ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the importance of historiographic investigations that foreground a focus on theology when studying the rhetorical theories and pedagogies of religiously-motivated figures. It begins with a rationale for taking up the two exigent questions that undergird this book: In what ways have rhetorical educators’ religious motives influenced the shape of rhetorical education? What might scholars of writing and rhetoric learn about rhetoric and the teaching of rhetoric by investigating the ways theological motives have animated approaches to rhetorical education? The chapter then delineates three strands of Austin Phelps’s theologically-motivated rhetorical pedagogy—namely, vocational rhetorical pedagogy, regenerative rhetorical pedagogy, and incarnate rhetorical pedagogy. Finally, the chapter outlines Phelps’s contributions as a scholar and a teacher of nineteenth-century sacred rhetoric.
