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The first English publication of the earliest surviving Christian sermons from the Americas

The Americas’ First Sermons presents the first English translation and critical study of the complete set of sermons composed by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún and his Nahua students at the Imperial College of Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco, Mexico in 1540. The volume represents a crucial moment in the cultural exchange between European and Indigenous civilizations in sixteenth-century colonial Mexico.

With the collaboration of Mario Alberto Sánchez Aguilera, this edition offers unprecedented access to the collaboration between European friars and Nahua scholars in translating Christian concepts into Native languages. It captures Sahagún’s evolving methods across three phases (1530s–1560s) through his extensive annotations, bridging the divide between his ethnographic and doctrinal works. Unique in its analysis of both text and manuscript features—such as rare maguey paper—it highlights Indigenous intellectual contributions at the Colegio de Santa Cruz. This translation provides essential insights into early colonial religious negotiations and makes previously inaccessible material available to scholars across multiple disciplines.

The growing awareness of the importance of preaching is a sign of our times. In the past decades, conscious that a renewal of preaching is essential for a renewed evangelization, many seminaries have implemented homiletic courses. However, there is still a real limitation of good and systematic resources in order to learn the theological depth and practical elements of the art of preaching. The Art of Preaching: A Theological and Practical Primer aims to fill that gap. It explores the theological understanding of the homily, lessons from classical and contemporary rhetoric, the relevance of preaching for the life of the Church, highlighting recent teachings of the Magisterium, and it presents the incarnation as the foundation for preaching, understood as an essential aspect of the priestly life and mission. This primer also offers a simple and effective method for the preparation and delivery of homilies, illustrating this by the example of brilliant preachers and exploring the idea of preaching as locus theologicus, i.e., the privileged place for the exercise of theology today. It is in deepening in the value and importance of preaching that theology can be renewed as a living and essential part of the daily life of priests. Seeing the homily not as a burden but as an occasion to fulfill the priestly identity will offer the opportunity to embrace the preparation for preaching as a key for unity among the many tasks and demands of pastoral life. In the homily prayer, study, and work come together. The Art of Preaching will also provide a selection of homilies from the great preachers of the Church, organized chronologically, with brief introductions and commentaries that highlight what those homilies teach us for our preaching today. Only learning from the best preachers can we hope to preach effectively in our times.