High-low Balance

In an effort to persuade the audience, Augustine relies heavily on the testimony and documentation of the prophets of old to fuel his main rhetorical function of teaching. The fast majority of his discourse relies on his ability to instruct the audience on the nature and intricacies of repentance and forgiveness. Augustine goes to great length to implement the Lord’s Prayer as median to instruct the people. He quotes the line “forgive us our debts” from the that Prayer implying that none in attendance could sincerely utter that line to the Lord if he has not already at least attempted to repentant to those whom we have wronged and forgive those who have wronged us. Furthermore, Augustine makes meticulous work of teaching the need to forgive those who have wronged us and then let go. He makes it abundantly clear that once we have forgiven those who have offended, we need not be concerned with that act any more. He ingrains his point into the reader with effective use of anaphora.

Though his main rhetorical function is a low level of just teaching, he definitely amps up his speech by calling to action. Inherent in teaching about repentance and forgiveness is an appeal to be repentant and be forgiving. Though this high level of style was in the vast minority for the bulk of the sermon, I think the ratio seems appropriate. One would be hard pressed to sustain such a high level of style for an extended period of time. Furthermore, it would be extremely stressful for the audience to be called to action, either directly or indirectly, for an overly extended period. At the end of the day, Augustine does an excellent job teaching the people why they need to repent and helping motivate everyone to do so.

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. 

All of the Above!

While reading others' blog posts, commenting about which style, I found I agreed with almost all of them, which brought me to the conclusion that Augustine uses all of the styles in a different way. Augustine would start out with the low style, simply teaching about the scriptures and giving clear examples. He would sooth the audience into and out of these conversations using the middle style. When he used the high style, he was using direct and powerful language to convince the audience to forgive and seek to be forgiven before the time of repentance comes. All three styles are proven by the statement he gives in his fourth paragraph, when he says "I have admonished him; now I console you..."
In class, we questioned whether knowledge, speaking, style, or delivery were more important. I find that Augustine used all of these modes to make a convincing argument. He talks to the audience as a confidant and friend, while also admonishing action and giving strict counsel. He uses scripture and words of Christ to back up his argument. He also arranges the argument in a way that makes it easy to understand and easy to find his target audience.
I noticed that Augustine took his own advice and looked to the advice of the language to determine if the meaning was literal or figurative. In ever case, Augustine pointed to love as the motivator for what he taught. I also found that he uses extension to emphasize each point. He makes many points clear with the main sentence or scripture, but continues to elaborate for a whole paragraph to make his point more clear. He uses extension to draw in the audience, also. In a continuation of the sentence I referenced early, in Augustine's paragraph 2, he could have left it at "now I console you" but he continued to extend his meaning of "you" with the following phrases.

The last striking thing that I found in Augustine's discourse, was his use of parallelism and repetition. In several of his sentences, he writes "you..." at the start of successive statements. This emphasis bonds him with the audience and encourages the audience to pay more attention, as he is speaking directly to them and counseling them to do things. He uses many subtle tools such as this to engage the audience and bring about his point. Overall, with his style and the words he spoke, he created an argument that couldn't be ignored.

Murder and Chiasmus

I can just picture Augustine at the pulpit, breathing down repentance and pronouncing blessings upon the faithful.  Can you imagine him in General Conference?  First off, I’d like to identify his audience as I see it.  The people he is addressing are just like you and me.  Overall, we know the scriptures.  We know we should be good.  We know we should not be bad.  How many talks have you heard on forgiving others?  I think that these people know they should forgive each other’s trespasses, and I think Augustine thinks the same way. 

This leads me to his style of approach.  While much is very instructive, I don’t necessarily feel that this sermon is a low style of preaching.  It has a somewhat grander flair to it.  I feel that he is trying to present the topic in a way that is new to the audience, or at least more appealing, or memorable.  For instance, his use of chiasmus in his introductory and second paragraphs is an incredible tool often found in the scriptures, which is pleasing to the mind and directs the flow of thoughts to specific ideas.  (Read it again, it starts and ends with “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”)  Augustine breaks down the door when he throws out the words of St. John.  If you were sitting in the audience and had a particular person in mind who you wanted to get even with, how would you respond if you were suddenly called a murderer by one of the early apostles?  I tend to think of this sermon as somewhere between the middle and grand styles, due to his intensity and fervor.