Author: James Darsey
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814719244
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 291
Book Description
This expansive volume traces the rhetoric of reform across American history, examining such pivotal periods as the American Revolution, slavery, McCarthyism, and today's gay liberation movement. At a time when social movements led by religious leaders, from Louis Farrakhan to Pat Buchanan, are playing a central role in American politics, James Darsey connects this radical tradition with its prophetic roots. Public discourse in the West is derived from the Greek principles of civility, diplomacy, compromise, and negotiation. On this model, radical speech is often taken to be a sympton of social disorder. Not so, contends Darsey, who argues that the rhetoric of reform in America represents the continuation of a tradition separate from the commonly accepted principles of the Greeks. Though the links have gone unrecognized, the American radical tradition stems not from Aristotle, he maintains, but from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.
Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America
Author: James Darsey
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814719244
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 291
Book Description
This expansive volume traces the rhetoric of reform across American history, examining such pivotal periods as the American Revolution, slavery, McCarthyism, and today's gay liberation movement. At a time when social movements led by religious leaders, from Louis Farrakhan to Pat Buchanan, are playing a central role in American politics, James Darsey connects this radical tradition with its prophetic roots. Public discourse in the West is derived from the Greek principles of civility, diplomacy, compromise, and negotiation. On this model, radical speech is often taken to be a sympton of social disorder. Not so, contends Darsey, who argues that the rhetoric of reform in America represents the continuation of a tradition separate from the commonly accepted principles of the Greeks. Though the links have gone unrecognized, the American radical tradition stems not from Aristotle, he maintains, but from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814719244
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 291
Book Description
This expansive volume traces the rhetoric of reform across American history, examining such pivotal periods as the American Revolution, slavery, McCarthyism, and today's gay liberation movement. At a time when social movements led by religious leaders, from Louis Farrakhan to Pat Buchanan, are playing a central role in American politics, James Darsey connects this radical tradition with its prophetic roots. Public discourse in the West is derived from the Greek principles of civility, diplomacy, compromise, and negotiation. On this model, radical speech is often taken to be a sympton of social disorder. Not so, contends Darsey, who argues that the rhetoric of reform in America represents the continuation of a tradition separate from the commonly accepted principles of the Greeks. Though the links have gone unrecognized, the American radical tradition stems not from Aristotle, he maintains, but from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.
Who Rides the Beast?
Author: Paul B. Duff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198031637
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
The Book of Revelation presents the reader with a frightening narrative world in which the people of God are tormented, threatened, and sometimes killed by various agents of Satan. Scholars have traditionally thought that it was written in order to encourage believers to stand fast in the face of the Roman persecution of the early Church. More recently, however, it has been argued that no such crisis existed at the time the book was written. Here Paul Duff offers a different viewpoint on the origin of the Book of Revelation, resulting in a work which substantially advances the implication of the current consensus and sheds new light on this influential yet enigmatic text.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198031637
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
The Book of Revelation presents the reader with a frightening narrative world in which the people of God are tormented, threatened, and sometimes killed by various agents of Satan. Scholars have traditionally thought that it was written in order to encourage believers to stand fast in the face of the Roman persecution of the early Church. More recently, however, it has been argued that no such crisis existed at the time the book was written. Here Paul Duff offers a different viewpoint on the origin of the Book of Revelation, resulting in a work which substantially advances the implication of the current consensus and sheds new light on this influential yet enigmatic text.
