Preaching! ..with Style

I saw mostly low and high style in Augustine's speech as he both taught about forgiveness and motivated people to act on his teachings by giving them the guilt trip. There were a few instances of moderate style but they were few and far between.

The Grand Darkness
Augustine's description of the darkness that people who refuse to forgive must walk through he was definitely using a grand level of style. While reading his description you can almost hear his voice drop in suspense and rise in energy. He quotes the scripture in 1 John 3:15 that compares hating a brother to murder, and of course the entire audience knows what happens to murderers.




The Low-ly Father
There were many times that Augustine used low style, but my favorite was the example of the father correcting his son; used to teach the difference between anger and hatred. I have a little brother who assumed that if he was punished it meant our parents no longer loved him. Of course as he got older he learned this was not the case and it really was his fault he was in trouble. I think any parent or older child in the audience would be able to understand this piece of Augustine's teaching.


The Moderate Comfort
Each of the groups that Augustine presented had a task they were given; except for the group that would forgive if their transgressor ever got around to asking them to. Now if Augustine is not asking that group to do anything it can't be grand style (unless you consider him telling them not to do something an exhortation) and he really isn't trying to teach them anything, so it isn't low. That leaves moderate; and I think that makes sense. Moderate style is an attempt to please your audience and I see this section as Augustine trying to comfort that group of people. He tells them that he knows that they have done all that they can I the forgiveness process. That is probably one of the most reassuring things he could say to that group of people after they sat through a lecture about forgiveness without being able to forgive.