Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/11

 PREFACE

THE field of educational psychology has been very thoroughly worked over, though the last word has by no means been said. The help which teachers have derived from it is very great, and no one now is considered equipped for that noble profession who has not mastered its principles. But so far as my knowledge extends there have been few serious efforts to apply modern psychology to preaching. Indeed, the statement might be made even more nearly abso lute without doing violence to facts. There have been homi- letical works almost without number, applying the formal rules of logic and rhetoric to sermon-making, and books on elocution are even more numerous. But the works dis cussing the preparation and delivery of sermons rarely, if ever, approach the subject from the standpoint of modern functional psychology. The psychological conceptions un derlying most of these treatises belong to a stage of psycho logical thought long since past.

But there seems to be just as much reason for applying the principles of modern psychology to preaching as for ap plying them to teaching. And the works on educational psychology will not suffice for this purpose, although they are often suggestive and helpful to the preacher. In some respects educational and homiletical psychology coincide, but they are by no means coextensive ; and when they cover the same ground there are of necessity important differences of emphasis.

In this book some aspects of the psychology of religion are discussed, because they lie within the scope of the au thor s plan ; but the book is not a treatise on the psychology of religion. It is simply an attempt to make a thorough-

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