John Donne’s Sermons: Counsel and the Politics of the Dynamic Middle

I draw attention to a consistent but sometimes overlooked trait in John Donne’s sermons (delivered between 1615 and 1631): his effort to enumerate and defend the powers of preachers. Donne regularly emphasizes the preacher’s obligation to speak boldly to all members of the congregation and to set forth a message of repentance and consolation. This constant feature of Donne’s preaching, moreover, offers insight into his ambiguous political ideals. Donne cites the preacher’s duties in order to authorize his efforts to define England and its established church as privileged sites of honest counsel and amicable debate. He uses his visible, venerable position in the pulpit to recall and embody Christian humanist ideals of good advice and orderly dialogue, urging England to set aside factional strife at a time of increasing sectarian discord. Yet, while Donne powerfully articulates his vision, his idealism proves increasingly outmoded as the British Isles lurch toward the catastrophe of the Civil Wars. [J.W.]