I have been asked to provide something I have written exclusively to Athiest Forums, so here it is.
In ancient Greece there arose a class of highly literate and skillful orators known as Sophists. These men would go about Athens and other main cities in Greece, speaking to paying audiences about such things as, religion, philosophy and politics. Their gift was not that of true knowledge but of the ability to persuade. They used rhetoric as modern preachers and politicians do, to persuade their patrons of the truth of their opinions, on facts that they often knew little about. They were highly respected by the masses of ill-informed citizens, but from the true thinkers and philosophers, they received nothing less than utter contempt. As democracy increased in Athens the ability to persuade the masses became paramount to the success or failure of any given politician. Thus, the sophists became highly sought after and their powers of persuasion made them very wealthy. According to Philostratus, a writer of late antiquity, Gorgias was the father of Sophism. (1)
Plato’s student, Aristotle, described Gorgias in the following words:
“Like other sophists, he travelled from city to city offering his services for money. He did not claim to teach virtue but specialized in teaching rhetoric (cf. 95c1–4), and his own oratorical skills were both innovative and widely admired.” (2)
Aristotle was extremely contemptuous of Gorgias’ art, and derided it in the following words:
“Now for some people it is better worthwhile to seem to be wise, than to be wise without seeming to be (for the art of the sophist is the semblance of wisdom without the reality, and the sophist is one who makes money from an apparent but unreal wisdom); for them, then, it is clearly necessary to seem to accomplish the task of a wise man rather than to accomplish it without seeming to do so.” (3)
As established above, Aristotle viewed the sophists as charlatans, passing off rhetoric as truth and wonderful words as wisdom. They were nothing more than clever speakers, who knew how to engage their audience, draw them in and hypnotize them with the clever use of linguistics.
Aristotle was not alone in accusing sophists of misleading the masses. His esteemed teacher, Plato, who was in turn Socrates’ pupil, condemned these early pagan preachers, as being nothing more than clever speaking fools. In a series of lectures on Platonism, delivered at Princeton University in 1917, Paul Elmer More, said the following:
If there is any truth in Plato s account of the debates between Socrates and such masters of the craft as Gorgias and Protagoras, it is clear that the sophists directed their instruction chiefly to the acquisition of skill in manipulating individual men and popular assemblies. I do not mean to say, following an ancient accusation, that the sophists set out deliberately to instruct men in the art of making the better cause appear the worse, in the sense that they had any vicious or anti-social end in view; but rather that they had in view no end at all, except the end of success. Their concern was very much with practical cleverness and very little with moral consequences, very much with current opinion and very little with truth for its own sake; hence the supreme place of rhetoric in their curriculum, as the art of persuasion. (4)
It seems that in their day the sophists were the preachers, who like Billy Graham, could persuade, mislead and hypnotize listeners with the skillful use of rhetoric that brought them both acclaim from the profane masses and condemnation from those in search of the truth.
According to ‘The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge’, it was Origen who, in the 3rd century introduced the sermon in the form of the homily as a fixed ecclesiastical (church) custom. (5) Historian and theologian Phillip Schaff commented:
His (Origen’s) appeal was rather to the perception than to the will. (6)
In the ‘Encyclopedia of World History’, regarding the introduction of rhetoric into the Christian faith it reports that:
After a slow decline in importance as Greek democracy gave way to the Roman Empire, classical Greek rhetoric experienced a revival of sorts in the Second Sophistic period of the mid-first through the mid second centuries c.e. This in turn had a great impact on Christian literature and oratory, as can be seen in Luke-Acts or figures such as Augustine of Hippo or John Chrysostom. As a result, the impact of Greek rhetoric continues today, with modern public speaking and literature heavily based on the principles of oratory produced in the Hellenistic Period. (7)
The following excerpt from Viola and Barna’s ‘Pagan Christianity’ describes how the art of sophism entered the “bloodstream of Christianity”:
By the fourth century, the church had become fully institutionalized.
As this was happening, many pagan orators and philosophers were becoming Christians. As a result, pagan philosophical ideas unwittingly made their way into the Christian community." Many of these men became the theologians and leaders of the early Christian church. They are known as the "church fathers," and some of their writings are still with us."
