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" Preaching America: 20th Century Jewish Homiletics Education in the United States "
Friedman, Jennifer S.
Chazan, Robert
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1053599
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| Doc. No
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TL52716
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| Main Entry
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Friedman, Jennifer S.
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| Title & Author
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Preaching America: 20th Century Jewish Homiletics Education in the United States\ Friedman, Jennifer S.Chazan, Robert
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| College
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New York University
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| Date
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2020
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2020
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| Note
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169 p.
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| Abstract
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This dissertation traces the development of homiletics curricula from scattered advice in sermon marginalia to the production of early preaching manuals to the contemporary seminary. Moving beyond the final written or oral product of an individual preacher in a communal context, this study examines homiletics education: the process of teaching future clergy how to write and deliver sermons. This study also demonstrates how three fundamental facets of preaching became central to the craft, especially in the American context: effective performance, religious authority, and personal identity. In particular, it emphasizes the distinctive nature of American Jewish homiletics education, which draws on earlier texts and traditions across regions and religious faiths but also aims for a uniquely American form of preaching. In the United States, the earliest proponent of English sermons and the creation of an American rabbinical school was Isaac Leeser. Although the school he founded, Maimonides College, did not succeed, two rabbinical schools that were built, in part, on his vision -- Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Cincinnati and the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTSA) in New York -- became training grounds for American-born, American-trained rabbis. Through curricular analysis of two long-term professors of homiletics, Rabbi Israel Bettan at HUC and Rabbi Simon Greenberg at JTSA, this study examines how American identity and Jewish identity were taught in the contexts of the Reform and Conservative Judaism. By including foundational American writers, texts, and ideas in their courses, Bettan and Greenberg insisted that their students develop a deep sense of “America” and “Americanness” alongside a profound grounding in traditional Jewish texts, which led to a wholly new understanding of the sermon’s purpose. Finally, through examination of the homiletics classes at HUC and JTSA today, this study explores how key aspects of homiletics education have shifted over time.
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| Descriptor
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Education history
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Judaic studies
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Chazan, Robert
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New York University
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