Homiletics

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Homiletics \Hom`i*let"ics\, n. [Cf. F. homil['e]tique.]
     The art of preaching; that branch of theology which treats of
     homilies or sermons, and the best method of preparing and
     delivering them.
     [1913 Webster]



From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  homiletics
       n 1: the branch of theology that deals with sermons and homilies
       2: the art of preaching

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  HOMILETICS, n.  The science of adapting sermons to the spiritual
  needs, capacities and conditions of the congregation.
  
      So skilled the parson was in homiletics
      That all his normal purges and emetics
      To medicine the spirit were compounded
      With a most just discrimination founded
      Upon a rigorous examination
      Of tongue and pulse and heart and respiration.
      Then, having diagnosed each one's condition,
      His scriptural specifics this physician
      Administered -- his pills so efficacious
      And pukes of disposition so vivacious
      That souls afflicted with ten kinds of Adam
      Were convalescent ere they knew they had 'em.
      But Slander's tongue -- itself all coated -- uttered
      Her bilious mind and scandalously muttered
      That in the case of patients having money
      The pills were sugar and the pukes were honey.
                                            _Biography of Bishop Potter_