ST. AUGUSTINE ON PREACHING: and Those Who Hear
Todd Bates The Criswell College St. Augustine
provides a matrix for classical rhetoric and Christian homiletics. Many
questions surround the extent of Augustine"s use of rhetoric, one
of which is the question of the audience. This paper will examine Augustine"s
view of the preacher"s audience, his interaction with the audience,
and his goals for the audience.
Imagine this
scenario. You are waiting for the time in the worship service set aside
for the preaching of God's word. As you look over the congregation gathered
to hear the sermon you notice several things. The people are standing,
not sitting. Not only are they standing, they are doing so on a very
hard stone floor. The sanctuary is packed with people standing shoulder
to shoulder in a room with NO air conditioning. Sound like a nightmare?
What prospects would you hold for a well-received sermon? As daunting
as this scenario may appear to the modern preacher, it was the setting
that St. Augustine faced week after week. Now imagine that the sermon
preached in such a setting is not only well received but actually interrupted
several times by applause and shouts of approbation! In a day where
the audience bemoans much preaching as either irrelevant, boring or
both, Augustine's approach to the sermonic audience could offer some
helpful suggestions. Unfortunately,
St. Augustine's insights into the preacher's audience are often overlooked.
Richard Lischer offers the typical opinion of Augustine and the audience
saying, "Although Aristotle examined the stimulation of various
emotions in the hearer in Book II of the Rhetoric, neither he nor Augustine
after him addressed the problem of a mixed audience. Indeed, it was
a uniquely Christian problem created by the intellectual, social, and
economic diversity represented at any given worship service (Lischer,
1987, p.261). While insightful and suggestive with respect to the uniquely
Christian problem of a mixed audience, Lischer's judgment is incorrect
in suggesting that Augustine overlooked the diversity of his audience.
From his training and teaching in the classical rhetorical traditions,
Augustine understood acutely the complexity of a diverse audience, which,
as Lischer rightly notes, is characteristic of the church setting. Further,
because of the Christian faith, Augustine's understanding of the nature
of the audience and the goals of the orator-auditor interaction were
transformed. For Augustine, the audience was a vital concern in preaching.
This centrality was a result of his understanding of the preaching moment,
specifically, what actually occurs when words are spoken, and his understanding
of the kingdom of God. The power of
the spoken word to move humans was irretrievably intertwined with the
rhetorical tradition that Augustine received. The Ciceronian rhetoric
in which Augustine was trained held that eloquent words could "not
only support the sinking and bend the upstanding, but, like a good and
brave commander, can even make prisoner a resisting antagonist"
and further, eloquent words have the "power of driving the hearers
forward in any direction in which it has applied its weight" (De
Oratore 2.44.187 and 3.14.55). Yet, for Augustine, the homiletical moment
was different from the rhetorical moment precisely because, despite
the power of eloquent words, they could not of themselves move a human
soul out of darkness and into light. Such a move took a significantly
greater word, the Word made flesh! One of the
most significant transformations that Augustine brings to classical
rhetoric is found in the proper domain and goal he allows to the spoken
word. The goal of pure persuasion is no longer viable, because Augustine
saw conversion as the sole prerogative of God himself. But because God
has chosen to use the words of the preacher to work in the souls of
humanity, the spoken word is still significant. Augustine seeks to resolve
this tension in his work De Magistro. In this treatise, Augustine attributes to
the spoken word two functions; the first is reminding the hearer of
what s/he already knows, while the second is to give an impulse to the
hearer to inquire about that which s/he does not know. The impulse to
inquire drives the auditor to confront what or whom Augustine calls
the internal Teacher, who is Christ.*
[1]
If the preacher's
words cannot persuade, then what role is left for the spoken word to
play in Augustine's theory? Augustine in no way empties the homiletical
task of significance, indeed, as the chosen means through which the
Word of God works, preaching is intimately involved in God's work. In
De Magistro Augustine goes on to state the role of the
preacher as it relates to preaching, as well as the role of rhetoric
in Augustinian thought, saying "If in this case he is led on by
the words of the questioner, still it is not that the words teach him,
but they represent questions put to him in such a way as to correspond
to his capacity for learning
from his own inner self...Then I should have to question you in a way
adapted to your capacity for hearing
that Teacher within you" (12.42, italics added). The role of the
audience dictates to Augustine what is said and even how it is to be
said. The sermon must correspond to the auditor's capacity for understanding.
