Chapter 1 DEFINITIONS I. HOMILETICS THE WORD “homiletics” is derived from the Greek word homilia and signifies either a mutual talk and conversation or a set discourse. The preachers in the early Church were in the habit of calling their public discourses “talks,” thus making it proper to speak of what is in the present day in some quarters called a “gospel talk.” From the word homilia has come the English word “homiletics,” which has reference to that science or art—or indeed both—which deals with