Today

• Medieval rhetoric

• Augustine

• Arts of preaching

• Mid-course response

Moving into the middle ages

• Much Greek rhetoric wasn’t simply known

• Education moves towards Scholasticism

• Rhetoric is taught as part of the trivium– Grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic – Help a student learn Latin

7 liberal arts

• Trivium: Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric

• Quadrivium: Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Harmony (music).

Christian rhetoric

• Paul and Luke may have had some rhetorical education

• Professors of rhetoric became important church figures– Tertullian– Augustine

Christian rhetoric

• Rhetoric and grammar provides the means for biblical interpretation

• Rhetoric is pagan knowledge– “Thou liest: thou art

a Ciceronian, not a Christian”

• 353 Born in Thagaste

• Studies in Carthage

• 383 moves to Rome

• 384 Chair of rhetoric in Milan

• 386 quits

• 387 converts

• 391 becomes a priest

• Bishop of Hippo

• 430 dies during a Vandal siege

Augustine’s rhetoric

• Augustine revises Cicero’s ends of rhetoric. The preacher must:– Teach (congregations about the truth of the

scriptures)

– Delight (congregations so that they will be pleased by the truth)

– Move (make sure people were living according to Christian principles)

On Christian Doctrine

• On Christian Doctrine seeks to address the:– Needs of discovering what is to be

understood in the Bible (Books 1-3)

– Needs of expounding that which has been discovered (Book 4)

Augustine on exegesis

• How does one properly interpret the scriptures?– Philology and grammar

– Knowledge of the differences between literal and figurative language

– Semiotic theory that distinguishes between signs and things

Augustine on exegesis

SignsThings

Arts of preaching (artes praedictandi)

The six part sermon1. Stating the passage followed by a prayer

2. protheme—setting up the theme

3. antetheme—formal introduction of the theme

4. division of the theme—breaking down the theme into three main parts

5. subdivision of the theme—discussing why the theme is divided into these three parts

6. amplification of each part

Mid-term response

1. Name one aspect of the class that you think is helpful to your learning of the material

2. Name one aspect of the class that you think is not helpful to your learning of the material

3. What other comments do you think would be beneficial to the improvement of the course?