The Sermons of John Donne, Volume VI

John Donne, Evelyn M. Simpson, George R. Potter

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520346284
• eBook ISBN: 9780520346291
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The Sermons of John Donne, edited by Evelyn M. Simpson and George R. Potter, Volume VI, encompasses Donne’s preaching between 1623 and early 1626, a turbulent period marked by the failure of the Spanish Match, the death of James I, the accession of Charles I, and the devastating plague of 1625. These sermons show Donne navigating a nation in anxiety and transition, while also processing his own near-fatal illness of late 1623. The *Devotions upon Emergent Occasions* arose directly from that sickness, and the sermons that follow often carry the same sharpened awareness of mortality, divine judgment, and resurrection. Beginning with his recovery sermon on Easter Day, 1624, Donne reflects repeatedly on bodily frailty and the promise of eternal life, themes woven with his characteristic mixture of casuistry, Scriptural exegesis, and poetic imagination.

This volume also includes his first sermons at St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West, where his pastoral manner softened into plainer instruction, emphasizing love between pastor and flock and the daily duties of Christian life. By contrast, his great cathedral and court sermons retain a more elaborate and rhetorical style. His funeral sermon for James I, preached at Denmark House, balances biblical typology with restrained commemoration, markedly different from the florid panegyrics of his contemporaries. Throughout, Donne returns to central convictions: that sin itself, though real, is a privation that God may fold into His providence; that affliction and plague are both judgment and mercy; and that the body, often despised in ascetic extremes, remains honored by God as His creation and destined for resurrection. Particularly moving are the sermons preached during and after the plague, in which Donne evokes the horror of mass mortality yet insists on consolation in the communion of saints and the eternity of divine mercy. Together, these sermons present Donne at the height of his powers, shaping his poetic theology of sin, suffering, and salvation in a moment of national and personal crisis.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1953.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction
• Sermon No. 1 : Preached upon the Penitential Psalms [April, May, or June, 1623], Psalms 6, 8, 9, 10 (No. 55 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 2: Preached at St. Paul's, upon Easter Day, in the evening, 1624, on Revelation 20.6 (No. 19 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 3: Preached at St. Dunstan's, April 11, 1624, on Deuteronomy 25.5 (No. 45 in Fifty Sermons)
• Sermon No. 4: Preached at St. Dunstan's, April 25, 1624, on Psalms 34.11 (No. 46 in Fifty Sermons)
• Sermon No. 5: Preached upon Whitsunday [? 1624], on I Corinthians 12.3 (No. 32 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 6: Preached at St. Dunstan's, upon Trinity Sunday, 1624, on Matthew 3.17 (No. 43 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 7: Preached to the Earl of Exeter, in his Chapel at St. John's, June 13, 1624, on Revelation 7.9 (No. 32 in Fifty Sermons)
• Sermon No 8: Preached at St. Paul's, upon Christmas Day, in the evening, 1624, on Isaiah 7.14 (No. 2 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 9: Preached at St. Dunstan's, upon New Year's Day, 1624 [1624/5],on Genesis 17.24 (No. 49 in Fifty Sermons)
• Sermon No. 10: Preached at St. Paul's, the Sunday after the Conversion of St. Paul, 1624 [1624/5], on Acts 94 (No. 46 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 11: Preached at Whitehall, March 4,1624 [1624/5], on Matthew 19.17 (No. 17 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 12: The First Sermon Preached to King Charles, at St. James's, April 3,1625, on Psalms 11.3 (Published in quarto in 1625)
• Sermon No. 13: Preached at St. Paul's, in the evening, upon Easter Day, 1625, on John 5.28 and 29 (No. 20 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 14: Preached at Denmark House, some few days before the body of King James was removed from thence, to his burial, April 26,1625, on Canticles [Song of Solomon] 3.11 (No. 33 in Fifty Sermons)
• Sermon No. 15: Preached at St. Paul's, May 8, 1625, on Psalms 62.9 (No. 65 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 16: Preached upon Whitsunday [?I625], on John 16.8,9,10,11 (No. 36 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 17: Preached at St. Paul's, upon Christmas Day, 1625, on Galatians 4.4 and 5 (No. 3 in LXXX Sermons)
• Sermon No. 18: Preached at St. Dunstan's, January 15, 1625 [1625/6], on Exodus 12.30 (No. 21 in XXVI Sermons)
• Textual Notes to the Sermons