Does St. Augustine contradict himself?

 In St. Augustine’s De Doctrina Christiana, he speaks of three styles of speaking – to teach (low), to please (middle), and to exhort (high).  While reading his Sermon for Lent I noticed that he used the three different styles combined to reach the goal of an action either to ask for forgiveness or to forgive.  In De Doctrina Christiana he states that there are more useful situations for each style as follows:

• To teach (Low Style) – To those who are unfamiliar with the subject/focus is mostly on clarity and logos.
• To please (Middle Style) – To those who are familiar with the subject and need to hear it in a new way to be reminded of its importance.
• To Move (High Style) – To those who are sinning and must be corrected.

While reading his Sermon for Lent I noticed that he addresses different groups but there is a pattern within each group.  He starts out in the middle style and addresses the whole congregation.  He uses many metaphors like “tree of hatred”, “light shone in their hearts”, and “his heart in his prison” to make the familiar subject of forgiveness seem more interesting.  In this introduction he captures their attention but also makes the distinction that a mortal life “[…] cannot be lived even by a just person without some sins…”  This makes his earlier classification that the high style is to be used with those transgressing seem odd since everyone is a sinner.

               

Then he goes on to speak to the different ways that a person can commit a sin with forgiveness and clearly in the low style explains the situation.  He moves on after stating the proposed situation to exhort them to either ask forgiveness or to give forgiveness to another.  The majority of the sermon is exhorting all members in the congregation to repent so that they can enjoy the observance of Lent with a clear conscience.