The Sermons of John Donne, Volume II

The Sermons of John Donne, edited with introductions and critical apparatus by George R. Potter and Evelyn M. Simpson, Volume II, focuses on Donne’s preaching during his tenure as Reader in Divinity at Lincoln’s Inn (1616–1621), a period often considered the most satisfying of his clerical career. Returning to the institution where he had studied law in his youth, Donne cultivated a unique relationship with a congregation of legally trained auditors who remembered his earlier, more worldly reputation. The twenty-three extant Lincoln’s Inn sermons reveal both his struggle to establish credibility as a sincere minister and his success in winning deep affection from his hearers. Blending theological exposition with analogies drawn from law, wit, and personal humility, Donne addressed the spiritual life of a professional audience while also participating in the Inn’s campaign to finance and build a new chapel—an enterprise for which he preached both preparatory and dedicatory sermons. His reflections during this period also disclose a growing self-consciousness about the preacher’s calling and the challenges of speaking God’s Word before skeptical or distracted listeners.

The volume also includes significant sermons preached beyond Lincoln’s Inn, including those at Whitehall and before aristocratic patrons such as the Countess of Montgomery. Particularly notable are the *Sermon of Valediction* (1619), delivered before Donne’s departure on Doncaster’s embassy to Germany, and discourses composed during his travels on the Continent. These texts illuminate Donne’s anxieties about mortality, his sense of priestly responsibility, and his ongoing meditation on the tension between human weakness and divine grace. Throughout, the sermons demonstrate Donne’s distinctive style: elaborate but purposeful structures, paradox and wit employed in service of doctrine, and moments of personal disclosure that forge intimacy with his hearers. Potter and Simpson’s edition provides full textual scholarship, distinguishing manuscript versions from revised folio texts and tracing Donne’s rhetorical development. By situating these sermons within their historical, political, and biographical contexts, Volume II of *The Sermons of John Donne* underscores the richness of his pulpit work and its centrality to early modern religious and literary culture.

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...