Thus the pagan notion of a trained professional speaker who delivers orations for a fee moved straight into the Christian bloodstream.
If you compare a third-century pagan sermon with a sermon given by one of the church fathers, you will find both the structure and the phraseology to be quite similar."
So a new style of communication was being birthed in the Christian church—a style that emphasized polished rhetoric, sophisticated grammar, flowery eloquence, and monologue. It was a style that was designed to entertain and show off the speaker's oratorical skills. It was Greco-Roman rhetoric." And only those who were trained in it were allowed to address the assembly! (8)
Viola and Barna go on to sum up the origin of the Christian sermon in the following words:
Summing up the origin of the contemporary sermon, we can say the following: Christianity had taken Greco-Roman rhetoric and adapted it for its own purposes, baptized it, and wrapped it in swaddling clothes. The Greek homily made its way into the Christian church around the second century. It reached its height in the pulpit orators of the fourth century—namely Chrysostom and Augustine.(9)
1. Robert Wardy. The Birth of Rhetoric. Plato, Aristotle and their Successors. Routledge 1996. Pg. 6.
2. Dominic Scott. Plato’s Meno. Cambridge Studies in the Dialogues of Plato. Cambridge University Press. 2005. Chapter 1: The Opening. Pg. 12.
3. Jonathan Barnes. The Complete Works of Aristotle. Sophistical Refutations Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 1991. Pg. 3.
4. Paul Elmer More. Platonism. Princeton University Press. Princeton 1917. Pg. 20.
5. Phillip Schaff. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. IX: Petri – Reuchlin. Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Pg. 361.
6. Ibid.
7. Marsha E. Ackermann Michael J. Schroeder Janice J. Terry Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur
Mark F. Whitters. Encyclopedia of World History: Vol. 1. Facts on File. Infobase
publishing (2008). Pg., 174.
8. Frank Viola, George Barna. Pagan Christianity. Tyndale House Publishers. (2008). Pg. 126-127.
9. Ibid. Pg. 131.
This work is my intellectual property so if you wanna use it, just send me a message, or reference me, and it is all good.
In ancient Greece there arose a class of highly literate and skillful orators known as Sophists. These men would go about Athens and other main cities in Greece, speaking to paying audiences about such things as, religion, philosophy and politics. Their gift was not that of true knowledge but of the ability to persuade. They used rhetoric as modern preachers and politicians do, to persuade their patrons of the truth of their opinions, on facts that they often knew little about. They were highly respected by the masses of ill-informed citizens, but from the true thinkers and philosophers, they received nothing less than utter contempt. As democracy increased in Athens the ability to persuade the masses became paramount to the success or failure of any given politician. Thus, the sophists became highly sought after and their powers of persuasion made them very wealthy. According to Philostratus, a writer of late antiquity, Gorgias was the father of Sophism. (1)
Plato’s student, Aristotle, described Gorgias in the following words:
“Like other sophists, he travelled from city to city offering his services for money. He did not claim to teach virtue but specialized in teaching rhetoric (cf. 95c1–4), and his own oratorical skills were both innovative and widely admired.” (2)
Aristotle was extremely contemptuous of Gorgias’ art, and derided it in the following words:
“Now for some people it is better worthwhile to seem to be wise, than to be wise without seeming to be (for the art of the sophist is the semblance of wisdom without the reality, and the sophist is one who makes money from an apparent but unreal wisdom); for them, then, it is clearly necessary to seem to accomplish the task of a wise man rather than to accomplish it without seeming to do so.” (3)
As established above, Aristotle viewed the sophists as charlatans, passing off rhetoric as truth and wonderful words as wisdom. They were nothing more than clever speakers, who knew how to engage their audience, draw them in and hypnotize them with the clever use of linguistics.
Aristotle was not alone in accusing sophists of misleading the masses. His esteemed teacher, Plato, who was in turn Socrates’ pupil, condemned these early pagan preachers, as being nothing more than clever speaking fools. In a series of lectures on Platonism, delivered at Princeton University in 1917, Paul Elmer More, said the following:
If there is any truth in Plato s account of the debates between Socrates and such masters of the craft as Gorgias and Protagoras, it is clear that the sophists directed their instruction chiefly to the acquisition of skill in manipulating individual men and popular assemblies. I do not mean to say, following an ancient accusation, that the sophists set out deliberately to instruct men in the art of making the better cause appear the worse, in the sense that they had any vicious or anti-social end in view; but rather that they had in view no end at all, except the end of success. Their concern was very much with practical cleverness and very little with moral consequences, very much with current opinion and very little with truth for its own sake; hence the supreme place of rhetoric in their curriculum, as the art of persuasion. (4)
It seems that in their day the sophists were the preachers, who like Billy Graham, could persuade, mislead and hypnotize listeners with the skillful use of rhetoric that brought them both acclaim from the profane masses and condemnation from those in search of the truth.
According to ‘The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge’, it was Origen who, in the 3rd century introduced the sermon in the form of the homily as a fixed ecclesiastical (church) custom. (5) Historian and theologian Phillip Schaff commented:
His (Origen’s) appeal was rather to the perception than to the will. (6)
In the ‘Encyclopedia of World History’, regarding the introduction of rhetoric into the Christian faith it reports that:
After a slow decline in importance as Greek democracy gave way to the Roman Empire, classical Greek rhetoric experienced a revival of sorts in the Second Sophistic period of the mid-first through the mid second centuries c.e. This in turn had a great impact on Christian literature and oratory, as can be seen in Luke-Acts or figures such as Augustine of Hippo or John Chrysostom. As a result, the impact of Greek rhetoric continues today, with modern public speaking and literature heavily based on the principles of oratory produced in the Hellenistic Period. (7)
The following excerpt from Viola and Barna’s ‘Pagan Christianity’ describes how the art of sophism entered the “bloodstream of Christianity”:
By the fourth century, the church had become fully institutionalized.
As this was happening, many pagan orators and philosophers were becoming Christians. As a result, pagan philosophical ideas unwittingly made their way into the Christian community." Many of these men became the theologians and leaders of the early Christian church. They are known as the "church fathers," and some of their writings are still with us."
Thus the pagan notion of a trained professional speaker who delivers orations for a fee moved straight into the Christian bloodstream.
If you compare a third-century pagan sermon with a sermon given by one of the church fathers, you will find both the structure and the phraseology to be quite similar."
So a new style of communication was being birthed in the Christian church—a style that emphasized polished rhetoric, sophisticated grammar, flowery eloquence, and monologue. It was a style that was designed to entertain and show off the speaker's oratorical skills. It was Greco-Roman rhetoric." And only those who were trained in it were allowed to address the assembly! (8)
Viola and Barna go on to sum up the origin of the Christian sermon in the following words:
Summing up the origin of the contemporary sermon, we can say the following: Christianity had taken Greco-Roman rhetoric and adapted it for its own purposes, baptized it, and wrapped it in swaddling clothes. The Greek homily made its way into the Christian church around the second century. It reached its height in the pulpit orators of the fourth century—namely Chrysostom and Augustine.(9)
1. Robert Wardy. The Birth of Rhetoric. Plato, Aristotle and their Successors. Routledge 1996. Pg. 6.
2. Dominic Scott. Plato’s Meno. Cambridge Studies in the Dialogues of Plato. Cambridge University Press. 2005. Chapter 1: The Opening. Pg. 12.
3. Jonathan Barnes. The Complete Works of Aristotle. Sophistical Refutations Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 1991. Pg. 3.
4. Paul Elmer More. Platonism. Princeton University Press. Princeton 1917. Pg. 20.
5. Phillip Schaff. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. IX: Petri – Reuchlin. Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Pg. 361.
6. Ibid.
7. Marsha E. Ackermann Michael J. Schroeder Janice J. Terry Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur
Mark F. Whitters. Encyclopedia of World History: Vol. 1. Facts on File. Infobase
publishing (2008). Pg., 174.
8. Frank Viola, George Barna. Pagan Christianity. Tyndale House Publishers. (2008). Pg. 126-127.
9. Ibid. Pg. 131.
This work is my intellectual property so if you wanna use it, just send me a message, or reference me, and it is all good.
You can always trust a person in search of the truth, but never the one who has found it. MANLY P. HALL
http://michaelsherlockauthor.blogspot.jp/
http://michaelsherlockauthor.blogspot.jp/
