St. Augustine and the Patristic Period
I. Early Church rhetorical theory based on spreading the word of the gospels and converting Jews and gentiles to Christianity.
A. To move the audience to conviction, belief, and faith.
1. Strategies borrowed from the New Testament:
a.
parables, and then explaining them
b. reducing Jesus to rules and regulations =
c. argumentation, the rabbinical tradition. Sayings, aphorisms, quotations from Old and New Testament as
inartistic proofs.
2. Strategies borrowed from Greek and Roman rhetorical theory = St. Paul. B.
The educational purpose of the Church:
1. To train priests and monks.
2. To shepherd the faithful.
C. Jesus to the 12. The 12 to include Paul and then expand
to disciples.
1. Begins with persecution under Nero, in 64A.D. and continue until 200 A.D.
2. 311 A.D. Emperor Galarius elevates Christianity to
equal status with other religions.
3. 326 A.D. Constatine after vision makes it official
religion of the state. 361 A.D. Julian the Apostate tries to re-establish
Paganism. He dies in battle with Persians in 363. This is seen as sign from
God.
4. 379-395 A.D. Theodosius outlaws all other religions in Constantinople.
Meanwhile, in 382 Gratian in Rome elevates Ambrose,
the Bishop of Milan, to Duty of Clergy. Ambrose removes Pagan symbols and uses
Cicero's de Officiis to establish new moral code.
Ambrose compels Theodosius in 390 to do public penance for his treatment of
rebels in Thessalonica. 395 the Empire is permanently divided.
5. 430 A.D. Pope Clestine I declares
the Apostolic Succession or Petrine Doctrine.
6. 527-565 A.D. Justinian in Constantinople closes all non-Christian schools
(529), put Boethius (taught logic, rhetoric = to
death, supports St. Benedict. While Rome lies in ruins dessimated
by Barbarians. Now Christians must convert the barbarian tribes.
7. 590-604 reign of Pope Gregory, "the Great", claims to be emperor
in West, adopts new calendar, encourages chants which
do not compete with glory of God. Clashes with Patriarch in Constantinople
begin. End with Great Schism.
8. 800 Charlemagne forms Holy Roman Empire, the Second Reich, fuedal period and chivalry emerge.
D. Ambrose (340-397) became a powerful Christian orator in the declining
Roman Empire. Elevated to Bishop of Milan, he became teacher of Augustine.
1. Augustine, who had been a rhetor, was familiar
with the rhetorical theories of the the Sophists,
Plato and Cicero. Ambrose re-inforces this and
emphasizes Plato's vision of God.
II. The theory of St. Augustine: A. Completed De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Doctrine) in 426 A.D.
1. Advocates use of Cicero's theory for Christian purposes. (Plato and
Cicero, having lived before Jesus, did not have the opportunity to be converted, therefore, there work cannot be condemned.)
Augustine does more to popularize a Platonic-Ciceronian approach in the Medieval period than anyone else.
2. St. Augustine used Biblical and Christian writings to illustrate the
principles of rhetoric.
B. The doctine of illumination is his theory of
invention. Truth comes to us when we are properly prepared. The light goes on.
1. The Idea (note Platonism) comes from God through scripture, tradition,
authority of Church, and mystery. These are our sources for ideas for sermons.
2. The Idea becomes thought in man; it is symbolized in his brain.
3. The symbolized thought is then converted into signs (literal and figurative
use of words) which are written or spoken. This necessitates the mastery of
grammar, logic, and rhetoric. (Note this three way breakdown and explain how it
works)
4. Once transmitted the discourse must be de-coded by the receiver. The ideal
is an exact replication of the original thought. The process of de-coding
relies on recollection (again Platonic), which requires a good education in
language arts.
5. The de-coded message now modifies the understanding of the receiver which
alters his/her will, which changes his/her behavior = conversion.
6. Summary: Truth (idea from God) guides eloquence when you have been properly
trained in the language arts. It allows you to bring the message of God to the
people in a way they can comprehend. In turn education readies them to receive
the word. Therefore, education in language arts is crucial to converting people
to Jesus.
C. St. Augustine also wrote in 430 the City of God to explain the sack of
Rome by barbarian in 410.
1. Like Plato's Republic, sets out ideal city.
2. God is wisdom, so a lover of wisdom (philosopher) will love God.
3. Discusses Pythagoras and Thales, Anximander, Anaximines,
Anaxagoras, Archelaus and links whole chain to
Socrates.
4. Breaks with Plato, by arguing someday body and soul will be reunited, rejects transmigration of the soul.
5. Natural = cause of all being: Rational = rule of all thinking; Moral = rule
of all living.
6. Predestination
III. After St. Augustine many treatises on rhetoric are written, but few advance its theory. In fact, because the Church dominates thinking and deliberative and forensic oratory attenuate, theory focuses on sermonics. In a truth based society, rhetoric is reduced to ornament.
A. The slide begins with certain Medieval thinkers (covered in the back up notes), who align certain types of discourse with certain types of audiences.
1. Demonstration (accepted premises) is used with Christian scholars.
2. Dialectic (argumentation) is used with non-Christian scholars (Mostly Jews
and Moslems).
3. Rhetoric is used for the masses.
B. Averroes does this in the Moslem community using the Koran as his basis. Know the five pillars of Islam and its founder.
C. Hugh of St. Victor and St. Thomas Aquinas treated rhetoric the same way in the Christian community using the Bible as a basis.
IV. There were major speakers during this time, though they were exceptions.
A. St. Antony led a group we might call the Mystics. He drew audiences of up to 30,000. Insecurity = need for God. Discuss conditions at time, then worse, in 1300s the bubonic plague.
B. Pope Urban II (1042-1099) the call for Crusades to liberate the Holy Land
from the Sarazins expands the power of the Pope in
the temporal world.
1. First Crusade called for in 1095 at Clermont. Peter the Hermit spreads the
word around France on mule.
2. Crusades will lead to Renaissance: discovery of source of spices = rise of
trading centers and prosperity; discovery of Aristotle's Rhetoric = more wholistic view of rhetoric and man. Rhetoric translated
into Latin in 1256 in Toledo.
V. St. Thomas Aquinas (begins teaching in 1252) = around 1258 wrote commentary on complete works of Aristotle. Summa Theologica = demonstrative steps to God being the cause of all things.
A. Doctrine of free will = opening for rhetoric.
B. Summa Contra Gentiles = "happiness is the intellect's perfect operation." "Sacred scripture has no superior science over it." Statement of problem; statement of objections (contra gentiles); argument for true solution; resolution or reconsideration of difficulties. Then move on.
C. Rules for preaching:
1. Do not preach unless you know God, scripture, and tradition. Needed to convert others and to defend the faith.
2. Preach for God's glory not your own. Think of yourself as an instrument of
God. (Savonarola will later break this rule, as do many preachers in America
today.)
3. Master language arts in order to convey and defend God's message.
4. Do not express doubts from the pulpit. It will shake the faithful.
5. Your credibility will be based your ability to imitate Christ.
6. Organization of the sermon:
a. quote
scripture
b. establish theme c. preview organization
d. develop theme with arguments and illustrations; evidence can include
scripture, works of God in nature, allegories, annecdotes,
miracles, etc. Fashion with tropes and figures.
e. recapitulation.
VI. Rhetoric falls into "dictamen" letter writing.
VII. All time low hit, when Peter Ramus of the University of Paris reduces rhetoric to organization and style.
1295 Marco Polo returns to