ABSTRACT
This chapter is predominantly concerned with the role of authoritative rhetoric in Protestantism. Augustine is natural point of pre-Protestant reference. But before discussing Augustine the chapter briefly considers, in relation to the theme, the tradition he inherits and develops. The new faith entered a world of polytheistic tolerance, to which it soon proved intolerable. A crucial factor in what distinguished it, making it both attractive and repellent, was the authoritative rhetoric at its heart. The Confessions presents Christian faith in the context of a polyphonic worldview. All meaning, and all psychological motivation, is conceived as subject to the agency of voices. Augustine's progression to faith is reliant on a rhetorical and polyphonic model of meaning. The City of God expounds Christian faith in the context of pagan charges that it is responsible for the collapse of the Roman empire. Christianity associates divinity with authoritative moral speech, uniquely present in scripture.
