Rhetoric and Religion in the Twenty-First Century

Rhetoric and Religion in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Michael-John DePalma

Publisher: SIU Press

Published: 2023-11-10

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 080933917X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Expanding the scope of religious rhetoric Over the past twenty-five years, the intersection of rhetoric and religion has become one of the most dynamic areas of inquiry in rhetoric and writing studies. One of few volumes to include multiple traditions in one conversation, Rhetoric and Religion in the Twenty-First Century engages with religious discourses and issues that continue to shape public life in the United States. This collection of essays centralizes the study of religious persuasion and pluralism, considers religion’s place in U.S. society, and expands the study of rhetoric and religion in generative ways. The volume showcases a wide range of religious traditions and challenges the very concepts of rhetoric and religion. The book’s eight essays explore African American, Buddhist, Christian, Indigenous, Islamic, and Jewish rhetoric and discuss the intersection of religion with feminism, race, and queer rhetoric—along with offering reflections on how to approach religious traditions through research and teaching. In addition, the volume includes seven short interludes in which some of the field’s most accomplished scholars recount their experiences exploring religious rhetorics and invite readers to engage these exigent lines of inquiry. By featuring these diverse religious perspectives, Rhetoric and Religion in the Twenty-First Century complicates the field’s emphasis on Western, Hellenistic, and Christian ideologies. The collection also offers teachers of writing and rhetoric a range of valuable approaches for preparing today’s students for public citizenship in our religiously diverse global context.


Rhetoric in the Twenty-First Century

Rhetoric in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Nicholas J. Crowe

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2016-04-26

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 1443892971

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book arises from a symposium held in Oxford to consider the most fruitful trajectories of rhetoric in the 21st century. The gathering comprised an international delegation of leading scholars convened to assess—from an array of perspectives – the various possible futures of the ancient discipline of rhetoric as it responds vitally to the evolving contexts of the new millennium. This collection commemorates that event by extending its scrutiny into a number of specific fields of inquiry. It includes a foreword by Prof James J. Murphy, an introductory article by the editors, and six further articles commissioned from among the participants. The introduction provides a detailed account of the symposium, and foregrounds the delegates’ articles with a résumé of their arguments and consequent relevance to the overarching theme. Each contribution is a freshly minted and original piece of scholarship, true to the generative and interactive spirit of the enterprise, and speaking pertinently to the field of international rhetoric studies at the present time. Rhetoric in the Twenty-First Century addresses a spectrum of concerns. Scholars and students of rhetoric and language-use will naturally find much of interest here, and the inclusive ambit of the work will also appeal to students of ethics, religion, comparative literature, intercultural studies, and the growing field of communication studies.


Persuasions of God

Persuasions of God

Author: Paul Lynch

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2024-01-18

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0271098287

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The nations of the global north find themselves in a post-secular or post-Christian period, one in which the practice, expression, and effects of religion are undergoing massive shifts. In Persuasions of God, Paul Lynch pursues a project of “theorhetoric,” a radical new approach to speaking about the divine. Searching for new religious forms amid the lingering influence of Christianity, Lynch turns to René Girard, the most important twentieth-century thinker on the sacred and its expression within the Christian tradition. Lynch repurposes Girard’s mimetic theory to invent a post-Christian way of speaking to, for, and especially about God. Girard theorized the sacred as the nexus of violence, order, and sacralization that lies at the heart of religion. What Lynch advocates in our current moment of religious kairos is a paradoxically meek rhetoric that conscientiously refuses rivalry, actively exploits tradition through complicit invention, and boldly seeks a holiness free of exclusionary violence. The project of theorhetoric is to reinvent God through the reimagined themes of meekness, sacrifice, atonement, and holiness. From these, Persuasions of God offers religion reimagined for our post-secular age. An interdisciplinary mix of philosophy, sociology, rhetorical studies, and theology, this book draws on mimetic theory to answer the question of where religion goes next. It will be valued by religious studies and communications scholars as well as anyone interested in the future of Christianity in our modern world.


Mapping Christian Rhetorics

Mapping Christian Rhetorics

Author: Michael-John DePalma

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-10-10

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1317670833

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The continued importance of Christian rhetorics in political, social, pedagogical, and civic affairs suggests that such rhetorics not only belong on the map of rhetorical studies, but are indeed essential to the geography of rhetorical studies in the twenty-first century. This collection argues that concerning ourselves with religious rhetorics in general and Christian rhetorics in particular tells us something about rhetoric itself—its boundaries, its characteristics, its functionings. In assembling original research on the intersections of rhetoric and Christianity from prominent and emerging scholars, Mapping Christian Rhetorics seeks to locate religion more centrally within the geography of rhetorical studies in the twenty-first century. It does so by acknowledging work on Christian rhetorics that has been overlooked or ignored; connecting domains of knowledge and research areas pertaining to Christian rhetorics that may remain disconnected or under connected; and charting new avenues of inquiry about Christian rhetorics that might invigorate theory-building, teaching, research, and civic engagement. In dividing the terrain of Christian rhetorics into four categories—theory, education, methodology, and civic engagement—Mapping Christian Rhetorics aims to foster connections among these areas of inquiry and spur future future collaboration between scholars of religious rhetoric in a range of research areas.