The truly skilled preacher will know his auditors and, being led by
Christ the internal Teacher, he applies the words accurately to the
audience"s aptitude. This leads
to the Augustinian conclusion that the overriding oratorical responsibility
of the preacher is clarity. Repeatedly Augustine recommends that the
preacher be more concerned with intelligibility than eloquence, "The
teacher, then, will avoid all words that do not communicate; if, in
their place, he can use other words which are intelligible in their
correct forms, he will choose to do that, but if he cannot -- either
because they do not exist or because they do not occur to him at the
time -- he will use words that are less correct, provided that the subject
matter itself is communicated and learned correctly" (De Doctrina
Christiana, hereafter
DDC, 4.10.24). Clarity was such a priority in Augustine's preaching
that the consummate orator would at times use incorrect grammar if he
thought it would enhance communication to the unlearned in his audience,
"But good teachers take, or should take the greatest care to ensure
that a word which cannot be good Latin unless it is obscure or ambiguous,
but which is used in colloquial speech in a way that avoids obscurity
and ambiguity, is not used as it is used by the educated people but
rather as the uneducated tend to use it" (DDC, 4.9.23). The role
of the preacher, then, is not pure persuasion, but clarity. When the
preacher clarifies, the Teacher, the only one who truly can, persuades. Another consideration
that influences Augustine's view of the audience arises from his understanding
of the kingdom of God and the changes that have occurred in culture
because of it. In classical rhetoric the orator's audience was typically
homogenous and predictable based on the setting of the oration. In reference
to the classical audience, specifically Isocrates' audience, W.R. Johnson
states, "the audience consisted of the happy few who had the money
and the leisure to pursue happiness" (Johnson, 1976, p.221). Yet,
as Johnson goes on to note, by Augustine's time and because of the influence
of Christianity the notion of "happiness" had changed. The
summum bonum was
no longer confined to the happy few because the good life was now defined
as understanding that God loves us and that we can love God. Such a
definition opens the pursuit of happiness to all
individuals. Thus, Lischer's earlier comments are correct in that the
mixed audience -- intellectually, socially, educationally, and economically
-- is a phenomenon that is uniquely Christian because the supreme good
of humanity in Christ is open to "whosoever will come." This
shift in the good life produces a dual effect in Augustine's audience;
they are highly respected and extremely diverse. In the view
of classical rhetoric, the masses were an unlearned and uncultured mob,
looked upon with disdain. In Christianity, however, the masses were
looked upon as fields ripe for harvest, sheep scattered and fearful,
looked upon with pity and compassion. Augustine held a high view of
his audience and encouraged preachers to have a positive opinion of
the audience. Intellectually, the preacher is to assume the best. When
tough issues were applicable and in need of explaining, Augustine says
appropriate arguments are to be used, "always assuming that our
listener or disputant has the will to learn and does not lack the mental
capacity to absorb such things, in whatever way they are presented by
a teacher concerned not for the eloquence of his teaching but its clarity"
(DDC 4.8.22). Emotionally, the audience is to be approached by the preacher
with compassion. The crumbling of the Roman Empire began during Augustine's
ministry at Hippo and to imagine the sense of crisis during this time
would be difficult, but to attempt to comfort a group living through
it would be unimaginable. Yet Augustine was the consummate pastor in
his preaching during this time. Peter Brown suggests that Augustine's
sermons during this time were just what a demoralized group needed to
hear, "when such a time of calamity came with the sack of Rome,
he will prefer to join in with his hearers, addressing them as "fellow-citizens
of Jerusalem", talking to them, not of the punishment they would
deserve at the Last Judgement, but of their future life, all together,
in 'that sweet City'"(Brown, 1967, p.251). The opening
of the summum bonum
to "whosoever will," not only changes culture, it shifts the
very nature of the audience. The once homogenous audience is now incredibly
diverse. Augustine both recognized and discussed the variety of individuals
that make up a Christian audience. Augustine does not detail this diversity
as some other early homiletical writers do. The classic example of early
church audience analysis is found in Gregory the Great's Pastoral
Rule. In this work Gregory states, "Therefore
according to the quality of the hearers ought the discourse of teachers
to be fashioned, so as to suit all and each for their several needs,
and yet never deviate from the art of common edification" (Barmby
trans., 1976, p.24). Gregory then goes on to list thirty-six qualities
of hearers and their opposites. Such pairs as the poor and rich, men
and women, servants and masters, the humble and haughty. Thus was the
diverse audience any homilist could expect to face during his sermon.