The Forgotten Prophet
Author: Andre E. Johnson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0739167146
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 134
Book Description
The Forgotten Prophet: Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and the African American Prophetic Tradition, by Andre E. Johnson, is a study of the prophetic rhetoric of nineteenth century African Methodist Episcopal Church bishop Henry McNeal Turner. By locating Turner within the African American prophetic tradition, Johnson examines how Bishop Turner adopted a prophetic persona. As one of America's earliest black activists and social reformers, Bishop Turner made an indelible mark in American history and left behind an enduring social influence through his speeches, writings, and prophetic addresses. This text offers a definition of prophetic rhetoric and examines the existing genres of prophetic discourse, suggesting that there are other types of prophetic rhetorics, especially within the African American prophetic tradition. In examining these modes of discourses from 1866-1895, this study further examines how Turner's rhetoric shifted over time. It examines how Turner found a voice to article not only his views and positions, but also in the prophetic tradition, the views of people he claimed to represent. The Forgotten Prophet is a significant contribution to the study of Bishop Turner and the African American prophetic tradition.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0739167146
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 134
Book Description
The Forgotten Prophet: Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and the African American Prophetic Tradition, by Andre E. Johnson, is a study of the prophetic rhetoric of nineteenth century African Methodist Episcopal Church bishop Henry McNeal Turner. By locating Turner within the African American prophetic tradition, Johnson examines how Bishop Turner adopted a prophetic persona. As one of America's earliest black activists and social reformers, Bishop Turner made an indelible mark in American history and left behind an enduring social influence through his speeches, writings, and prophetic addresses. This text offers a definition of prophetic rhetoric and examines the existing genres of prophetic discourse, suggesting that there are other types of prophetic rhetorics, especially within the African American prophetic tradition. In examining these modes of discourses from 1866-1895, this study further examines how Turner's rhetoric shifted over time. It examines how Turner found a voice to article not only his views and positions, but also in the prophetic tradition, the views of people he claimed to represent. The Forgotten Prophet is a significant contribution to the study of Bishop Turner and the African American prophetic tradition.
The Rhetoric of Romantic Prophecy
Author: Ian Balfour
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804745062
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
The Romantic era in England and Germany saw a sudden renewal of prophetic modes of writing. Biblical prophecy and, to a lesser extent, classical oracle again became viable models for poetry and even for journalistic prose. Notably, this development arose out of the new-found freedom of biblical interpretation that began in the mid-eighteenth century, as the Bible was increasingly seen to be a literary and mythical text. Taking Walter Benjamin’s thinking about history as a point of departure, the author shows how the model for Romantic prophecy emerges less as a prediction of the future than as a call to change in the present, even as it quotes, at key turns, texts from the past. After surveying developments in eighteenth-century biblical hermeneutics, as well as the numerous instances of prophetic eruption in Romantic poetry, the book culminates in close readings of works by Blake, Hölderlin, and Coleridge. Each of these writers interpreted the Bible in strong, variously radical and conservative ways, and each reworked prophetic texts in often startling fashion. The author’s reading of Blake focuses on the complex temporal and rhetorical dynamics at work in a prophetic tradition, with attention paid to the key mediating figure of Milton. The chapter on Hölderlin investigates the truth-claim of poetry and the consequences of Hölderlin’s insight into the necessarily figural character of poetry. The analysis of Coleridge correlates his theory of allegory and symbol with his theory and practice of political writing, which often relies on mobilizing prophetic authority. Together, the readings force us to reexamine the claims and practices of Romantic poets and thinkers and their ideas and ideologies, not without engendering some allegorical resonance with issues in our own time.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804745062
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
The Romantic era in England and Germany saw a sudden renewal of prophetic modes of writing. Biblical prophecy and, to a lesser extent, classical oracle again became viable models for poetry and even for journalistic prose. Notably, this development arose out of the new-found freedom of biblical interpretation that began in the mid-eighteenth century, as the Bible was increasingly seen to be a literary and mythical text. Taking Walter Benjamin’s thinking about history as a point of departure, the author shows how the model for Romantic prophecy emerges less as a prediction of the future than as a call to change in the present, even as it quotes, at key turns, texts from the past. After surveying developments in eighteenth-century biblical hermeneutics, as well as the numerous instances of prophetic eruption in Romantic poetry, the book culminates in close readings of works by Blake, Hölderlin, and Coleridge. Each of these writers interpreted the Bible in strong, variously radical and conservative ways, and each reworked prophetic texts in often startling fashion. The author’s reading of Blake focuses on the complex temporal and rhetorical dynamics at work in a prophetic tradition, with attention paid to the key mediating figure of Milton. The chapter on Hölderlin investigates the truth-claim of poetry and the consequences of Hölderlin’s insight into the necessarily figural character of poetry. The analysis of Coleridge correlates his theory of allegory and symbol with his theory and practice of political writing, which often relies on mobilizing prophetic authority. Together, the readings force us to reexamine the claims and practices of Romantic poets and thinkers and their ideas and ideologies, not without engendering some allegorical resonance with issues in our own time.
