Persecutions May Rage: Identification in Rhetoric

The great fire of Rome, 69 AD

 Early Christians were blamed for a fire in Rome and persecuted because of it. Paul tried to give them strength through his letters. Protestant reformers were burned alive by the Catholic Church at an alarming rate. John Calvin tried to bring Protestants together in his preaching on suffering persecution. Mormons were driven from their homes and tarred and feathered. Joseph Smith preached courage and faith.

These three instances are tied together through a process called rhetorical identification. Coined by a theorist named Kenneth Burke, identification (a very watered-down version) happens when a person relates to another through the use of speech or writing. As members of the LDS church, we identify with Protestants and the early Christians because they were persecuted like we were persecuted. We draw strength from those examples that helps us in our own struggles. Maybe that identification is one of the reasons why the Church focuses so much on Luther and Protestantism and ignores Erasmus, as we discussed in class yesterday. We identify with the Protestants more in their struggles as a beginning religion.

By using examples of Paul and the early Christians in his suffering persecution speech, Calvin also tried to help his followers identify with those people and gain strength from them. As a rhetor, Calvin tried to promote change through identifying with others. He helped them see the identification through rhetorical questions and scriptural analogies to their own lives. Judging by the Protestant reformation’s success, I’d say Calvin was pretty successful.