Introduction: Rhetoric, Emotion and the Early Modern English Sermon

This is an introduction to the special issue on the early modern English sermon. It gives some context to the issue’s exploration of the importance of rhetoric to genre, and it argues that we should read early modern sermons as, in certain ways, precursors to modern literary criticism. Moreover, this introduction argues that sermons are especially important for studying the intersection of rhetoric and emotion. Finally, it offers an outline of the essays included in the issue and explains the logic behind their organisation.