earticle

영어

Although Donne is primarily considered as a poet by the modern readers, his sermons contain the essence of Donne’s careers as a preacher. Sermons in Donne’s time were not only religious events, but they also had the functions of media and cultural events. As a preacher, Donne did not simply preach based on orthodox theology, but preached on issues that he himself struggled with, such as the issues of death and judgment. In order to effectively and artfully convey his ideas towards the public, Donne skillfully adopts the rhetorical delivery strategies in his sermons. This paper aims at analyzing the context of sermons in Donne’s time, and studying the classical rules of oratory and rhetoric. Based on the foregoing, this paper examines Donne’s sermon on the first Friday in Lent, 1623, “Jesus Wept” and his last sermon Death’s Duell. These sermons demonstrate how Donne accommodated rhetorical gestures and imaginative interpretive strategies in his sermons. As a result, Donne’s sermons have significant literary value beyond that of a solely religious preaching, and Donne’s sermons “Jesus Wept” and Death’s Duell are considered to be one of the best interpretive works on tears of Christ and his death and resurrection in Renaissance period.