The Sermons of John Donne, Volume V

The Sermons of John Donne, edited by George R. Potter and Evelyn M. Simpson, Volume V, brings together a substantial body of Donne’s undated sermons, contextualized with meticulous editorial analysis that reconstructs their likely chronology. Out of the 160 extant sermons, nearly half lack precise dating in the Folios, and this volume represents an effort to situate them within Donne’s career by drawing on manuscript evidence, internal references, and historical context. Many of the sermons here fall between Donne’s early years as Divinity Reader at Lincoln’s Inn (1616–1622) and his first years as Dean of St. Paul’s. They display the range of occasions for which he preached—Whitsunday, christenings, churchings, and parish duties—before the greater demands of his later ministry absorbed his energies.

The sermons collected in this volume reveal Donne working out his pastoral and theological voice within a rapidly shifting religious and political landscape. In baptismal and churching sermons, he emphasizes the sacramental incorporation of individuals into the larger communion of saints, while also addressing controversies over the sign of the cross or the role of women in devotion. Whitsunday sermons show his fascination with the Spirit as a moving, animating presence, often rendered through nautical metaphors rooted in his seafaring experiences. A number of sermons draw directly on Donne’s earlier *Essays in Divinity*, reworking meditative material on divine names, the mystery of confession, and the paradoxical way sin is folded into providence. What emerges is Donne’s characteristic balance: a preacher alert to polemical disputes of his day but more deeply concerned with guiding his hearers toward humility, penitence, and joy in forgiveness. Volume V thus fills a crucial place in the edition, capturing Donne’s development in the years before his great cathedral preaching and showing how his casuistry, poetic imagination, and pastoral urgency intertwined from the very outset of his ministry.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1959.