A Prophet in Debate
Author: Karl Möller
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826465684
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
An investigation of the literary structure and rhetorical challenge that prompted the book's production. Moller argues that the book of Amos captures and presents the debate between Amos and his eighth-century audience. When read in the light of Israel's fall, the presentation of Amos struggling (and failing) to convince his contemporaries of the imminent divine punishment functions as a powerful warning to subsequent Judaean readers.
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826465684
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
An investigation of the literary structure and rhetorical challenge that prompted the book's production. Moller argues that the book of Amos captures and presents the debate between Amos and his eighth-century audience. When read in the light of Israel's fall, the presentation of Amos struggling (and failing) to convince his contemporaries of the imminent divine punishment functions as a powerful warning to subsequent Judaean readers.
Where the Sacred and Secular Harmonize
Author: David G. Holmes
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532615280
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Book Description
Among pivotal historical moments in the United States, the civil rights movement stands out. In Where the Sacred and Secular Harmonize: Birmingham Mass Meeting Rhetoric and the Prophetic Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, David G. Holmes offers an original rhetorical analysis of six speeches delivered during the 1963 civil rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. Holmes frames his analysis within the biblical concept of prophecy. However, he stresses the idea of prophecy as sociopolitical forth-telling, rather than mystical foretelling. Based on his own transcriptions from rare recordings, Holmes examines how these orations, which clergy and laypeople delivered, address enduring themes such as the role of religion and politics, black leadership and black activism, and the political and popular legacies of the civil rights movement. Drawing upon American history, politics, hermeneutics, homiletics, and rhetoric, Holmes's discussion ranges from civil rights prophets to contemporary politicians, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. Where the Sacred and Secular Harmonize illustrates how the Birmingham mass meeting oratory of 1963 represented a quality of democratic discourse desperately needed today.
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532615280
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Book Description
Among pivotal historical moments in the United States, the civil rights movement stands out. In Where the Sacred and Secular Harmonize: Birmingham Mass Meeting Rhetoric and the Prophetic Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, David G. Holmes offers an original rhetorical analysis of six speeches delivered during the 1963 civil rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. Holmes frames his analysis within the biblical concept of prophecy. However, he stresses the idea of prophecy as sociopolitical forth-telling, rather than mystical foretelling. Based on his own transcriptions from rare recordings, Holmes examines how these orations, which clergy and laypeople delivered, address enduring themes such as the role of religion and politics, black leadership and black activism, and the political and popular legacies of the civil rights movement. Drawing upon American history, politics, hermeneutics, homiletics, and rhetoric, Holmes's discussion ranges from civil rights prophets to contemporary politicians, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. Where the Sacred and Secular Harmonize illustrates how the Birmingham mass meeting oratory of 1963 represented a quality of democratic discourse desperately needed today.
The Reverend Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Prophetic Tradition
Author: Earle J. Fisher
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793631069
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 177
Book Description
Reverend Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Prophetic Tradition: A Reintroduction of The Black Messiah considers how Albert Cleage Jr., in his groundbreaking book of sermons, The Black Messiah (1969), reconfigures the rules of the game as it relates to Christianity and the social political realities of Black people in Detroit and across the country. Taking a rhetorical approach, this book explores how and what The Black Messiah (1969) has contributed to the broader scope of Black Liberation Theology and Black religious rhetoric. Scholars of rhetoric, communication, religious studies, and African American history will find this book particularly useful.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793631069
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 177
Book Description
Reverend Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Prophetic Tradition: A Reintroduction of The Black Messiah considers how Albert Cleage Jr., in his groundbreaking book of sermons, The Black Messiah (1969), reconfigures the rules of the game as it relates to Christianity and the social political realities of Black people in Detroit and across the country. Taking a rhetorical approach, this book explores how and what The Black Messiah (1969) has contributed to the broader scope of Black Liberation Theology and Black religious rhetoric. Scholars of rhetoric, communication, religious studies, and African American history will find this book particularly useful.
