The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church is a multivolume study by Hughes Oliphant Old that canvasses the history of preaching from the words of Moses at Mount Sinai through modern times. Volume 2, The Patristic Age, continues Old's historical survey by focusing on preaching as it was developed and practiced by the Greek schools of Alexandria and Antioch. Old then goes on to consider preaching in the Syriac church and the flourishing of Latin preaching in the Christian Empire, concluding with the ministries of Leo the Great, Peter Chrysologos, and Gregory the Great.
Dr. Hughes Oliphant Old was the John H. Leith Professor of Reformed Theology and Worship at Erskine Theological Seminary and Dean of the Institute for Reformed Worship. He was a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and studied at the University of Tübingen, the Protestant Theological Faculty of Paris, the Institute Catholique of Paris, and the University of Basel. He completed a D. théol. at the University of Neuchâtel and was appointed a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. His 18 years of pastoral ministry in two churches, combined with meticulous research, has informed his prolific publishing.