Such diversity would be enough to make Cicero tremble! Though Augustine
does not go into such extensive detail, he was by no means incognizant
of this diversity. In his work De Catechizandis Rudibus, Augustine responds to a request from Deogratias
for insights in instructing the unlearned. His answers reveal that Augustine
clearly perceived the various attributes of his audience and the appropriate
manner in which they are to be approached. The first recommendation
Augustine makes to Deogratias was how he should approach instructing
those who had a liberal education. Augustine suggests that these individuals
are more likely to have investigated Christian beliefs prior to coming
for instruction and, therefore, should be instructed in a briefer method
and not with repetition because, "It can scarcely fail to be the
fact that a person of this character has already acquired a considerable
knowledge of our Scripture and literature" (8.12). Another constituent
of an audience is the grammarian and professional speaker. To these,
Augustine recommends encouragement in a higher degree toward humility
and against presumption. They are to be taught to love a pure heart
more than a practiced tongue. Augustine also proposes the use of the
allegorical sense of Scripture so as not to "place it baldly before
them." (9.13). Not forgotten are those uneducated hearers for which,
according to Augustine, it is helpful to "adopt a somewhat more
detailed explanation, together with the use of similitudes" (9.13).
Augustine also encourages consideration of the number of hearers, and
the amount of time the speaker plans to take, and includes for Deogratias
pointers to help avoid wearying his hearers (10.14-14.22). Avoiding
auditor weariness was something Augustine believed to be the responsibility
of the preacher, not the audience. Augustine summarizes the variations
of the homiletical audience saying, It
will likewise make a considerable difference, even when we are discoursing
in that style, whether there are few present or many, whether they are
learned or unlearned, or made up both classes combined; whether they
are city-bred or rustics, or both the one and the other together; or
whether, again, they are a people composed of all orders of men in due
proportion. For it is impossible but that they will affect in different
ways the person who has to speak to them and discourse with them, and
that the address which is delivered will both bear certain features,
as it were, expressive of the feelings of the mind from which it proceeds,
and also influence the hearers in different ways, in accordance with
that same difference, while at the same time the hearers themselves
will influence one another in different ways by the simple force of
their presence with each other (15.23). While recognizing
the variety of the homiletical audience, how to communicate to that
variety is another issue all together. How Augustine identifies with
and unites the audience's diversity is insightful and instructive. Augustine's
attentiveness to the audience is not simply in preparation, but during
the actual delivery. Augustine proposes that the "speaker's sensitivity
must come to the aid of the silent listener" (DDC 4.10.25). The
audience would let the speaker know if he were being understood, not
by asking of questions, but by making of movements. The body language
was what gave the speaker his information. And important information
it was as Augustine notes, "A speaker who clarifies something that
needs to be learned is a blessing, but a speaker who labors things already
learned is a bore" (DDC 4.10.25). All Augustine"s sermons
were preached extempore for this precise reason. The preacher who has
memorized his sermon cannot adjust when "the topic must be rolled
around in a variety of different ways" (DDC 4.10.25). The centrality
of the audience, then, for Augustine not only determines what the preacher
is to say and in what terms it is to be said, but also the very style
of his delivery. In response to this Trevor Rowe states of Augustine,
"he was familiar with classical rhetoric which sought to produce
carefully constructed and polished speech, but he pushed all this aside
and saw communication as a relationship between himself and his congregation"
(Rowe, 1974, p.30-31). The relationship
with his audience was cemented by Augustine's concern for them. Because
Augustine's main purpose was to communicate as clearly as possible to
the understanding of his hearers, he would make every attempt to meet
the audience at their level of understanding. For those who were uneducated,
Augustine took his own advice and spoke with vivid images and word pictures
from very earthy scenes. Yet, also within the congregation at Hippo
were those with liberal education, grammarians and professional speakers.
How could one keep the simple content while not boring those with more
astute minds? One way that Augustine accomplished this was by his sheer
skill with words. Augustine, by his eloquence, drew the respect of even
his critics. One of his Manichean opponents, Secundinus, says that he
had never been able "to discern a Christian in him, but on all
occasions a born orator, a veritable god of eloquence" (van der
Meer, 1961, p.412). By his ability to turn a truth quickly into an aphorism
and to grasp the heart of a long argument in a one-sentence summary,
all in an extempore fashion, Augustine attracted and identified himself
with this well educated segment of his congregation. Though various
in background, Augustine understood the nature of the human soul in
all its depravity and for this reason, he was able to approach all who
came to hear from the standpoint of unity. This often becomes his most
effective means of relating to his auditors and then applying the truth
of the gospel to their lives. Augustine's sermons are rife with emphasis
of his and his audience's shared humanity. In one sermon he pronounces,
"We beg that our debts may be forgiven us. For debtors we are,
not in money, but in sins. You are saying possibly at this moment, And
you too? We answer, Yes, we too. What, you Holy Bishops, are you debtors?
Yes we are debtors too. What you! my lord. Be it far from you, do not
yourself this wrong. I do myself no wrong, but I say the truth; we are
debtors" (Rowe, 1974, 35). It was this shared humanity that made
his sermons so filled with humble exhortations for his hearers to be
reformed and reborn. In his first homily in the Gospel of John, Augustine
refers to the ability of the Word to create the world. He applies this
to his hearer's life with an encouragement that the Word can also remake
those who have unmade themselves and to recreate those who have made
themselves worse. It was Augustine's ability to understand the common
substance that he and his auditors shared, and to identify with them
not simply in word but in deed, that made them so willing to be not
simply hearers but doers of the word. The success
of Augustine as a theorist and practitioner of homiletics can be seen
in the sheer number of sermons and works preserved today, more than
900 authentic sermons are still extant. But perhaps the best way to
judge him, the way Augustine himself would perhaps prefer to be judged,
and a way most fitting for an essay on his view of the audience, is
by the effect he had upon his auditors. An example of this is given
as Augustine relates an incident that occurred while preaching. In the
midst of a sermon he launched into a substantial digression that was
completely unintended. A day or two later Augustine was approached by
a stranger, Firmus, who was won over by the strength of Augustine's
arguments, which upon recollection was found to be his digression. The
man, Augustine says, sold his business and later became an ordained
presbyter. Such was the effect of a preacher who sought to apply the
gospel to his auditors as clearly and powerfully as he could. Those
who heard him week after week, at times day after day, and had their
lives transformed, stand as the lasting witness to Augustine's view
of preaching and those who hear. *This is not simply
limited to Christians, but Augustine extends it to all knowledge and
communication making it dependent on the Word made flesh. The De
Magistro passage reads, "It is indeed purest logic and
most truly said that when words are uttered we either know what they
signify, or we do not know. If we know, we recall rather than learn;
but if we do not know, we do not even recall, though perhaps we receive
the impulse to inquire" (11.38). Selected
Bibliography. Augustine.
De Chatechizandis Rudibus. S.D.F. Salmond, trans. _______.De
Doctrina Christiana. R.P.H Green, trans. New _______. In
Johannis Evangelium Tractatus. John Gibb, trans. Cicero.De
Oratore. H. Rackham and E. W. Sutton, trans. The
Gregory the
Great. The Book of Pastoral Rule. James Barmby, Johnson,
W.R. "Isocrates Flowering: The Rhetoric of Augustine" Lischer, Richard.
Theories of Preaching: Selected Readings in Rowe, Trevor.
St. Augustine: Pastoral Theologian. London: Van der Meer,
F. Augustine the Bishop: Religion and Society at