The Rhetoric of Oil in the Twenty-First Century

The Rhetoric of Oil in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Heather Graves

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-04-05

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1351052128

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book examines mass communication and civic participation in the age of oil, analyzing the rhetorical and discursive ways that governments and corporations shape public opinion and public policy and activists attempt to reframe public debates to resist corporate framing. In the twenty-first century, oil has become a subject of civic deliberation. Environmental concerns have intensified, questions of indigenous rights have arisen, and private and public investment in energy companies has become open to deliberation. International contributors use local events as a starting point to explore larger issues associated with oil-dependent societies and cultures. This interdisciplinary collection synthesizes work in the energy humanities, rhetorical studies and environmental studies to analyze the global discourse of oil from the start of the twentieth century into the era of transnational corporations of the 21st century. This book will be a vital text for scholars in communication studies, the energy humanities and in environmental studies. Case studies are framed accessibly, and the theoretical lenses are accessible across disciplines, making it ideal for a post-graduate and advanced undergraduate audience in these fields.


Religious Rhetoric in US Right-Wing Politics

Religious Rhetoric in US Right-Wing Politics

Author: Chiara M. Migliori

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-04-13

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 3030965503

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book seeks to understand white conservative Christians’ support for Donald Trump, using their own words. Drawing on the triangular relationship between the 45th president, and his voters, and religious organizations, this work investigates the creation of the tale of Trump as the protector and enhancer of Christian values. The first part of the book discusses in detail the white conservative Christian constituency in the United States, and the development of feelings of displacement and resentment fostered by intergroup threat and nationalism. The central part focuses on the actor known as the “Religious Right,” through the rhetoric of one of their most representative organizations in the twenty-first century. The final part focuses on the character of Donald Trump and his peculiar relationship with religious discourse. The book demonstrates that while such discourse is expected of Trump as a Republican candidate, his approach to it is characterized by detachment and sloganized exploitation of Christian symbols. Ultimately, the book highlights the cultural tools that are crucial in the reproduction of structures of inequality and the ways they have been used by conservative politicians and groups to accumulate power.


Sacred Rhetorical Education in 19th Century America

Sacred Rhetorical Education in 19th Century America

Author: Michael-John DePalma

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-01-29

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1000037169

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book offers new insight into the ways rhetorical educators’ religious motives influenced the shape of nineteenth-century rhetorical education and invites scholars of writing and rhetoric to consider what the study of religiously-animated pedagogies might reveal about rhetorical education itself. The author studies the rhetorical pedagogy of Austin Phelps, the prominent preacher and professor of sacred rhetoric at Andover Theological Seminary, and his theologically-motivated adaptation of rhetorical education to fit the exigencies of preachers at the first graduate seminary in the United States. In disclosing how Phelps was guided by his Christian motives, the book offers a thorough examination of how professional rhetoric was taught, learned, and practiced in nineteenth-century America. It also provides an enriched understanding of rhetorical theories and pedagogies in American seminaries, and contributes deepened awareness of the ways religious motives can function as resources that enable the reshaping of rhetorical theory and pedagogy in generative ways. Exploring the implications of Phelps’s rhetorical theory and pedagogy for future studies of religious rhetoric, histories of rhetorical education, and twenty-first century writing pedagogy,this book will be essential reading for scholars and students of rhetoric, education, American history, religious education, and writing studies.


The Rhetoric of Pope Francis

The Rhetoric of Pope Francis

Author: Christopher J. Oldenburg

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-10-17

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1498572375

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What is it about the rhetoric of one the most influential and powerful religious leaders in the world and in history—Pope Francis—that is so engaging and yet so challenging to the Church writ large, the American Congress, the news media, and the world? The Rhetoric of Pope Francis: Critical Mercy and Conversion for the Twenty-first Century provides extensive insight into this question through a close, in-depth rhetorical analysis of Pope Francis’s visual, spatial, tactile, written, and oral discourse. This analysis reveals how the interrelated topoi of illness, space, mercy, and conversion converge to articulate Francis’s vision for the Church. Under Francis, the Catholic Church’s virtue of mercy gets renewed and redeployed to papal, pastoral, and political sites for the purpose of conversion. Each chapter identifies several of Francis’s dominant rhetorical strategies. These “pope tropes” take the form of existing and widely held Catholic beliefs that, while stable, still invite interpretation, disputation, and open dialogue. Studying Francis’s various discourses provides us with an exemplary paradigm from which we can learn much about faith, humility, love, and papal rhetoric’s transformative capacity to help us live more compassionate lives.


'Cult' Rhetoric in the 21st Century

'Cult' Rhetoric in the 21st Century

Author: Aled Thomas

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781350333253

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This book focuses on how 'cult rhetoric' affects our perceptions of new religious movements (NRMs). 'Cult' Rhetoric in the 21st Century explores contemporary understandings of the term 'cult' by bringing together a range of scholars from multiple disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, psychology, and religious studies. The book provides a renewed discussion of 'new religious movements', whilst also considering recent approaches toward a nuanced study of contemporary religion. Topics explored include online religions, political 'cults', 'apostate' testimony and the current 'othered' position of the study of minority religions"--


Foundations for Sociorhetorical Exploration

Foundations for Sociorhetorical Exploration

Author: Vernon K. Robbins

Publisher: SBL Press

Published: 2016-09-02

Total Pages: 520

ISBN-13: 0884141683

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Engaging resources for understanding the importance of bodies and spaces in producing and interpreting persuasive language This volume collects essays that represent intellectual milestones that are informing sociorhetorical interpretation during the twenty-first century. The essays are arranged into five parts: (1) Topos; (2) Cultural Geography and Critical Spatiality; (3) Rhetorolects and Conceptual Blending; (4) Rhetography; and (5) Rhetorical Force. Features: Tools for integrating multiple approaches to biblical interpretation Resources that emphasize the importance of language that prompts mental pictures in effective rhetoric Essays from classicists, rhetoricians, and biblical scholars