically beautiful, as having perfect virtue, or, conversely, as exercising hyperbolically negative traits. The few exceptions to this rule do depict women in a more realistic light. For instance, in its first six stanzas, the female speaker of John Donne’s â€Å"The Bait† praises Marlowe’s â€Å"Passionate Shepherd,† but in the final quatrain, she acknowledges how foolish she is for biting at his bait, saying, â€Å"That fish that is not catched thereby, / Alas, is wiser far than I† (1247). William Shakespeare also paints a realistic picture of a woman in Sonnet 130, debunking the florid Petrarchan conventions that elevate women’s beauty almost beyond comprehension but asserting that his mistress is â€Å"as rare† (1041) as any Petrarchan subject nonetheless. Among the male authors, Shakespeare also presents the most substantive and realistic female character of these works with Cordelia in King Lear. Although her honesty at first brings disownment and exile, she emerges as one of the few characters in the play who remain true to their convictions throughout the course of the narrative. Cordelia’s realistic portrayal is rivaled only by the highly personal poetry of the only female author assigned, Katherine Philips. In â€Å"A Married State,† Philips also debunks the popular perspective favoring of marriage, especially with its benefits for women, noting to her audience of young women that the single life yields â€Å"No blustering husbands to create your fears; / No pangs of childbirth to extort your tears; / No children’s cries for to offend your ears† (1679). Another of her poems, â€Å"On the Death of My First and Dearest Child, Hector Philips,† provides an equally realistic yet exponentially more emotional account of the uniquely maternal experience of losing a child. Despite the success of these works in presenting realistic depictions of women, they are the exceptions to the rule, as the majority of the assigned works portray women quite unrealistically. Perhaps the most common of the exaggerated portrayals addresses women’s physical beauty. Sonnet 64 of Edmund Spenser’s Amorettidescribes his subject with the inflated Petrarchan conventions satirized by Shakespeare, likening each detail of her physical appearance to a different flower, and claiming that â€Å"her sweet odour did them all excel† (866)—an obviously impossible feat. The bride of Spenser’s Epithalamion is sung as having similarly cosmic beauty, with â€Å"eyes like stars† (870) or â€Å"Saphyres shining bright† (872). In fact, Spenser describes â€Å"all her body† as â€Å"like a pallace fayre† (872) in a highly exaggerated comparison, the meaning of which almost defies interpretation. Even in a poem addressing the neo-Platonic ideal of finding virtue in beauty, Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil still relapses to using the common Petrarchan convention comparing Stella’s eyes to the sun in Sonnet 71 before concluding with the confession that he fails in his attempt to elevate his attention from her physical beauty to her underlying virtue. These last two works also invoke the fallacy of women as having unadulterated virtue. Again, Astrophil lauds the inherent goodness that Stella’s beauty reflects. Not only does she possess this virtue, but she also seeks to improve all with whom she comes in contact: â€Å"And not content to be Perfection’s heir / Thyself, dost strive all minds that way to move, / Who mark in thee what is in thee most fair† (926). Spenser describes one example of the flawless disposition of the bride ofEpithalamion by recounting her humility, even shyness, in the face of the adoring stares of all the guests at her wedding and the unsullied virginity she brings to her marriage bed. In another work, the virtuous Celia of Ben Jonson’s Volpone finds her faith and integrity unrewarded with an attempted affair forced upon her by her husband and a false conviction for allegedly seducing yet another man. Finally, in a highly complex simile, Donne draws a parallel between his love and â€Å"the fixed foot† (1249) of a compass in â€Å"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. † The woman he addresses is so constant, so faithful, so flawlessly virtuous, that she is as the tool that produces the circle, the shape of perfection. Just as common as excessively positive characterizations of women are the excessively negative. Two of the assigned plays include women whose primary activity is political scheming: Goneril and Regan in King Lear and Lady Politic Would-Be in Volpone. Goneril and Regan present flattering platitudes to their father, Lear, that do not reflect their true feelings for him. In fact, after receiving their inheritances of half the kingdom each, they want nothing more to do with him and turn him out into the stormy night. Lady Politic also schemes in an effort to increase her social status, leveling false accusations of adulterous seduction against Celia in order to advance her and her husband’s own chances of inheriting Volpone’s fortune. The speaker of Donne’s â€Å"Song† might have been hurt by such women as these, for he denies the existence of any faithful and virtuous woman. If his addressee were to find a seemingly true woman, Donne laments that â€Å"Though she were true when you met her, / . . . / Yet she / Will be / False, ere I come, to two, or three† (1238). Another of Donne’s poems, â€Å"The Flea,† contains another common criticism of women: that they too often deny their suitors. The listener of this dramatic monologue, in killing the flea, casually rejects the speaker’s elaborate analogical argument for a relationship between them, and in response, the speaker insults her honor, which amounts to as much â€Å"as this flea’s death took life from thee† (1236). â€Å"The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd† also counters an elaborate argument, this one an appeal more emotional than rational. Sir Walter Ralegh’s nymph responds to each point from Marlowe’s shepherd with the argument that all his promised goods and pleasures will fade with time, including his own youth and love. This reply to a heartfelt attempt to win her love establishes the nymph as cold and self-centered, as opposed to the devoted and emotionally expressive shepherd. The speaker of Andrew Marvell’s â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† experiences a similar rejection from his intended lover. Rather than praise her beauty and virtue, he mocks them as fleeting and meaningless, respectively, saying, â€Å"Thy beauty shall no more be found, / . . . in thy marble vault . . . † (1691) and â€Å". . . then worms shall try / That long-preserved virginity, / And your quaint honor turn to dust† (1691-92). Perhaps the strongest indictments of women in these works charge them with an opposite sin: the base corruption of formerly virtuous men. Arcasia, in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, attracts and seduces good men only to turn them into wild beasts doomed to her service. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 144 describes a similar woman, close contact with whom carries damning effects: â€Å"To win me soon to hell, my female evil / Tempteth my better angel from my side, / And would corrupt my saint to be a devil† (1042). The most â€Å"accomplished† female corrupter of these works affects not only the man in her life but all of humankind. John Milton’s Eve, after ignoring the counsel of her wiser husband, inflicts sin upon all her descendents as a result of her inferior reason, virtue, and faith—according to Adam and Milton. The sinful history of humanity to follow owes itself to the weakness of a woman. The enormity of this last example typifies how the unrealistically exaggerated portrayals of women in English Renaissance literature far outweigh the few examples of more realistic and moderate depictions. This subject culminates in the image of Miltons Eve in the epic poem Paradise Lost. Although Miltons Eve comes, in the mid-seventeenth century, at the end of the Renaissance in England, her image builds upon, and perpetuates, Renaissance antifeminist commonplaces, while it also questions and undermines them. Milton emphasizes Eves subordinate position in his description of Adam and Eve in Book 4: For contemplation he and valor formed, /For softness she and sweet attractive grace; /He for God only, she for God in him (11. 296-299). Eve herself articulates and generalizes that subservience: God is thy Law, thou mine; to know no more/Is womans happiest knowledge and her praise (11. 638-639). When she rebels against her secondary position, she separates herself from Adam in their Edenic tasks and thus is vulnerable to Satans temptations. When the Renaissance in England was at its height, in Edmund Spensers Elizabethan world, the great epic poet of the 1590s presents images of women that contrast with the shadowy or negative women of Miltons epic poem. While antifeminist views of female nature are embodied in the allegorical Error in Book 1 of Spensers The Faerie Queene, other females throughout the epic serve to celebrate women. In part because Spensers poem was written in praise of his own Queen Elizabeth, the positive images of women range widely. They include the gentle, yet forceful, Una, whose cry, Fie, fie, faint harted knight (1. x. 465) shocks the feeble Redcrosse Knight into action against the temptations of Despair. In the third book of The Faerie Queene, the virtue of Chastity is exemplified through the woman warrior Britomart. In this portrait, Spenser tells Queen Elizabeth that he is disguising praise of her, his own queen, since explicit celebration would be inadequate: But O dred Soveraine/ Thus farre forth pardon, sith that choicest wit/ Cannot your glorious pourtraict figure plaine/ That I in colourd showes may shadow it,/ And antique praises unto present persons fit (3. . 