David Jasper

Rhetoric, Power, and Community: an Exercise in Reserve (David Jasper Reprint)

Aristotle defended the art of rhetoric, while Plato was suspicious of its manipulative power to persuade. This study examines rhetoric in the context of different kinds of religious texts, from sacred scripture, to liturgy, to contemporary and postmodern writing and religion. How does the believing negotiate rhetorical power-games which may be exercised upon it, and do we have to be bold to see the ironies and the joke which may be played upon us in the name of the truth of religion. "Rhetoric, Power and Community" is an exercise in rhetoric which is itself suspicious of the rhetorical arts. Its main concerns are theological, though perhaps offensive to theology as it is often practised in the church and the academy.