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A Christian View of Persuasion

Augustine reconciled classical learning with Christianity. His writing has legitimized the study of rhetoric for Christians. He noted that rhetoric can be used for a higher calling, for glorifying God. With his own classical education, Augustine greatly admired the eloquence of Cicero. (Bizzell & Herzberg, 2001, p. 451). After his conversion, Augustine greatly admired the rhetoric of Scripture writers. Augustine’s view of rhetoric, implications of ethos, and view of knowledge in relation to Christianity and rhetoric vary from his predecessors in some important ways.

Augustine understands that rhetoric is a persuasive tool. While he sees rhetoric as a useful means to persuade Christian truth, he also acknowledges that rhetorical skill can be used by non-Christians to persuade less than righteous standards. Augustine equates rhetoric with eloquence. Over and over, he contrasts eloquence and wisdom. Augustine says that wisdom is born from closeness to God, knowledge of what is good and true and right. To Augustine, wisdom cannot be attained apart from God. However, eloquence can be achieved apart from God; therefore, language is only a means to divine truth. Rhetoric itself is not divine truth.

Ethos is an important part of Augustine’s view of rhetoric. To Augustine, the private life of an orator is more important than his persuasive words. “But a man speaks with more or less wisdom as he is the more or less versed in the Holy Scriptures…” (p. 458-59). It is important for the rhetorician to have good character born from wisdom to guide his persuasive speech. Augustine recognizes that both righteous and corrupt men may speak eloquently. He says that proper conduct must also accompany rhetoric for it to be worthy to heed. “But the life of the speaker has greater force to make him persuasive than the grandeur of his eloquence, however great that may be. For the man who speaks wisely and eloquently, but lives evilly, instructs many who are eager to learn though he is unprofitable to his own soul” (p. 482-83). Augustine says that it is not beneficial to listen to someone with poor moral character. They might possess eloquence, but they have nothing worthy in which to instruct us. Augustine’s consideration of ethos changes rhetorical theory, especially in contrast to Cicero and Quintilian and their view of the perfect orator. To Cicero and Quintilian, the perfect orator was a good man who could speak well. They didn’t believe that immoral men could be good orators. But Augustine recognized that both good and evil men can use rhetoric well. While Augustine urges men to use rhetoric for good purposes, persuading for good things and virtuous actions, he also recognized that men like Sophists can use rhetoric for their own selfish gain, not the good of the people. He notes that men of good character as well as men of corrupt character can have strong rhetorical skills, therefore, we must be careful about using rhetoric for good purposes.

Augustine might view knowledge as secondary to truth considering his religious views and rhetorical training. Augustine says, “it is the fine characteristic of great minds that they love the truth in words, not just the words” (p. 466). Truth matters to Augustine, just as it did to Plato. For Augustine, it was the Christian truth of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that agreed with Cicero that “an orator ought to speak in such a way as to instruct, to please, and to persuade” (p. 466). To Augustine, this rhetorical skill in teaching, pleasing and persuading needs to come from someone with high moral character in order to benefit the people who hear. “And so those three points which we named above as ends to be striven for by everyone who desires to speak with wisdom and with eloquence, namely, to make one’s words understood, enjoyed, and persuasive…” (p. 481). Cicero’s sphere of influence was the legal and political oratory of ancient Rome, whereas Augustine’s sphere of influence for oratory after his conversion was the homily, or sermon, and applying rhetorical principles to Scripture in order to help the audience understand Biblical truths.

Last semester, when I took ENGL 656 World Literature, I read an excerpt from Augustine’s Confessions (Augustine, 2009). It is a compelling account of Augustine’s classical education, his whole-hearted resistance to Christianity, and then his subsequent surrender to God. In Confessions, Augustine speaks so highly of Cicero that I then researched a few of his speeches to read the Roman orator for myself. As I read, I immediately understood Augustine’s attraction to Cicero. To satisfy his mind, “Augustine was seeking an intellectually satisfying religion, one that could speak to the philosophical interests aroused by his reading of Cicero’s Hortensius, which draws heavily on Greek thought to discuss the relationship of rhetoric and philosophy” (p. 450). This background leads to my question about Augustine. I wonder how Augustine’s view of rhetoric was received at the monastery in Hippo? Some leaders of monasteries valued classical thinking but only allowed the monks to read Scripture. I also wonder, was Augustine’s writing valued in his lifetime?

References

Augustine. (2001). On Christian Doctrine. (Therese Sullivan, Trans.). In P. Bizzell & B. Herzberg, (Eds.). The Rhetorical Tradition. (2nd ed. pp. 456-485).

Augustine. (2009). Confessions. (Henry Chadwick, Trans.). In D. Damrosch & D. Pike, (Eds.). The Longman Anthology of World Literature: Volume A: The Ancient World. (2nd ed. pp. 1298-1329).

Bizzell, P. & Herzberg, B., (2001). “Augustine.” In P. Bizzell & B. Herzberg, The Rhetorical Tradition. (2nd ed. pp. 450-454).