23-27). Throughout her reign, Queen Elizabeth provided a strong, positive image of a woman, through which poets from Peeles play, The Arraignment of Paris, through William Shakespeares Henry VI, Part 3 found opportunities to create dominant roles for woman. Yet Queen Elizabeth herself perpetuated some of the misogynist stereotypes that haunted her at her accession in 1558, in such tracts as John Knoxs Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. Queen Elizabeth ruled through her own alienation from her womanliness. She ruled as the Virgin Queen, continuing the idea of chastity as the norm and replacing in her still newly Protestant country the lost ideal of the Virgin Mary. The artifice of her costuming and the artfulness of her speeches both contributed to her power. During Elizabeths reign from 1558 to 1603, positive images of women include the female characters of Shakespeares comedies, like Rosalind of As You Like It and Beatrice of Much Ado about Nothing. After James Is accession, however, the Jacobean theater explored female characters who achieved tragic, heroic stature, like John Websters The Duchess of Malfi. In her closet drama, The Tragedy of Mariam, Elizabeth Cary explored the dilemmas facing strong women. In addition, in this later period of the Renaissance, such women writers as Elizabeth Grymeston, the author of the Miscelanea; Lady Mary Wroth, the author of the poetry and prose epic romance Urania; and Amelia Lanier, the author of a poetic defense of Eve, became creators of rich images of women, which we are only now beginning to recover.

Contemporary Styles of Preaching

Contemporary Styles of Preaching Chapter Five Impact, event, and context in contemporary preaching 5.1 Mapping the commonalities. The diversity of the trends identified in the earlier review (sections 2.4 to 2.8) presents a particular challenge to the analysis of justifiable generalizations about homiletic theory and practice in the last half-century. As Edwards observes, there seem to be more forms of preaching today than in all previous Christian centuries put together (2004: 835). Furthermore, Edwards judges that preachers during the late-twentieth century tried to accomplish a greater variety of things through their sermons than any of their predecessors attempted (2004: 663). Allen, Blaisdell and Johnston similarly describe the current homiletical scene as a smorgasboard of approaches and cite no less than eleven identifiable contemporary styles of preaching (1997: 171). According to Edwards two developments account for this diversity: namely, the sheer number of people who designate themselves as Christians (in the 20th century Christianity became the most extensive and universal religion in history (Barratt, 2001: 3)), and the huge proliferation of organizational bodies within which preachers are operative (2004: 835). The work of the statisticians Barratt, Kurian and Johnson supports Edwards judgement; in their World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) they estimate that in the year 2000 Christians of all kinds numbered 2 billion people in 33,820 distinct denominations (2001: 10). They observe that there are today Christians and organized Christian churches in every inhabited country on earth (2001: 3). The impact of this globalization is significant even in the much narrower geographical confines of this thesis, and it is inconceivable that an accurate appraisal of preaching practice and theory could be made apart from a ready acknowledgement of the fo rces and influences that are properly termed global. The indicators of institutional decline apparent in the churches of the Western world have to be set against rapid and continuing growth in other parts of the globe. This shift of numerical strength inevitably has consequences for preaching as for other aspects of church practice and faith. The presence in the UK of Christian personnel from the southern parts of the world, increased congregation to congregation contact made possible by cheap air travel, and the development of Internet usage, all offer new understandings and strategies from elsewhere in the global church in ways much more directly influential than even in the immediate past. The practice of preaching, like most other human endeavours in the early twenty-first century, takes place within a pluriform social environment in which many and diverse influences from the widest possible arenas of human activity have a bearing. That said, preaching, in social terms, remains predominantly a locally-focused activity, and sermon style and content are usually closely related to the specifics of the sub-cultural frames in which the life and self-understanding of the congregation is set. Consequently, the power of the local context is another factor underlying Edwards observation of the immense diversity of contemporary sermon styles. As Edwards puts it, such diversity shows how radically ad hoc all Christian preaching is (2004: 835). That is not to say, however, that such enormous diversity denies the possibility of any sensible generalization. In particular, as was suggested in the earlier review, three aspects are identifiable within contemporary preaching practices that have particular significance for collective memory-namely, awareness of a sermons psychological engagement, communicative salience and contextual pertinence. In other words, those aspects of preaching that deal with a sermons impact on the hearer; its purposefulness as an event in its own terms; and its relationship to the context in which it is delivered and heard. In order to establish an analytical framework that is not too unwieldy three texts that are in some sense representative documents will be analysed closely. Other texts that develop, challenge, or amplify the issues disclosed will be added to the discussion as the argument requires. The representative texts have been selected as indicative of three prominent strands in the ongoing discussion of homiletic practice: firstly, continuity in terms of issues of concern and of practice methodology; secondly, change in practice and the philosophical and technical components that undergird it; and thirdly, reorientation that aims to subtly change the locus of practice itself. The first text will utilize a perspective from prior to the 1955 to 2005 period under review that still has currency, albeit in terms significantly altered from earlier years. The second will analyse a perspective of more recent origin that signifies contemporary concerns with philosophy and communications theory and the technical practice that flows from them. And the third will examine a perspective that sees the local context of preaching as fundamental to homiletic activity rather than just the arena in which it takes place. The first text is Phillips Brooks Lyman Beecher Lectures of 1877, last reissued in book form as recently as 1987, and described by Killinger as one of the most readable and inspiring volumes on preaching ever penned (1985: 207). The version used here will be the 1904 edition, published in London under the title Lectures on Preaching. No attempt will be made to alter the gender specificity of Brooks words since, although this study readily acknowledges that the preaching task belongs as much to women as to men, the assumptions of his text in this area are a clear marker of changes that have taken place even under the cover of longstanding common concerns. David Buttricks 1987 book Homiletic: Moves and Structures is the second focus. At more than 500 pages, this is a monumental work in size, as well as scope and influence. Edwards (2004: 806) describes Buttricks work as being as influential and significant as Fred Craddocks pioneering of the New Homiletic, and Lischer (2002: 337) credits him with the first homiletic in theory and practice geared to our [present day] culture of images. The final representative text is Leonora Tisdales 1997 work Preaching as Local Theology and Folk Art, which asks preachers to become ethnographers of their congregations in order to understand the human nature of their hearers from the inside as it were. Tisdale is one of a new movement of homiletic practitioners and theoreticians at home with anthropological and sociological models in Christian ministry and alert to cultural-linguistic issues. Her work provides a way into the insights of those who acknowledge that preachings former authority has all but evaporated, but who see a radical social re-encounter as being a real possibility for a reshaped sermon practice. 5.2 Continuities of concerns and practice: Brooks and contemporary preaching. As was noted earlier (Section 2.5), Brooks Lyman Beecher Lectures remained much used as a guide to homiletic practice well into the period under review. Indeed such has been the influence of his insistence on preaching as the bringing of truth through personality (1904: 5) that Brooks expression continues to be repeated in exactly the same terms in contemporary works, such as those of Day (1998: 6) and Killinger (1985: 8). In dwelling on the preachers personality Brooks managed to encapsulate what, in the 1870s, was a new and burgeoning interest in the human psyche. It was hardly coincidence that his lectures were delivered in the same decade in which William James became Americas first professorial-level teacher of psychology (Harvard in 1875) and G. Stanley Hall the countrys first PhD in psychology. Unwittingly no doubt, Brooks reflected on novel intellectual ideas of his own day and, in doing so, identified within preaching practice what was to become a major preoccupation in many areas of discourse in the twentieth-century: namely, the human psyche and its relationship to action and truth. It is pertinent, therefore, to examine what Brooks understood by personality and its relationship to Christian truth in order to appreciate how his ideas were developed by homiletic practitioners in the period under review. What might appropriately be termed personalist (i.e. an emphasis in preaching on the personal religious experience of the hearer somehow addressed very directly by the preacher) has been, and continues to be, a major component in sermon delivery and design. Brooks concept of preaching as truth through personality became a kind of slogan for many preachers in the twentieth-century, and indeed remains a very influential mantra for many practitioners to this day. In Brooks lectures that sloganized thought had a rather more nuanced definition: Preaching is the communication of truth by man to men. It has in it two essential elements, truth and personality. Neither of those can it spare and still be preaching. The truest truth, the most authoritative statement of Gods, communicated in any other way than through the personality of brother man to men is not preached truth. Suppose it written on the sky, suppose it embodied in a book which has been so long held in reverence as the direct utterance of God that the vivid personality of the men who wrote its pages has well-nigh faded out of it; in neither of these cases is there any preaching. And on the other hand, if men speak to other men that which they do not claim for truth, if they use their powers of persuasion or of entertainment to make other men listen to their speculations, or do their will, or applaud their cleverness, that is not preaching either. The first lacks personality. The second lacks truth. And preaching is the bringing of truth through personality. (1904: 5) For Brooks, the two components of truth and personality had to stand together, since their meeting was the point at which the universal and the particular met. It would be an exaggeration to say that Brooks viewed religious truth as essentially something that can only be known in personal experience; but he did believe that truth was at its most effective and powerful when known and expressed in personal terms. He understood the truth of the Christian faith to be universal and invariable, with personality as the site where it was realized through variable and particular understanding and appropriation (1904: 15). Thus although he was clear gospel truth was a message to be transmitted, he insisted that it could only be transmitted via the voice of a witness, i.e. someone for whom it had become an indispensable part of that persons own experience (14). In terms of memory maintenance, Brooks approach assumes that the preacher is deeply cognizant of the Christian tradition and is, as it were, a bearer of it in his or her own person. 5.2.1 The personal characteristics of the preacher. Being such a bearer of the tradition required of the preacher exacting personal characteristics. The rigour Brooks brought to the personal qualities required of the preaching witness continues to be challenging reading for anyone pursuing such a role. Alongside a deep personal piety (1904: 38), Brooks listed mental and spiritual unselfishness (39), hopefulness as against judgmental fear (40), a vigorous commitment to physical health along with the offering of the whole of life in ministerial service (40), and an enthusiasm that made for a keen joy in preaching (42). Brooks saw the task of preaching as always needing an essential grounding in the very personhood of the preacher, by which he meant truth communicated through personality in an absolutely literal sense. The second of his Lyman Beecher Lectures, entitled The Preacher Himself, amplified the point in this enumeration of the qualities necessary for success in preaching: purity and uprightness of character; lack of self-consciousness founded on absolute trust in God; genuine respect for those preached to; thorough enjoyment of the task; gravity of intent in all things; and courage to speak out (1904: 49-60). At first sight the list appears remote from more recent homiletic theorys concern with techniques and philosophical issues, and therefore it might appear as less accessible and relevant to practitioners since the 1950s watershed in preaching identified earlier. Such personal qualities can seem to be more easily related to an era when the person of the preacher was regarded as carrying more authority than nowadays. Although in terms of wider social recognition the preacher is no longer a star of oratory, similar attributes are still sought after-but for rather different reasons. Killinger (1985), for example, stresses the importance of the physical and mental health of the preacher as an aspect of communication, since troubles in those areas are signalled subconsciously to an audience and work towards undermining the intended message. He writes: Suppose we are preaching about wholeness and reconciliation but actually conveying a message about fragmentedness and despondency. The words may sound right, but there is something about the tune, about the look in our eyes, about the tension in our faces, that counters what we are saying. At best, people get a double message. It is very important, therefore, for the preacher to be as healthy and joyous as possible. Anything less impedes his or her message about the life-giving community of God. We are working at our preaching, for this reason, even when we are taking care of ourselves. (1985: 198-199) Although the point is expressed in the idiom of late twentieth-century communications theory the reasoning is clearly akin to that of Brooks. For both, emphasis on the physicality of the preacher is an aspect of how the message will be received in the light of how the hearers perceptions of the speaker. The body of the preacher, as well as his or her mental and spiritual capabilities, is, in this sense, a tool in the preaching witness. Contemporary women homileticians have also emphasized physicality; but from a perspective that radicalizes it by making the woman preachers bodily experience a site of homiletic resource. In Walton and Durber (1994), the negative, indeed destructive, consequences of a profound prejudice in the Christian tradition against womens bodies are highlighted. They note that in the light of this shameful history and despite occasional counter-tradition movements, the advent of more widespread preaching by women with the rise of Nonconformity did not generally challenge the unembodied nature of homiletic practice. Until the rise of the Womens Movement, women preachers, like their male counterparts, stressed a common rationality and a universal human nature that was blind to the particularities of embodied experience (Walton and Durber, 1994: 2). In more recent years, however, some women homileticians have striven to speak from their bodily experience and utilize both the negative and positive aspects of femininity, conception, pregnancy, birth, health and nurture in their theology of preaching (for example, Ward, Wild and Morley, (1995); Gjerding and Kinnamon, (1984); Riley, (1985); By Our Lives, (1985); Maitland, (1995); and Marva Dawn in Graves, (2004)). According to Walton and Durber, such efforts are part of a new emphasis that is fuelling developments across the whole spectrum of theological enquiry. They write: Sexuality and suffering are still rarely named within a Christian tradition that prefers to speak of the spirit rather than the body, light rather than darkness and a God who creates life but bears no responsibility for pain and dying. Women who have begun to preach from their bodies are not merely redressing an existing imbalance and enriching the storehouse of Christian metaphors and symbols but are also provoking new theological debates close to the very heart of the faith. (1994: 4) This emphasis on the body as a resource for preaching content rather than solely the necessary vehicle of delivery as it were, certainly takes Brooks focus on personhood further than he could possibly have imagined. That said, even here there is a certain congruence between what Brooks said and these very contemporary concerns. He did, after all, insist that the needs and preoccupations of no one sex or age should monopolize the life of the congregation, and that ministrations to it must be full at once of vigour and of tenderness, the fathers and the mothers touch at once (1904: 207). Brooks could not have possibly foreseen the Womens Movement and its repercussions for preaching, but his unease with a domineering and authoritarian style in the pulpit-mediated through his lasting influence-at least readied some preachers for a message that needed to be