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Before I read this week's assigned reading, I cannot honestly say that I would have been able to define rhetoric or describe it to someone. I know that throughout my undergrad in English when I was taking writing courses I was learning concepts of rhetoric and even practicing rhetoric, however I do not recall a professor specifically explaining rhetoric or describing what we were doing and learning in terms of rhetoric. After reading this week's assigned reading I have a much better understanding of what rhetoric is. My current understanding of rhetoric comes from this week’s reading is that rhetoric is the craft of verbal and even written communication, though written communication was not specifically rhetoric’s purpose in the beginning (Kennedy, 1994, p. 3), specifically with the intent to persuade opinion, sway emotion, and exert a level of control over the intended audience (Bizzell & Herzberg, 2001, p. 3). I now recognize that although I did not have a textbook definition of rhetoric, I have been practicing many of the concepts of rhetoric in both my personal and my professional lives.

 

I know that within the editing and publishing industry a lot of written communication is utilized as well as a variety of reports and proposals. A thorough understanding of and skill with rhetoric would logically increase the clarity and effectiveness of all my future written communication throughout my career as an editor. In my current profession, I often have to send emails detailing proposed edits and I have been learning more effective ways to present the proposed edits from my more experienced co-workers and by my own trial and error.

 

Under the assumption that Kennedy is correct that “nonrhetorical discourse” does not exist, I believe that Christians’ role in ministry and the spreading of the Gospel would be to communicate the absolute truth of God. While the methods, words, and traditions of communication may change, what is actually being communicated should not change. Christians would actually be better prepared to share the Gospel if they had a firm grasp on rhetoric and an understanding of their audience. When I was in Bible College for 2 years they taught us how to study the Bible, and one of the things we took into consideration when interpreting biblical passages was the time and social/biblical context in which it was written. As we often said, “context determines meaning.” This is not to say that God only said things were wrong because of the specific social context, and simply because certain things are now socially acceptable does not make them permissible. Morality and God’s character have not changed, but the historical context has changed. Therefore, how biblical morality plays out in today’s world will look different than it would have in 40 AD. Additionally, Paul was not the only New Testament writer who took his audience into consideration when writing the Bible. Each of the gospels were written with a specific audience in mind: Matthew was written to the Jewish people, Mark was written to the Romans, Luke was written by a Greek to the Greeks, and John wrote to everyone (Barnett, 2010). Their specific audiences influenced the content that was included and the aspects of Jesus’s life and ministry which were emphasized. While the authors of the gospels did not necessarily use classical rhetoric in a strict sense, they were employing some of the concepts of rhetoric in a broader sense.

Something I have often wondered is whether the post-modern way of thinking (specifically that meaning is based on interpretation/perception) does have some basis in the reality of language? Especially since language is changing and according to Bacon, unreliable (Bizzell & Herzberg, 2001, p. 10). What are your thoughts on this?

Works Cited

Barnett, J. (2010, August 31). Four Gospels, Four Audiences? Retrieved from https://www.christianity.com/jesus/is-jesus-god/the-gospels/four-gospels-four-audiences.html

Bizzell, P., & Herzberg, B. (Eds.). (2001). The Rhetorical tradition: readings from classical times to the present (2nd ed.). Boston: Bedford/ST. Martins.

Kennedy, G. A., & Kennedy, G. A. A. (1994). A new history of classical rhetoric. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu