Calvinist Rhetoric In Nineteenth Century America

An examination of early nineteenth-century journals, sermons, and course syllabi written by prominent members of the Calvinist clergy, especially the Bartlet Chairs of Sacred Rhetoric at Andover Seminary, shows how an emerging oratorical culture in the United States impacted the choices made by Calvinist clergy. This study considers how the theory and practice of rhetoric changed in the face of democratizing forces that contributed to a distinctly oratorical culture in the early republic. This study should appeal to scholars interested in the history of rhetoric and American religion.

This book offers new insight into the ways rhetorical educators’ religious motives influenced the shape of nineteenth-century rhetorical education and invites scholars of writing and rhetoric to consider what the study of religiously-animated pedagogies might reveal about rhetorical education itself. The author studies the rhetorical pedagogy of Austin Phelps, the prominent preacher and professor of sacred rhetoric at Andover Theological Seminary, and his theologically-motivated adaptation of rhetorical education to fit the exigencies of preachers at the first graduate seminary in the United States. In disclosing how Phelps was guided by his Christian motives, the book offers a thorough examination of how professional rhetoric was taught, learned, and practiced in nineteenth-century America. It also provides an enriched understanding of rhetorical theories and pedagogies in American seminaries, and contributes deepened awareness of the ways religious motives can function as resources that enable the reshaping of rhetorical theory and pedagogy in generative ways. Exploring the implications of Phelps’s rhetorical theory and pedagogy for future studies of religious rhetoric, histories of rhetorical education, and twenty-first century writing pedagogy,this book will be essential reading for scholars and students of rhetoric, education, American history, religious education, and writing studies.

Introduces new scholars to interdisciplinary research by utilizing bibliographical surveys of both primary and secondary works that address the history of rhetoric, from the Classical period to the 21st century.

This book analyzes the advocacy, conceptualization, and institutionalization of rhetoric from 1770 to 1860. Among the forces promoting advocacy was the need for oratory calling for independence, the belief that using rhetoric was the way to succeed in biblical interpretation and preaching, and the desire for rhetoric as entertainment. Conceptually, leaders followed classical and German rhetoricians in viewing rhetoric as an art of ethical choice. Institutionally, a rhetorician such as Ebenezer Porter called for the development of organizations at all levels, a “sociology of rhetoric.” Orville Dewey highlighted the passion for rhetoric, calling his times “the age of eloquence.”

Clergy have historically been represented as figures of authority, wielding great influence over our society. During certain periods of American history, members of the clergy were nearly ever-present in public life. But men and women of the clergy are not born that way, they are made. And therefore, the matter of their education is a question of fundamental public importance. In Clergy Education in America, Larry Golemon shows not only how our conception of professionalism in religious life has changed over time, but also how the education of religious leaders have influenced American culture. Tracing the history of clergy education in America from the Early Republic through the first decades of the twentieth century, Golemon tracks how the clergy has become increasingly diversified in terms of race, gender, and class in part because of this engagement with public life. At the same time, he demonstrates that as theological education became increasingly intertwined with academia the clergy's sphere of influence shrank significantly, marking a turn away from public life and a decline in their cultural influence. Clergy Education in America offers a sweeping look at an oft-overlooked but critically important aspect of American public life.

The SAGE Handbook of Rhetorical Studies surveys the latest advances in rhetorical scholarship, synthesizing theories and practices across major areas of study in the field and pointing the way for future studies. Edited by Andrea A. Lunsford and Associate Editors Kirt H. Wilson and Rosa A. Eberly, the Handbook aims to introduce a new generation of students to rhetorical study and provide a deeply informed and ready resource for scholars currently working in the field.

Edwards Amasa Park (1808-1900) of Andover championed Edwardsean Calvinism in the United States from the Jacksonian era until the very close of the nineteenth century by employing rhetorical strategies that lent his New England theology fresh apologetic usefulness. The thesis demonstrates that Park has been incorrectly identified as a Taylorite but, extending the argument of Joseph Conforti, ought to be viewed as re-casting his inherited Hopkinsian exercise scheme into a fresh historical synthesis influenced by contemporary patterns of thought. Park's own training at Andover in the irenic divinity of Moses Stuart and Leonard Woods, his application as rhetorician of the work of Hugh Blair and George Campbell and his exposure in Germany to the Vermittlungstheologie of Friedrich Tholuck and Julius Müller gave specific definition to his own theological project. Additionally, the thesis argues that Park ought not to be viewed as a romantic idealist in the line of Horace Bushnell or as a proto-liberal in advance of the Andover liberals who succeeded him. Park retained a life-long commitment to a commingled epistemology and methodology derived from Lockean empiricism, Baconian induction, natural theology and Scottish common sense realism. As a formidable apologist for his revivalist inheritance identified with Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Hopkins, Edwards Amasa Park conserved the substance and prolonged the influence of his beloved New England theology by securing for it modes of expression well fitted to his nineteenth-century audience.