The Influence of Pope Benedict XVI's Liturgical Initiatives on Preaching Beyond Postmodernity

Sacrosanctum Concilium's restoration of preaching to its constitutive role in Catholic worship coincided with the horizontal, hearer-centered, postmodernist preaching movement known as the New Homiletic. Fulfilled in Your Hearing, produced in 1982 by the NCCB, further promoted the hearer-centered principles of the New Homiletic within Catholicism. When Benedict XVI shifted the liturgical focus beyond the postmodern horizontal model and reclaimed the vertical dimension, preachers responded. In 2013, the USCCB published Preaching the Mystery of Faith, reflecting this more mature understanding of the nature of worship. This document has taken its place among various other initiatives that have helped preachers to embrace the more balanced structure of the Benedictine Reform.