Augustine. “On Christian Doctrine: Book IV”

Augustine. “On Christian Doctrine: Book IV” The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings
From Classical Times to the Present. Eds., Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzburg Bedford: Boston 2001.

“3. For since throught the art of rhetoric both truth and falsehood are pleaded, who would be so bold as to say that against falsehood, truth as regards its own dfenders ought to stand unarmed, so that, forsooth, those who attempt to plead false causes know from the beginning how to make their audience well-disposed, attentive, and that the former utter their lies concisely, clearly, with the appearance of truth, and that the later state the truth in a way that is wearisome to listen to, not clear to understand, and finally, not pleasant to believe;” (457). =B & E

"Nay, more I believe there are scarcely any who can do both things, viz., speak well, and in order to do so, think of the rules of oratory while speaking” (457). =B

“21. And indeed many more things which pertain to the rules of eloquence can be discovered in this same passage which we have taken as an example. But its value lies not so much in the instruction it affords a good audience if it be analyzed carefully, as in the sentiment it enkindles if it be read with feeling” (464). B & E

Augustine is talking about invoking feeling in his audience. He specifically talks about evoking emotion through emotion.

“For though one gives pleasure when he clears up matters that need to be made understood, he becomes wearisome when he keeps hammering at things which are already understood, at least to those men whose whole expectation was centered in the solution of the difficulty in the matter under discussion” (465). =B

“27. And so, a well-known orator has said, and has said truly thant an orator ought to speak in such a way as to instruct, to please, and to persuade” (466). B & E
“It belongs, therefore, to the duty of the teacher not only to make clear obscure matters, and to solve the difficulties in question, but also while this is being done, to anticipate other questions” (472). M&E

“42. The grand style of speaking differs from this moderate style especially in that this is not so much adorned by ornate expressions, as rendered passionate by the heart’s emotions” (474). B & E.

He’s speaking directly to the use of emotion to evoke response, move the audience, etc.

“47. The well-known encomium of virgininity in Cyprian is an example of the moderate style. ‘Now our discourse directs itself to the virgins, who as their honor is higher, are therefore our greater care. They are the flower of the tree of the Church, the beauty and ornament of spiritual grace, its bright natural virtue; of its praise and honor, a work pure and untarnished, the image of God, answering to the sancity of the Lord, the brighter portion of the flock of Christ” (476). =B & E

Did this very strange obsession with virginity, strange because it is praised not as a natural state, but as a higher state of being, contribute to the obsession we now know as pedophilia?

“51. No one should suppose that is its against the rule to mingle these three styles. On the contrary as far as it can properly be done, one should vary his diction by using all three” (478). =B
Syles = grand, moderate, and subdued.


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