Low low low

RYAN got these ideas out minutes before!

Several classmates posted about Augustine's high/grand style in this sermon.  Kelly wrote about how the chiasmus and intense words (murderer) put the "sermon somewhere between the middle and grand styles." Adam wrote that Augustine's use of metaphor scripture show that "the entire sermon is entwined with high speech designated at everyone to move them for one single purpose of reminding them of the struggle that it is to forgive and be forgiven."

I read this sermon from a non religious standpoint.  From that exercise, in my mind, the sermon is mainly a low style.  In section one, Augustine teaches how to pray.  In section two, he teaches about what an apostle says in the scriptures.  In section three, he teaches about how to adapt a prayer when you are struggling with the issue of forgiveness.  In section four, he teaches about our relationships between our friends and God, and how to deal with sin in those relationships.  In section five, he teaches about how to deal with forgiveness in a servant-master relationships. In section six, he teaches about the timing of forgiveness.  In section seven, he reminds the reader of what he taught. 

I think this analysis works for reading the sermon as I was reading it from a non-religious perspective, and the above paragraph would be my take-away.  That being said, I don't believe in teaching just to teach, I believe in teaching so that people do.  I hope to always plan my lessons and speeches by first identifying what I want my audience to do.  "Know, feel, do" may sound familiar to anyone who has spent time in the Missionary Training Center.  That is what I really believe in.