Book excerpt: The Homilies were originally published in 1547, to help reform and renew the Church of England in the biblical faith of the Reformation. This series of sermons was written to enable often rather uneducated ministers, teach and explain the essence of the Christian faith from the pulpits of the land. They unfold the doctrines of scripture, sin, salvation, and Christian living with clarity and verve. This is what makes returning to the Homilies-now, for the first time, updated in modern English-such an invigorating and life-giving thing to do today.