ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses how neither scientific demonstration nor formal logical analysis can account for the terms of the debate. To properly understand faith, God, and reasonableness, one needs to adopt an explicitly rhetorical framework, one that understands these terms as rhetorically inflected. Rhetoric is the ancient art of discourse that was practiced by the pre-Socratics, theorized by Aristotle, taught by Isocrates, practiced by Cicero, and brought into the service of the Christian faith by Augustine, himself a professor of rhetoric prior to his conversion. Rhetorical scholar James Kinneavy conducted a thorough word study of pistis as it was used in the New Testament and in ancient rhetorical works, including those of Aristotle. Any literary work whose ultimate goal or purpose is to persuade the reader to adopt a particular set of beliefs or to engage in particular actions is a work of rhetoric. Thus, by definition, whatever else the Bible may be, it is a rhetorical work.