heard. The physical and personal qualities of the practitioner described neither in terms of communication theory nor embodied theology, but in ways even more reminiscent of Brooks own characterization of the preacher, have reasserted themselves through organization theory and the study of leadership. As the authority of the church, in terms of rules and obligations, has ebbed away, and the legitimacy of power based on tradition more and more questioned, it is perhaps the case that authority based on exemplary character has increased in relative importance. Certainly in the world of commerce and business the significance of the personal qualities of leaders and managers has been extensively theorized and debated. In the use of terms such as sapiential authority and referent power, organization theorists have pointed up the crucial importance of a personal knowledge and skill that readily communicates itself to others, and a personality-based ability to influence by attracting loyalty (Rees and Porter, 2001: 82). Other theorists, e.g. Charles Handy, talk in terms of the invisible but felt pull that is described as magnetism (1985: 135). Handy writes: Aspects of magnetism, the unseen drawing-power of one individual, are found all the time. Trust, respect, charm, infectious enthusiasm, these attributes all allow us to influence people without apparently imposing on them. The invisibility of magnetism is a major attraction as is its attachment to one individual. (1985: 136) Brooks himself used the very term magnetism and described it as: the quality that kindles at the sight of men, that feels a keen joy at the meeting of truth and the human mind, and recognizes how God made them for each other. It is the power by which a man loses himself and becomes but the sympathetic atmosphere between the truth on one side of him and the man on the other side of him. (1904: 42) Excluding the gender specificity, Handy might have written in very similar terms. (Comparable thoughts, although using other nomenclature, can also be found, for example in Schein, 1992: 229; Zohar and Marshall, 2000: 259; and Nelson, 1999: 76). The significance of the personal charisma of the preacher is, perhaps, in the process of rehabilitation via business practices that readily recognize the importance of personal as well as systemic qualities in the effective functioning of organizations. With the support of such an appreciation, a contemporary homiletician, such as Day, can assert, without risking suspicion and disapprobation, that the hope of the sermon lies in the authenticity of the preacher (1998: 147). As regards the maintenance of tradition as collective memory, the resurgence of individualized authority raises the question whether organizational structures within the churches are strong enough to prevent intentional or unintentional abuse of that corporate memory bearin g responsibility. 5.2.2 The preacher as learner and as pastor. Before leaving issues associated with personhood, two of Brooks themes regarding the preachers actions are worth considering since, again, they are things that continue to be widely discussed in the literature; namely, the preacher as learner and the preacher as pastor. After considering the dangers to the preachers personality of self-conceit, over-concern with failure, self-indulgence, and narrowness, Brooks brings his second lecture to a close with a vigorous plea for what would now be called lifelong learning. He writes: In [Christian ministry] he who is faithful must go on learning more and more for ever. His growth in learning is all bound up with his growth in character. Nowhere else do the moral and intellectual so sympathize, and lose or gain together. The minister must grow. His true growth is not necessarily a change of views. It is a change of view. It is not revolution. It is progress. It is a continual climbing which opens continually wider prospects. It repeats the experience of Christs disciples, of whom their Lord was always making larger men and then giving them larger truth of which their enlarged natures had become capable. (1904: 70) What Brooks discerned as an essential component of the preachers disposition has nowadays been widened to embrace all who claim to be faithful believers. Discipleship as lifelong learning is a concept in wide contemporary currency in the churches, and is discussed, for example, in documents such as the published strategies of the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church for training, detailed in the reports Formation for Ministry within a Learning Church (2003) and Shaping the Future: New patterns of training for lay and ordained (2006). The notion of Christian leaders needing to be exemplars in this ongoing commitment to learning and personal growth figures in much of the literature on congregations and pastoral ministry, such as Mead (1994), Baumohl (1984), Hawkins (1997), and Anderson (1997); albeit these and numerous other authors, make it plain that the goal of such action is the enhancement of learning in the whole church. In the preaching literatu re, allied perspectives are expressed in such concepts as local theology (Tisdale, 1997), conversational preaching (Rose, 1997), listening to or with sermon preparation (Van Harn, 2005), embodying the scriptures communally (Davis and Hays, 2003), and interactive preaching (Hunter, 2004). Through these and other mechanisms, Brooks call for continuous learning on the part of the preacher finds its contemporary expression in practices that aim to widen that learning to include the whole body of people who are party to the sermon and the preachers and their own wider ministry. As Anderson puts it, every act of ministry teaches something about God (1997: 8). That is a sentiment to which Brooks would have been sympathetic given his emphasis on the absolute core of preaching as the widest of concern for souls. Learning, in collective memory theory, is often associated with the changing of the meanings and understandings of memories, and the processes by which traditions are appropriated by individuals. As aspects of learning clearly related to relationships they echo contemporary concern in the church about whole body learning. In Brooks description of the preacher as pastor this analysis reaches very familiar territory, in that such a description probably remains the pre-eminent designation of the homiletician within the churches. Brooks thought on this matter was absolutely unequivocal: The preacher needs to be pastor, that he may preach to real men. The pastor must be preacher, that he may keep the dignity of his work alive. The preacher, who is not a pastor, grows remote. The pastor, who is not a preacher, grows petty. Never be content to let men truthfully say of you, He is a preacher, but no pastor; or, He is a pastor, but no preacher. Be both; for you cannot really be one unless you also are the other. (1904: 77) The conviction remains no less powerful more than a century after Brooks lectures: for example, Eric Devenport writing in 1986 could assert, without fear that his opinion would be controversial: Preaching and pastoral work go hand in hand. This is one of those truths that has to be proclaimed time after time, for unless it is heard, then most preaching will not only be dull but dead. (in Hunter, 2004: 145) Clearly, at different times and in different church structures, the nature of pastoral practice has been viewed in a variety of ways. Sometimes it has been mutual support in discipleship, and at other times psychotherapeutic intervention. In some circumstances it has been ad hoc care and conversation, and in others programmatic structures of community creation. Amongst these and many other activities, those who would preach have frequently seen such pastoral practice as a fundamental adjunct to the homiletic task. Although the influence of the problem centred preaching method of Henry Emerson Fosdick, mentioned above (section 2.5), has waned in recent decades, the notion that preaching must somehow relate to the felt life-concerns of those in the congregation is still the key to good practice for many preachers. Whether the emphasis is Tisdales (1997) preacher as the caretaker of local theology, Willimons (1979) or Longs (1989) straightforward emphasis on the role of pastor, Pasquare llos (2005) preaching as the development of communal wisdom, Buechners (1977) telling the truth in love, or Van Harns (2005) insistence on listening in preaching, the overarching perspective is that of pastoral care to individuals and groups. The tradition as collective memory must, in these circumstances, serve pastoral needs. Here the link to the presentist character of collective memory appears strong. 5.2.3 Preachings first purpose and the style appropriate to it. Returning to the issue of preaching as art. From Brooks paramount concern with personhood and themes that flow from it, this discussion now turns to two other aspects of his lectures that remain significant concerns in homiletic literature: style of language, and preachings first purpose. In his emphasis on preaching as witness, Brooks made a distinction that continues to figure prominently in homiletic texts to this day: namely, the difference between preaching about Christ and preaching Christ (1904: 20). Preachers, Brooks insisted, should announce Christianity as a message and proclaim Christ as a Saviour not-discuss Christianity as a problem (1904: 21). He asserted: Definers and defenders of the faith are always needed, but it is bad for a church when its ministers count it their true work to define and defend the faith rather than to preach the Gospel. Beware of the tendency to preach about Christianity, and try to preach Christ. (1904: 21) This distinction continues to be vigorously promoted, particularly amongst the New Homiletic advocates of an inductive sermon methodology. From the distinction there comes an emphasis in sermonic style on a demonstrably engaging, emotionally affective, and inclusivist presentation, rather than a detached, analytical or objective stance. Brooks would have undoubtedly concurred with David Bartletts worries about sermon style that appears to make sin more interesting than grace, and evil more lively than goodness (in Graves, 2004: 25). Bartlett suggests that sermons too often misdirect their hearers by putting active or abstract language and thoughts in the wrong places. He writes, For the most part we show evil and then tell about goodness. We show judgment and then talk about the doctrine of mercy (in Graves, 2004: 25). Yet again, Brooks lectures were extraordinary prescient of a concern that has become commonplace these many years later. Likewise, Brooks conviction that a sermon is essentially a tool and not an end in itself is also a perspective that continues to be vigorously debated (Brooks, 1904: 110). Unlike Browne (1958), Brooks was insistent that preaching is not an art form. He wrote: The definition and immediate purpose which a sermon has set before it makes it impossible to consider it as a work of art, and every attempt to consider it so works injury to the purpose for which the sermon was created. Many of the ineffective sermons that are made owe their failure to a blind and fruitless effort to produce something which shall be a work of art, conforming to some type or pattern which is not clearly understood but is supposed to be essential and eternal. (1904: 109) In many ways, Brownes advocacy of the sermon as art-form (1958: 76) was a reaction to those who had taken Brooks evident pragmatism and utilitarianism as regards technique and turned it into a bald instructionalism that claimed too much for itself and was simply tedious. That was not Brooks intention, however, as his aim was an absolute focus on the tumultuous eagerness of earnest purpose (1904: 110). His overriding concern was that sermons should engage and communicate in such a way as to affect and mark personalities at their most profound level. As such, his understanding of the nature of sermonic engagement serves the purposes of collective memory. His objection to preaching as an art-form was the tendency he saw for art to be an end in itself-over concerned with pure forms and the abstractions of principles (see, for example, pages 110 and 267 of the 1904 edition). These many years later, art operates, and is applied within immensely diverse environments wholly unknown when Brooks lectured: so his criticism is, perhaps, no longer apposite. On the other hand, how far and in what ways artistic expression relates to and uses tradition is a question rather more vexed now than in Brooks day. The one aspect of artistic endeavour Brooks was willing to concede was art in the sense of an awesome appreciation of the mysteriousness of life. This was something Brooks regarded as an essential component of the preachers outlook, and was the reason for his advocacy of the preacher as, at least in some measure, a poet (1904: 262). Preaching as art form brings to the forefront of homiletic awareness the sermons place in the imaginative construal of engaging gospel alternatives to commonplace understandings and outlooks. Collective memory theory suggests that affiliation to group identity is an essential element in the continuity of memory. What the emphasis on preaching as art form does is alert the preacher to the need to create in preaching that sense of engagement, creativity and exploration that aims beyond utilitarian instruction. Here, preaching is seen as genuinely performative. Like the repeated performances of a classic drama, a sermon hearer can become intensively engaged again and again with material that, although familiar, becomes in the engagement surprisingly new. Likewise the preacher as performer or artist, works with familiar texts in order to render then creatively new in a sermon. From both sides of the sermon event collective memory is supported via the performative interaction. The discussion of art related issues in contemporary homiletic literature largely supports this assessment. Morris, in his Raising the Dead: The Art of the preacher as Public Performer, makes performance the guiding principle of all homiletics and insists that preaching should delight and enrich in ways similar to other mediums (1996: 19). Gilmore, in his Preaching as Theatre (1996) shares the same concern with performance, and designates preaching as a dramatic event that happens. He writes: As long as preaching is seen as lecturing or teaching, then, in order for it to be effective, listeners have to go away and do something about it. If it is art, they dont. By the time it is over something has happened, or has failed to happen. This is what makes preaching as an art distinctive, more exciting and satisfying when it works, more depressing and worrying when it doesnt. (1996: 7) Other homileticians are a little more reserved and tend to use the idea of art or artistic endeavour as but one tool the preacher can employ. For example, in Allen (1998), the appreciation of works of art and artistic frames for sermons are advocated as ways to create spheres of perception i Contemporary Styles of Preaching Contemporary Styles of Preaching Chapter Five Impact, event, and context in contemporary preaching 5.1 Mapping the commonalities. The diversity of the trends identified in the earlier review (sections 2.4 to 2.8) presents a particular challenge to the analysis of justifiable generalizations about homiletic theory and practice in the last half-century. As Edwards observes, there seem to be more forms of preaching today than in all previous Christian centuries put together (2004: 835). Furthermore, Edwards judges that preachers during the late-twentieth century tried to accomplish a greater variety of things through their sermons than any of their predecessors attempted (2004: 663). Allen, Blaisdell and Johnston similarly describe the current homiletical scene as a smorgasboard of approaches and cite no less than eleven identifiable contemporary styles of preaching (1997: 171). According to Edwards two developments account for this diversity: namely, the sheer number of people who designate themselves as Christians (in the 20th century Christianity became the most extensive and universal religion in history (Barratt, 2001: 3)), and the huge proliferation of organizational bodies within which preachers are operative (2004: 835). The work of the statisticians Barratt, Kurian and Johnson supports Edwards judgement; in their World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) they estimate that in the year 2000 Christians of all kinds numbered 2 billion people in 33,820 distinct denominations (2001: 10). They observe that there are today Christians and organized Christian churches in every inhabited country on earth (2001: 3). The impact of this globalization is significant even in the much narrower geographical confines of this thesis, and it is inconceivable that an accurate appraisal of preaching practice and theory could be made apart from a ready acknowledgement of the fo rces and influences that are properly termed global. The indicators of institutional decline apparent in the churches of the Western world have to be set against rapid and continuing growth in other parts of the globe. This shift of numerical strength inevitably has consequences for preaching as for other aspects of church practice and faith. The presence in the UK of Christian personnel from the southern parts of the world, increased congregation to congregation contact made possible by cheap air travel, and the development of Internet usage, all offer new understandings and strategies from elsewhere in the global church in ways much more directly influential than even in the immediate past. The practice of preaching, like most other human endeavours in the early twenty-first century, takes place within a pluriform social environment in which many and diverse influences from the widest possible arenas of human activity have a bearing. That said, preaching, in social terms, remains predominantly a locally-focused activity, and sermon style and content are usually closely related to the specifics of the sub-cultural frames in which the life and self-understanding of the congregation is set. Consequently, the power of the local context is another factor underlying Edwards observation of the immense diversity of contemporary sermon styles. As Edwards puts it, such diversity shows how radically ad hoc all Christian preaching is (2004: 835). That is not to say, however, that such enormous diversity denies the possibility of any sensible generalization. In particular, as was suggested in the earlier review, three aspects are identifiable within contemporary preaching practices that have particular significance for collective memory-namely, awareness of a sermons psychological engagement, communicative salience and contextual pertinence. In other words, those aspects of preaching that deal with a sermons impact on the hearer; its purposefulness as an event in its own terms; and its relationship to the context in which it is delivered and heard. In order to establish an analytical framework that is not too unwieldy three texts that are in some sense representative documents will be analysed closely. Other texts that develop, challenge, or amplify the issues disclosed will be added to the discussion as the argument requires. The representative texts have been selected as indicative of three prominent strands in the ongoing discussion of homiletic practice: firstly, continuity in terms of issues of concern and of practice methodology; secondly, change in practice and the philosophical and technical components that undergird it; and thirdly, reorientation that aims to subtly change the locus of practice itself. The first text will utilize a perspective from prior to the 1955 to 2005 period under review that still has currency, albeit in terms significantly altered from earlier years. The second will analyse a perspective of more recent origin that signifies contemporary concerns with philosophy and communications theory and the technical practice that flows from them. And the third will examine a perspective that sees the local context of preaching as fundamental to homiletic activity rather than just the arena in which it takes place. The first text is Phillips Brooks Lyman Beecher Lectures of 1877, last reissued in book form as recently as 1987, and described by Killinger as one of the most readable and inspiring volumes on preaching ever penned (1985: 207). The version used here will be the 1904 edition, published in London under the title Lectures on Preaching. No attempt will be made to alter the gender specificity of Brooks words since, although this study readily acknowledges that the preaching task belongs as much to women as to men, the assumptions of his text in this area are a clear marker of changes that have taken place even under the cover of longstanding common concerns. David Buttricks 1987 book Homiletic: Moves and Structures is the second focus. At more than 500 pages, this is a monumental work in size, as well as scope and influence. Edwards (2004: 806) describes Buttricks work as being as influential and significant as Fred Craddocks pioneering of the New Homiletic, and Lischer (2002: 337) credits him with the first homiletic in theory and practice geared to our [present day] culture of images. The final representative text is Leonora Tisdales 1997 work Preaching as Local Theology and Folk Art, which asks preachers to become ethnographers of their congregations in order to understand the human nature of their hearers from the inside as it were. Tisdale is one of a new movement of homiletic practitioners and theoreticians at home with anthropological and sociological models in Christian ministry and alert to cultural-linguistic issues. Her work provides a way into the insights of those who acknowledge that preachings former authority has all but evaporated, but who see a radical social re-encounter as being a real possibility for a reshaped sermon practice. 5.2 Continuities of concerns and practice: Brooks and contemporary preaching. As was noted earlier (Section 2.5), Brooks Lyman Beecher Lectures remained much used as a guide to homiletic practice well into the period under review. Indeed such has been the influence of his insistence on preaching as the bringing of truth through personality (1904: 5) that Brooks expression continues to be repeated in exactly the same terms in contemporary works, such as those of Day (1998: 6) and Killinger (1985: 8). In dwelling on the preachers personality Brooks managed to encapsulate what, in the 1870s, was a new and burgeoning interest in the human psyche. It was hardly coincidence that his lectures were delivered in the same decade in which William James became Americas first professorial-level teacher of psychology (Harvard in 1875) and G. Stanley Hall the countrys first PhD in psychology. Unwittingly no doubt, Brooks reflected on novel intellectual ideas of his own day and, in doing so, identified within preaching practice what was to become a major preoccupation in many areas of discourse in the twentieth-century: namely, the human psyche and its relationship to action and truth. It is pertinent, therefore, to examine what Brooks understood by personality and its relationship to Christian truth in order to appreciate how his ideas were developed by homiletic practitioners in the period under review. What might appropriately be termed personalist (i.e. an emphasis in preaching on the personal religious experience of the hearer somehow addressed very directly by the preacher) has been, and continues to be, a major component in sermon delivery and design. Brooks concept of preaching as truth through personality became a kind of slogan for many preachers in the twentieth-century, and indeed remains a very influential mantra for many practitioners to this day. In Brooks lectures that sloganized thought had a rather more nuanced definition: Preaching is the communication of truth by man to men. It has in it two essential elements, truth and personality. Neither of those can it spare and still be preaching. The truest truth, the most authoritative statement of Gods, communicated in any other way than through the personality of brother man to men is not preached truth. Suppose it written on the sky, suppose it embodied in a book which has been so long held in reverence as the direct utterance of God that the vivid personality of the men who wrote its pages has well-nigh faded out of it; in neither of these cases is there any preaching. And on the other hand, if men speak to other men that which they do not claim for truth, if they use their powers of persuasion or of entertainment to make other men listen to their speculations, or do their will, or applaud their cleverness, that is not preaching either. The first lacks personality. The second lacks truth. And preaching is the bringing of truth through personality. (1904: 5) For Brooks, the two components of truth and personality had to stand together, since their meeting was the point at which the universal and the particular met. It would be an exaggeration to say that Brooks viewed religious truth as essentially something that can only be known in personal experience; but he did believe that truth was at its most effective and powerful when known and expressed in personal terms. He understood the truth of the Christian faith to be universal and invariable, with personality as the site where it was realized through variable and particular understanding and appropriation (1904: 15). Thus although he was clear gospel truth was a message to be transmitted, he insisted that it could only be transmitted via the voice of a witness, i.e. someone for whom it had become an indispensable part of that persons own experience (14). In terms of memory maintenance, Brooks approach assumes that the preacher is deeply cognizant of the Christian tradition and is, as it were, a bearer of it in his or her own person. 5.2.1 The personal characteristics of the preacher. Being such a bearer of the tradition required of the preacher exacting personal characteristics. The rigour Brooks brought to the personal qualities required of the preaching witness continues to be challenging reading for anyone pursuing such a role. Alongside a deep personal piety (1904: 38), Brooks listed mental and spiritual unselfishness (39), hopefulness as against judgmental fear (40), a vigorous commitment to physical health along with the offering of the whole of life in ministerial service (40), and an enthusiasm that made for a keen joy in preaching (42). Brooks saw the task of preaching as always needing an essential grounding in the very personhood of the preacher, by which he meant truth communicated through personality in an absolutely literal sense. The second of his Lyman Beecher Lectures, entitled The Preacher Himself, amplified the point in this enumeration of the qualities necessary for success in preaching: purity and uprightness of character; lack of self-consciousness founded on absolute trust in God; genuine respect for those preached to; thorough enjoyment of the task; gravity of intent in all things; and courage to speak out (1904: 49-60). At first sight the list appears remote from more recent homiletic theorys concern with techniques and philosophical issues, and therefore it might appear as less accessible and relevant to practitioners since the 1950s watershed in preaching identified earlier. Such personal qualities can seem to be more easily related to an era when the person of the preacher was regarded as carrying more authority than nowadays. Although in terms of wider social recognition the preacher is no longer a star of oratory, similar attributes are still sought after-but for rather different reasons. Killinger (1985), for example, stresses the importance of the physical and mental health of the preacher as an aspect of communication, since troubles in those areas are signalled subconsciously to an audience and work towards undermining the intended message. He writes: Suppose we are preaching about wholeness and reconciliation but actually conveying a message about fragmentedness and despondency. The words may sound right, but there is something about the tune, about the look in our eyes, about the tension in our faces, that counters what we are saying. At best, people get a double message. It is very important, therefore, for the preacher to be as healthy and joyous as possible. Anything less impedes his or her message about the life-giving community of God. We are working at our preaching, for this reason, even when we are taking care of ourselves. (1985: 198-199) Although the point is expressed in the idiom of late twentieth-century communications theory the reasoning is clearly akin to that of Brooks. For both, emphasis on the physicality of the preacher is an aspect of how the message will be received in the light of how the hearers perceptions of the speaker. The body of the preacher, as well as his or her mental and spiritual capabilities, is, in this sense, a tool in the preaching witness. Contemporary women homileticians have also emphasized physicality; but from a perspective that radicalizes it by making the woman preachers bodily experience a site of homiletic resource. In Walton and Durber (1994), the negative, indeed destructive, consequences of a profound prejudice in the Christian tradition against womens bodies are highlighted. They note that in the light of this shameful history and despite occasional counter-tradition movements, the advent of more widespread preaching by women with the rise of Nonconformity did not generally challenge the unembodied nature of homiletic practice. Until the rise of the Womens Movement, women preachers, like their male counterparts, stressed a common rationality and a universal human nature that was blind to the particularities of embodied experience (Walton and Durber, 1994: 2). In more recent years, however, some women homileticians have striven to speak from their bodily experience and utilize both the negative and positive aspects of femininity, conception, pregnancy, birth, health and nurture in their theology of preaching (for example, Ward, Wild and Morley, (1995); Gjerding and Kinnamon, (1984); Riley, (1985); By Our Lives, (1985); Maitland, (1995); and Marva Dawn in Graves, (2004)). According to Walton and Durber, such efforts are part of a new emphasis that is fuelling developments across the whole spectrum of theological enquiry. They write: Sexuality and suffering are still rarely named within a Christian tradition that prefers to speak of the spirit rather than the body, light rather than darkness and a God who creates life but bears no responsibility for pain and dying. Women who have begun to preach from their bodies are not merely redressing an existing imbalance and enriching the storehouse of Christian metaphors and symbols but are also provoking new theological debates close to the very heart of the faith. (1994: 4) This emphasis on the body as a resource for preaching content rather than solely the necessary vehicle of delivery as it were, certainly takes Brooks focus on personhood further than he could possibly have imagined. That said, even here there is a certain congruence between what Brooks said and these very contemporary concerns. He did, after all, insist that the needs and preoccupations of no one sex or age should monopolize the life of the congregation, and that ministrations to it must be full at once of vigour and of tenderness, the fathers and the mothers touch at once (1904: 207). Brooks could not have possibly foreseen the Womens Movement and its repercussions for preaching, but his unease with a domineering and authoritarian style in the pulpit-mediated through his lasting influence-at least readied some preachers for a message that needed to be heard. The physical and personal qualities of the practitioner described neither in terms of communication theory nor embodied theology, but in ways even more reminiscent of Brooks own characterization of the preacher, have reasserted themselves through organization theory and the study of leadership. As the authority of the church, in terms of rules and obligations, has ebbed away, and the legitimacy of power based on tradition more and more questioned, it is perhaps the case that authority based on exemplary character has increased in relative importance. Certainly in the world of commerce and business the significance of the personal qualities of leaders and managers has been extensively theorized and debated. In the use of terms such as sapiential authority and referent power, organization theorists have pointed up the crucial importance of a personal knowledge and skill that readily communicates itself to others, and a personality-based ability to influence by attracting loyalty (Rees and Porter, 2001: 82). Other theorists, e.g. Charles Handy, talk in terms of the invisible but felt pull that is described as magnetism (1985: 135). Handy writes: Aspects of magnetism, the unseen drawing-power of one individual, are found all the time. Trust, respect, charm, infectious enthusiasm, these attributes all allow us to influence people without apparently imposing on them. The invisibility of magnetism is a major attraction as is its attachment to one individual. (1985: 136) Brooks himself used the very term magnetism and described it as: the quality that kindles at the sight of men, that feels a keen joy at the meeting of truth and the human mind, and recognizes how God made them for each other. It is the power by which a man loses himself and becomes but the sympathetic atmosphere between the truth on one side of him and the man on the other side of him. (1904: 42) Excluding the gender specificity, Handy might have written in very similar terms. (Comparable thoughts, although using other nomenclature, can also be found, for example in Schein, 1992: 229; Zohar and Marshall, 2000: 259; and Nelson, 1999: 76). The significance of the personal charisma of the preacher is, perhaps, in the process of rehabilitation via business practices that readily recognize the importance of personal as well as systemic qualities in the effective functioning of organizations. With the support of such an appreciation, a contemporary homiletician, such as Day, can assert, without risking suspicion and disapprobation, that the hope of the sermon lies in the authenticity of the preacher (1998: 147). As regards the maintenance of tradition as collective memory, the resurgence of individualized authority raises the question whether organizational structures within the churches are strong enough to prevent intentional or unintentional abuse of that corporate memory bearin g responsibility. 5.2.2 The preacher as learner and as pastor. Before leaving issues associated with personhood, two of Brooks themes regarding the preachers actions are worth considering since, again, they are things that continue to be widely discussed in the literature; namely, the preacher as learner and the preacher as pastor. After considering the dangers to the preachers personality of self-conceit, over-concern with failure, self-indulgence, and narrowness, Brooks brings his second lecture to a close with a vigorous plea for what would now be called lifelong learning. He writes: In [Christian ministry] he who is faithful must go on learning more and more for ever. His growth in learning is all bound up with his growth in character. Nowhere else do the moral and intellectual so sympathize, and lose or gain together. The minister must grow. His true growth is not necessarily a change of views. It is a change of view. It is not revolution. It is progress. It is a continual climbing which opens continually wider prospects. It repeats the experience of Christs disciples, of whom their Lord was always making larger men and then giving them larger truth of which their enlarged natures had become capable. (1904: 70) What Brooks discerned as an essential component of the preachers disposition has nowadays been widened to embrace all who claim to be faithful believers. Discipleship as lifelong learning is a concept in wide contemporary currency in the churches, and is discussed, for example, in documents such as the published strategies of the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church for training, detailed in the reports Formation for Ministry within a Learning Church (2003) and Shaping the Future: New patterns of training for lay and ordained (2006). The notion of Christian leaders needing to be exemplars in this ongoing commitment to learning and personal growth figures in much of the literature on congregations and pastoral ministry, such as Mead (1994), Baumohl (1984), Hawkins (1997), and Anderson (1997); albeit these and numerous other authors, make it plain that the goal of such action is the enhancement of learning in the whole church. In the preaching literatu re, allied perspectives are expressed in such concepts as local theology (Tisdale, 1997), conversational preaching (Rose, 1997), listening to or with sermon preparation (Van Harn, 2005), embodying the scriptures communally (Davis and Hays, 2003), and interactive preaching (Hunter, 2004). Through these and other mechanisms, Brooks call for continuous learning on the part of the preacher finds its contemporary expression in practices that aim to widen that learning to include the whole body of people who are party to the sermon and the preachers and their own wider ministry. As Anderson puts it, every act of ministry teaches something about God (1997: 8). That is a sentiment to which Brooks would have been sympathetic given his emphasis on the absolute core of preaching as the widest of concern for souls. Learning, in collective memory theory, is often associated with the changing of the meanings and understandings of memories, and the processes by which traditions are appropriated by individuals. As aspects of learning clearly related to relationships they echo contemporary concern in the church about whole body learning. In Brooks description of the preacher as pastor this analysis reaches very familiar territory, in that such a description probably remains the pre-eminent designation of the homiletician within the churches. Brooks thought on this matter was absolutely unequivocal: The preacher needs to be pastor, that he may preach to real men. The pastor must be preacher, that he may keep the dignity of his work alive. The preacher, who is not a pastor, grows remote. The pastor, who is not a preacher, grows petty. Never be content to let men truthfully say of you, He is a preacher, but no pastor; or, He is a pastor, but no preacher. Be both; for you cannot really be one unless you also are the other. (1904: 77) The conviction remains no less powerful more than a century after Brooks lectures: for example, Eric Devenport writing in 1986 could assert, without fear that his opinion would be controversial: Preaching and pastoral work go hand in hand. This is one of those truths that has to be proclaimed time after time, for unless it is heard, then most preaching will not only be dull but dead. (in Hunter, 2004: 145) Clearly, at different times and in different church structures, the nature of pastoral practice has been viewed in a variety of ways. Sometimes it has been mutual support in discipleship, and at other times psychotherapeutic intervention. In some circumstances it has been ad hoc care and conversation, and in others programmatic structures of community creation. Amongst these and many other activities, those who would preach have frequently seen such pastoral practice as a fundamental adjunct to the homiletic task. Although the influence of the problem centred preaching method of Henry Emerson Fosdick, mentioned above (section 2.5), has waned in recent decades, the notion that preaching must somehow relate to the felt life-concerns of those in the congregation is still the key to good practice for many preachers. Whether the emphasis is Tisdales (1997) preacher as the caretaker of local theology, Willimons (1979) or Longs (1989) straightforward emphasis on the role of pastor, Pasquare llos (2005) preaching as the development of communal wisdom, Buechners (1977) telling the truth in love, or Van Harns (2005) insistence on listening in preaching, the overarching perspective is that of pastoral care to individuals and groups. The tradition as collective memory must, in these circumstances, serve pastoral needs. Here the link to the presentist character of collective memory appears strong. 5.2.3 Preachings first purpose and the style appropriate to it. Returning to the issue of preaching as art. From Brooks paramount concern with personhood and themes that flow from it, this discussion now turns to two other aspects of his lectures that remain significant concerns in homiletic literature: style of language, and preachings first purpose. In his emphasis on preaching as witness, Brooks made a distinction that continues to figure prominently in homiletic texts to this day: namely, the difference between preaching about Christ and preaching Christ (1904: 20). Preachers, Brooks insisted, should announce Christianity as a message and proclaim Christ as a Saviour not-discuss Christianity as a problem (1904: 21). He asserted: Definers and defenders of the faith are always needed, but it is bad for a church when its ministers count it their true work to define and defend the faith rather than to preach the Gospel. Beware of the tendency to preach about Christianity, and try to preach Christ. (1904: 21) This distinction continues to be vigorously promoted, particularly amongst the New Homiletic advocates of an inductive sermon methodology. From the distinction there comes an emphasis in sermonic style on a demonstrably engaging, emotionally affective, and inclusivist presentation, rather than a detached, analytical or objective stance. Brooks would have undoubtedly concurred with David Bartletts worries about sermon style that appears to make sin more interesting than grace, and evil more lively than goodness (in Graves, 2004: 25). Bartlett suggests that sermons too often misdirect their hearers by putting active or abstract language and thoughts in the wrong places. He writes, For the most part we show evil and then tell about goodness. We show judgment and then talk about the doctrine of mercy (in Graves, 2004: 25). Yet again, Brooks lectures were extraordinary prescient of a concern that has become commonplace these many years later. Likewise, Brooks conviction that a sermon is essentially a tool and not an end in itself is also a perspective that continues to be vigorously debated (Brooks, 1904: 110). Unlike Browne (1958), Brooks was insistent that preaching is not an art form. He wrote: The definition and immediate purpose which a sermon has set before it makes it impossible to consider it as a work of art, and every attempt to consider it so works injury to the purpose for which the sermon was created. Many of the ineffective sermons that are made owe their failure to a blind and fruitless effort to produce something which shall be a work of art, conforming to some type or pattern which is not clearly understood but is supposed to be essential and eternal. (1904: 109) In many ways, Brownes advocacy of the sermon as art-form (1958: 76) was a reaction to those who had taken Brooks evident pragmatism and utilitarianism as regards technique and turned it into a bald instructionalism that claimed too much for itself and was simply tedious. That was not Brooks intention, however, as his aim was an absolute focus on the tumultuous eagerness of earnest purpose (1904: 110). His overriding concern was that sermons should engage and communicate in such a way as to affect and mark personalities at their most profound level. As such, his understanding of the nature of sermonic engagement serves the purposes of collective memory. His objection to preaching as an art-form was the tendency he saw for art to be an end in itself-over concerned with pure forms and the abstractions of principles (see, for example, pages 110 and 267 of the 1904 edition). These many years later, art operates, and is applied within immensely diverse environments wholly unknown when Brooks lectured: so his criticism is, perhaps, no longer apposite. On the other hand, how far and in what ways artistic expression relates to and uses tradition is a question rather more vexed now than in Brooks day. The one aspect of artistic endeavour Brooks was willing to concede was art in the sense of an awesome appreciation of the mysteriousness of life. This was something Brooks regarded as an essential component of the preachers outlook, and was the reason for his advocacy of the preacher as, at least in some measure, a poet (1904: 262). Preaching as art form brings to the forefront of homiletic awareness the sermons place in the imaginative construal of engaging gospel alternatives to commonplace understandings and outlooks. Collective memory theory suggests that affiliation to group identity is an essential element in the continuity of memory. What the emphasis on preaching as art form does is alert the preacher to the need to create in preaching that sense of engagement, creativity and exploration that aims beyond utilitarian instruction. Here, preaching is seen as genuinely performative. Like the repeated performances of a classic drama, a sermon hearer can become intensively engaged again and again with material that, although familiar, becomes in the engagement surprisingly new. Likewise the preacher as performer or artist, works with familiar texts in order to render then creatively new in a sermon. From both sides of the sermon event collective memory is supported via the performative interaction. The discussion of art related issues in contemporary homiletic literature largely supports this assessment. Morris, in his Raising the Dead: The Art of the preacher as Public Performer, makes performance the guiding principle of all homiletics and insists that preaching should delight and enrich in ways similar to other mediums (1996: 19). Gilmore, in his Preaching as Theatre (1996) shares the same concern with performance, and designates preaching as a dramatic event that happens. He writes: As long as preaching is seen as lecturing or teaching, then, in order for it to be effective, listeners have to go away and do something about it. If it is art, they dont. By the time it is over something has happened, or has failed to happen. This is what makes preaching as an art distinctive, more exciting and satisfying when it works, more depressing and worrying when it doesnt. (1996: 7) Other homileticians are a little more reserved and tend to use the idea of art or artistic endeavour as but one tool the preacher can employ. For example, in Allen (1998), the appreciation of works of art and artistic frames for sermons are advocated as ways to create spheres of perception i