ABSTRACT
For a dozen years, John Chrysostom preached every Sunday, twice a week during certain seasons, and daily during Lent. By all accounts, he was wildly successful. So crowded was the church and so enraptured were the hearers by his words that warnings were issued concerning the threat of pickpockets. Chrysostom's concern was with the evils implicit in good preaching that keeps them coming back for more. Such sermons not only corrupted the hearer, Chrysostom said, but especially endangered the preacher, who out of vanity pandered to the crowd at the expense of the message. Over thirty years have passed since the Oxford philosopher, John L. Austin, inaugurated what has come to be known as speech-act theory. If the message of the gospel has such illocutionary force, it is also marked by a perlocutionary impact. In doing what it says, it leads to an outcome.
