In the Mirror of the Prodigal Son: The Pastoral Uses of a Biblical Narrative (c. 1200-1550) by Pietro Delcorno (review)

The name and publications of the very talented Pietro Delcorno are familiar to those who read Franciscan Studies. For example, in 2010 and 2011 he published his two-part study of the Franciscan preacher Johann Meder: "Un sermonario illustrato nella Basilea del Narrenschiff: Il Quadragesimale novum de filio prodigo (1495) di Johann Meder," FS 68 (2010): 215-58 and FS 69 (2011): 403-75. In 2014 Il Mulino of Bologna published his Italian book of 328 pages on Luke 16:19-31: Lazzaro e il ricco epulone: Metamorfosi di una parabola fra Quattro e Cinquecento. Now four years later he is publishing in English his extraordinarily rich exploration of how exegetes, creators of stained glass windows, preachers, authors of model sermon collections, playwrights, and book publishers have pastorally interpreted Luke 15:11-32 over three and a half centuries. As Delcorno summarizes on p. 445, "The more than one hundred texts written by approximately eighty authors examined in this book have highlighted the wide, ingenious, and multifaceted use of this biblical narrative within late medieval and early modern pastoral activities." I highlight the fact that he has also explored thirty-nine unpublished manuscripts, e.g., three in the University Library of Uppsala. The book's forty-three illustrations make clear how the multimedia of those times became co-preachers of this famous parable.

After his Introduction Delcorno presents the following sections: 1) The Medieval Exegesis on the Parable of the Prodigal Son (pp. 18-98); 2) The Voice of the Preacher: Late Medieval Model Sermons (99-186); 3) Italian Preaching on the Prodigal Son from Bernardino da Siena to Savonarola (187-250); 4) The Layman, the Woman, and the Priest: Three Florentine Dramas on the Prodigal Son (251-309); 5) Fifty Sermons on the Prodigal Son: Johann Meder's Quadragesimale novum de filio prodigo (310-369); 6) The Sixteenth-Century Prodigal Son: A Multiple Mirror (370-431); Epilogue (432-49)

In general, the eighty authors treated by Delcorno interpret the parable of the prodigal son as an allegory of the penitent's journey from sin to contrition, from contrition to confession, and from confession to satisfaction. Through his graces God prods the prodigal back home. The Father is the merciful God while his servants are the priest confessors. By and large, the elder son is kept in the shadows. Within this interpretation the prodigal son appears as a mirror to viewers, listeners, and readers as they identify with him in their own sinful lives and open their hearts to the promptings of God's graces of recognition and repentance. To counter the manifest sins of their own societies some preachers accentuated how the prodigal son gambled away his inheritance or was tricked out of his money by prostitutes who prowled around taverns or debased himself by committing sodomy. It matters not that these three sins are not mentioned in the narrative about the prodigal son. Other preachers stayed more within the bounds of the text and underscored how disobedient the prodigal son was to his father and thus to legitimate authority. In brief, viewers may be appalled to see themselves in the mirror of the prodigal son and be motivated to respond to God's promptings and join the prodigal son on his journey home.

Contemporary preachers may be inspired by the creativity of some of the preachers studied in this volume. In Delcorno's terminology this refers to "the communication strategies" of the preachers. While Johann Meder may have overdone it by dedicating every single one of his Lenten sermons to an interpretation of the prodigal son, he engaged his audiences by depicting the prodigal son's guardian angel as his constant companion. Illustrations 21-36 display the woodcuts that accompanied the 1495 edition of Meder's Quadragesimale novum de filio prodigo. They depict the...