A Stone of Hope
Author: David L. Chappell
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807895571
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 359
Book Description
The civil rights movement was arguably the most successful social movement in American history. In a provocative new assessment of its success, David Chappell argues that the story of civil rights is not a story of the ultimate triumph of liberal ideas after decades of gradual progress. Rather, it is a story of the power of religious tradition. Chappell reconsiders the intellectual roots of civil rights reform, showing how northern liberals' faith in the power of human reason to overcome prejudice was at odds with the movement's goal of immediate change. Even when liberals sincerely wanted change, they recognized that they could not necessarily inspire others to unite and fight for it. But the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament--sometimes translated into secular language--drove African American activists to unprecedented solidarity and self-sacrifice. Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, James Lawson, Modjeska Simkins, and other black leaders believed, as the Hebrew prophets believed, that they had to stand apart from society and instigate dramatic changes to force an unwilling world to abandon its sinful ways. Their impassioned campaign to stamp out "the sin of segregation" brought the vitality of a religious revival to their cause. Meanwhile, segregationists found little support within their white southern religious denominations. Although segregationists outvoted and outgunned black integrationists, the segregationists lost, Chappell concludes, largely because they did not have a religious commitment to their cause.
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807895571
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 359
Book Description
The civil rights movement was arguably the most successful social movement in American history. In a provocative new assessment of its success, David Chappell argues that the story of civil rights is not a story of the ultimate triumph of liberal ideas after decades of gradual progress. Rather, it is a story of the power of religious tradition. Chappell reconsiders the intellectual roots of civil rights reform, showing how northern liberals' faith in the power of human reason to overcome prejudice was at odds with the movement's goal of immediate change. Even when liberals sincerely wanted change, they recognized that they could not necessarily inspire others to unite and fight for it. But the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament--sometimes translated into secular language--drove African American activists to unprecedented solidarity and self-sacrifice. Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, James Lawson, Modjeska Simkins, and other black leaders believed, as the Hebrew prophets believed, that they had to stand apart from society and instigate dramatic changes to force an unwilling world to abandon its sinful ways. Their impassioned campaign to stamp out "the sin of segregation" brought the vitality of a religious revival to their cause. Meanwhile, segregationists found little support within their white southern religious denominations. Although segregationists outvoted and outgunned black integrationists, the segregationists lost, Chappell concludes, largely because they did not have a religious commitment to their cause.
Prophets, Gurus, and Pundits
Author: Anna M. Young
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 0809332957
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 202
Book Description
In Prophets, Gurus, and Pundits, author Anna M. Young proposes that the difficulty of bridging the gap between intellectuals and the public is not a failure of ideas; rather, it is an issue of rhetorical strategy. By laying a rhetorical foundation and presenting analytical case studies of contemporary “public intellectuals,” Young creates a training manual for intellectuals who seek to connect with a public audience and effect change writ large. Young begins by defining key aspects of rhetorical style before moving on to discuss the specific ways in which intellectuals may present ideas to a general audience in order to tackle large-scale social problems. Next, she defines the ways in which five crucial turning points in our nation—the rise of religious fundamentalism, a growing lack of trust in our institutions, the continued destruction of the environment, the ubiquity of media and information in our daily lives, and the decline of evidence-based reasoning—have set the stage for opportunities in the current public-intellectual dialogue. Via case studies of such well-known personalities as Deepak Chopra and Professor Cornel West, Young goes on to reveal the six types of public intellectuals who achieve success in presenting scholarly ideas to audiences at large: The Prophet presents the public’s sins for contemplation, then offers a path to redemption. The Guru shepherds his or her flock to enlightenment and a higher power. The Sustainer draws upon our natural and human resources to proffer solutions for social, political, and ecological systems. The Pundit utilizes wit and brevity to bring crucial issues to the attention of the public. The Narrator combines a variety of perspectives to create a story the average person can connect with and understand. The Scientist taps into the dreams of the public to offer ideas from above and beyond the typical scope of public discourse. At once a rallying cry and roadmap, The Politics of Thinking Out Loud draws upon rhetorical expertise and analysis of contemporary public intellectuals to offer a model for scholars to effectively engage the public—and in doing so, perhaps forever change the world in which we live.
