St' Augustine

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Comunicación y Gerencia

• St. Augustine
• Or
• Augustine of Hippo

On Christian Doctrine
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History of Christian Rhetoric

• Christianity rose with the fall of the Roman
  Empire
• It eventually dominated Europe and took control
  of public and private life
• Legislative assemblies were no longer needed

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Scholasticism

• Developed around the medieval tendency to treat
  ancient sources (including the Bible) as
  authoritive.
• Sententiae isolated statements from ancient
  sources.
• Quaestiones disputes centered on debatable
  points suggested by one or more sententiae.

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Scholasticism

• In this way rhetoric made its way into the Middle
  Ages.
• Unfortunately sentences separated from original
  context usually lost their original meanings.

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The Life of St. Augustine

• Born in Thagaste, North Africa (part of the
  waning Roman Empire) in 353 A.D. to Berber
  parents
• Converted to Christianity after hearing a divine
  voice in a country garden in 386
• Baptized in 387, also had his illegitimate son
  baptized at this time
• Ordained as priest in 391
• In around 396, became Bishop of Hippo largest
  port city in Roman North Africa
• Died in 430, three months into the siege of Hippo
  by the Vandals

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• The Triumph of St. Augustine
• By Claudio Coello
• 1664
• Museo del Prado, Madrid

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Augustine sought a true art of rhetoric that
could be used in the service of transcendent
truth, in his case, the truth of the Christian
scripture. Herrick
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Augustines 3 Tasks

• Set 2 tasks on Christian teachers
• -- to discover and teach the contents of the
  scripture
• 3rd task came later
• -- to defend scriptural truth when it was
  attacked (using rhetoric)

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On Christian Doctrine

• Consists of four books
• The first three instructs the Christian pastor on
  how to correctly interpret the Scriptures
• And book four instructs the pastor on how to
  convey their truth to diverse audiences.

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Divides World into Categories

• Implies separation of things (truths, realities)
  and words (signs pointing to things)
• Leads to the Platonic conclusion that language
  is only a means to the final, silent
  contemplation of divine truth. Bizzell and
  Herzberg
• So a tree in the Bible, may be a sign of a thing,
  such as eternal life.

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Books I II

• Book I
• discusses things to be enjoyed and things to
  be used (Platonic)
• Book II
• discusses signs unknown literal, unknown
  figurative, ambiguous literal, and ambiguous
  figurative
• says its better to have truth than logic
• commends Platonists as knowing some truth

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Books III IV

• Book III
• discusses ambiguous signs ambiguous literal
  and ambiguous figurative
• Book IV
• discusses the relationship between Christian
  truth and eloquence
• shows how the Christian preacher can use
  precepts from classical rhetoric

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On Christian Doctrine

• For those who speak eloquently are listened to
  with pleasure those who speak with wisdom are
  heard with profit (8, p. 459) .
• One who teaches will avoid all words which do
  not teach and if in place of them he can use
  other correct expressions which are intelligible,
  he will choose these by preference, but if he
  cannot, he will use words even less correct,
  provided, however, that the matter itself be
  taught and learned correctly (24, p. 465).

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Augustine and Cicero
Augustine used Ciceros ideas of rhetoric to
teach, to delight, and to move, but changed them
to serve Christianity. (27, p. 466) The
preacher must know subject matter to teach it
well. He must also know how to reach his
congregations emotions (to delight), and to
pursuade them to Christian living (to move). --
Herrick
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On Rhetoric

• Uses rhetoric to try to convince the reader that
  rhetoric charm should not be used if it is used
  for falsehood. (29, 30, p. 467)
• Uses Bible passages to make points or to
  illustrate examples of styles to be used as
  teaching tools (sententiae).
• Encourages teachers to mix styles to achieve the
  most success.

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Questions

• How does Augustines approach to rhetoric
  resemble Platos?
• Excluding preaching itself, which rhetorical
  practices of our own time seek goals similar to
  those of medieval preaching?
• How did Augustine use Ciceros rhetoric ideas for
  the Church?