As skilled rhetoricians, the early Christian preachers knew that in order to reach the hearts of their listeners, they need to know their operational environment, and use a language familiar to their audience. In a way, a modern scholar trying to interpret these homilies meets the same challenge: in order to understand homilies delivered more than a thousand years ago, we need to try to understand their original context as well as possible.

The present volume consists of four articles exploring the importance of context for early Christian homilies.

Contents
Preface, Anni Maria Laato, President, Societas Patristica Fennica
Textual Variation in the Old Testament and Early Christian Sermons, Tuukka Kauhanen, Academy of Finland Research Fellow, University of Helsinki
The Three Enemies in John Chrysostom’s Adversus Judaeos, Serafim Seppälä, Professor, University of Eastern Finland
The Interaction Between the Preacher and His Audience in Middle Byzantine Preaching: Andrew of Crete and John Damascus, Fr Damaskinos (Olkinuora) of Xenophontos, University Lecturer, University of Eastern Finland
Towards Participation in the Healthy Body: Spiritual Healing and Church Membership in Cyril of Jerusalem, Basil of Caesarea and John Chrysostom, Harri Huovinen, PhD student, University of Eastern Finland