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 0809332957
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 202
Book Description
In Prophets, Gurus, and Pundits, author Anna M. Young proposes that the difficulty of bridging the gap between intellectuals and the public is not a failure of ideas; rather, it is an issue of rhetorical strategy. By laying a rhetorical foundation and presenting analytical case studies of contemporary “public intellectuals,” Young creates a training manual for intellectuals who seek to connect with a public audience and effect change writ large. Young begins by defining key aspects of rhetorical style before moving on to discuss the specific ways in which intellectuals may present ideas to a general audience in order to tackle large-scale social problems. Next, she defines the ways in which five crucial turning points in our nation—the rise of religious fundamentalism, a growing lack of trust in our institutions, the continued destruction of the environment, the ubiquity of media and information in our daily lives, and the decline of evidence-based reasoning—have set the stage for opportunities in the current public-intellectual dialogue. Via case studies of such well-known personalities as Deepak Chopra and Professor Cornel West, Young goes on to reveal the six types of public intellectuals who achieve success in presenting scholarly ideas to audiences at large: The Prophet presents the public’s sins for contemplation, then offers a path to redemption. The Guru shepherds his or her flock to enlightenment and a higher power. The Sustainer draws upon our natural and human resources to proffer solutions for social, political, and ecological systems. The Pundit utilizes wit and brevity to bring crucial issues to the attention of the public. The Narrator combines a variety of perspectives to create a story the average person can connect with and understand. The Scientist taps into the dreams of the public to offer ideas from above and beyond the typical scope of public discourse. At once a rallying cry and roadmap, The Politics of Thinking Out Loud draws upon rhetorical expertise and analysis of contemporary public intellectuals to offer a model for scholars to effectively engage the public—and in doing so, perhaps forever change the world in which we live.
Transforming the Word
Author: Margery A. Kingsley
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874137491
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
"The radical prophets of the English civil wars were fascinating figures, living at the very margins of seventeenth-century English society. Combining a devout belief in the power of divine inspiration with a passionate desire for social change and a distinctly eccentric rhetorical style, these men and women brazenly challenged civil and religious authority and flouted social decorum, unnerving their contemporaries and fanning fears of social anarchy. Unfortunately, far too little is known about the fate of their ideas, their writings, and their successors between the restoration of Charles II and the rise of the poetry of sensibility in the mid-eighteenth century. Too often they are assumed merely to have disappeared soon after 1660, snuffed out by a restored monarchy and an Augustan culture antithetical to their aims, and lost to sight until they were rediscovered in the late 1720s by a new generation of poets intrigued by vatic inspiration." "The purpose of this study is to suggest a rather different legacy for the radical prophets of the mid-seventeenth century. It contends, first of all, that prophecy was a significant genre for the writers of the Restoration and early eighteenth century - far more prevalent, more pervasive, and more influential in the decades following 1660 than has traditionally been acknowledged. From Butler's Hudibras, to Dryden's Mac Flecknoe, to the portrayal of Settle in Pope's first version of The Dunciad, prophets rant, rage, and wreak havoc through even the most canonical of Augustan texts, revealing the period's obsession with the figure of the radical prophet."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874137491
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
"The radical prophets of the English civil wars were fascinating figures, living at the very margins of seventeenth-century English society. Combining a devout belief in the power of divine inspiration with a passionate desire for social change and a distinctly eccentric rhetorical style, these men and women brazenly challenged civil and religious authority and flouted social decorum, unnerving their contemporaries and fanning fears of social anarchy. Unfortunately, far too little is known about the fate of their ideas, their writings, and their successors between the restoration of Charles II and the rise of the poetry of sensibility in the mid-eighteenth century. Too often they are assumed merely to have disappeared soon after 1660, snuffed out by a restored monarchy and an Augustan culture antithetical to their aims, and lost to sight until they were rediscovered in the late 1720s by a new generation of poets intrigued by vatic inspiration." "The purpose of this study is to suggest a rather different legacy for the radical prophets of the mid-seventeenth century. It contends, first of all, that prophecy was a significant genre for the writers of the Restoration and early eighteenth century - far more prevalent, more pervasive, and more influential in the decades following 1660 than has traditionally been acknowledged. From Butler's Hudibras, to Dryden's Mac Flecknoe, to the portrayal of Settle in Pope's first version of The Dunciad, prophets rant, rage, and wreak havoc through even the most canonical of Augustan texts, revealing the period's obsession with the figure of the radical prophet."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved