IMC 2026: Sessions

Since Late Antiquity, sermons were prominent media of Christian instruction. Preachers addressed newly baptized and experienced Christians to guide them on their way of identity formation. But what were appropriate means to communicate faith and ethics? Frequently, biblical figures were used as role-models, offering types and antitypes that allowed listeners either to identify with them or to distance themselves. Among rhetorical and exegetical strategies, the re-narrativization of biblical texts has been not yet studied systematically. The panel will inquire into how a story can be retold in a form that allows the listeners a direct experience (‘experientiality’) of the content, considering especially the temporal but also the medial, cultural, and social distance from the original narrative. This will be done by case studies in the sermons of Zeno of Verona, Chromatius of Aquileia, and others. The focus will be on the narrative tools (types and antitypes, metaphors, dialogical passages etc.) by which the preacher aimed at bridging the diachronic gap between text and audience. How the circle of Holy Scripture and individual experience is established through strategies of narrativization will be the guiding question of the panel’s discussions.