ABSTRACT
In the Confessions (397–401) and On Christian Doctrine (396; 426), St. Augustine brackets Neoplatonic philosophy with Ciceronian rhetoric, finding the acknowledged value of each to be limited by an emphasis on individual achievement that is conducive to pride. His personal struggle to overcome such pride shaped his conception of Christian eloquence, which stresses humility through subordination to the scriptural text and service to others. The Christian orator, as defined by Augustine, is above all a teacher who embodies the biblical text, whether by using the “rule of charity” to paraphrase the truths found in Scripture, by simply repeating the actual words of the Bible, or by leading a life of charity that constitutes a kind of speech without words.
