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Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times
Since its original publication by UNC Press in 1980, this book has provided thousands of students with a concise introduction and guide to the history of the classical tradition in rhetoric, the ancient but ever vital art of persuasion.
Now, George Kennedy offers a thoroughly revised and updated edition of Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition . From its development in ancient Greece and Rome, through its continuation and adaptation in Europe and America through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, to its enduring significance in the twentieth century, he traces the theory and practice of classical rhetoric through history. At each stage of the way, he demonstrates how new societies modified classical rhetoric to fit their needs.
For this edition, Kennedy has updated the text and the bibliography to incorporate new scholarship; added sections relating to women orators and rhetoricians throughout history; and enlarged the discussion of rhetoric in America, Germany, and Spain. He has also included more information about historical and intellectual contexts to assist the reader in understanding the tradition of classical rhetoric.
Now, George Kennedy offers a thoroughly revised and updated edition of Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition . From its development in ancient Greece and Rome, through its continuation and adaptation in Europe and America through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, to its enduring significance in the twentieth century, he traces the theory and practice of classical rhetoric through history. At each stage of the way, he demonstrates how new societies modified classical rhetoric to fit their needs.
For this edition, Kennedy has updated the text and the bibliography to incorporate new scholarship; added sections relating to women orators and rhetoricians throughout history; and enlarged the discussion of rhetoric in America, Germany, and Spain. He has also included more information about historical and intellectual contexts to assist the reader in understanding the tradition of classical rhetoric.
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 24, 2022
I first read this around seven years ago and have routinely come back to it. Kennedy is a giant in the world of rhetoric studies and I have found his books invaluable in my own teaching. This book is no exception. It is written less like a "history" of rhetoric and more like a reference book. I appreciate the attention he gives to the influence of rhetoric on the Christian church, which is often given short shrift in academic studies on rhetoric. I've browsed a number of other histories of rhetoric, and I have yet to find one as helpful as this one.
September 24, 2025
There are two passages on Rhetorical Theory brought up near the beginning which helps me understand the whole work.
Some definitions will help to trace the influence and adaptations of classical rhetoric through western history. One is the concept of primary rhetoric. Primary rhetoric is the conception of rhetoric held by the Greeks when artistic techniques were first described in the fifth cen- tury b.c. Rhetoric was primarily an art of persuasion; it was primarily something used in civic life; it was primarily oral. Primary rhetoric involves utterance on a specific occasion; it is an act not a text, though subsequently it can be treated as a text. The primacy of primary rhetoric is a fundamental fact in the classical tradition: through the time of the Roman Empire teachers of rhetoric, whatever was the real situation of their students, took as their nominal goal the training of persuasive public speakers; even in the early Middle Ages, when there was reduced practical opportunity to exercise civic rhetoric, the definition and con- tent of rhetorical theory as set forth by Isidore and Alcuin, for example, show the same civic assumption; the revival of classical rhetoric in Renaissance Italy was foreshadowed by renewed need for civic rhetoric in the cities of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; and the great period of neoclassical rhetoric was the time when public speaking emerged as a major force in church and state in France, England, and America.
Secondary rhetoric, on the other hand, refers to rhetorical techniques as found in discourse, literature, and art forms when those techniques are not being used for an oral, persuasive purpose. In secondary rhetoric the speech act is not of central importance; that role is taken over by a text. Frequent manifestations of secondary rhetoric are commonplaces, figures of speech, and tropes in written works. Much literature, art, and informal discourse is decorated by secondary rhetoric, which may be a mannerism of the historical period in which it is composed. Secondary rhetoric, however, contributes to accomplishing the purpose of the speaker or writer, but indirectly or at a secondary level. It provides ways of emphasizing ideas or making them vivid. It enlivens the page and relieves the tedium of the reader. It may demonstrate the writer’s education, eloquence, or skill, and it thus often makes the writer more acceptable to an audience.
It has been a persistent characteristic of classical rhetoric in almost every stage of its history to move from primary to secondary forms, occasionally then reversing the pattern. For this phenomenon the Italian term letteraturizzazione has been coined. Letteraturizzazione is the ten- dency of rhetoric to shift focus from persuasion to narration, from civic to personal contexts, and from speech to literature, including poetry. Such slippage can be observed in Greece in the Hellenistic period, in the time of the Roman Empire, in medieval France, and from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries in Europe, and still occurs to today: rhetoric as understood in English departments of colleges and universities is largely secondary rhetoric. The primary cause of the letteraturizzazione of rhetoric was probably the place given rhetoric in education through the centuries, combined with limited opportunities for public speaking and an increased role for writing in society. pp 2-3
Out of this intellectual fervor there emerged three approaches to rhetoric that are continuing strands in its tradition throughout the history of western Europe. The first and most conceptualized of these strands may be called technical rhetoric in that it is the rhetorical theory of a technê, or rhetorical handbook. Technical rhetoric grew out of the needs of democracies in Syracuse and Athens, and it remained primarily concerned with public address. Of the three factors in the speech situation identified by Aristotle (Rhetoric 1.3.1)—speaker, speech, and audience—technical rhetoric concentrates on the speech at the expense of the other two. It is pragmatic; it shows how to present a subject efficiently and effectively but makes no attempt to judge the morality of the speaker and pays little attention to the audience. The characteristic defi- nition of rhetoric in this technical tradition is ‘‘the art of persuasion.’’ Technical rhetoric of the fifth and fourth centuries in Greece is the ancestor of Latin manuals of rhetoric, including Cicero’s On Invention and Rhetoric for Herennius. Its focus on public life, and especially on speech in the lawcourts, made it attractive to Romans, who transmitted it in turn to the western Middle Ages and thus to later times. Technical rhetoric repeatedly experienced letteraturizzazione and was often reduced to guides to composition and style.
The second strand, also a development of the fifth century b.c., is sophistic rhetoric, rhetoric as understood by Gorgias and other sophists, carried to full development by Isocrates in the fourth century, revived in the Second Sophistic of Roman times, and converted to Christianity by preachers like Gregory of Nazianzus in later antiquity. Sophistic rhetoric was a stronger strand in the Byzantine tradition than in the western Middle Ages but reemerged as a powerful force in the Renaissance. It emphasizes the speaker rather than the speech or audience and is responsible for the image of the ideal orator leading society to noble fulfillment of national ideals. Some sophistic rhetoric is deliberative, some epideictic. It is often ceremonial and cultural rather than active and political, and though moral in tone, it tends not to press for di≈cult decisions or immediate action. Sophistic rhetoric is a natural spawning ground for amplification, elaborate conceits, and stylistic refinement, and thus is often criticized, but it has positive qualities that have ensured its survival. Like technical rhetoric, the sophistic strand often has experienced letteraturizzazione, seen in large-scale works of literature that are intended to be read and enjoyed for their eloquence.
The third strand, philosophical rhetoric, began with Socrates’ objections to technical and sophistical rhetoric in dialogues by Plato. It tended to deemphasize the speaker and to stress the validity of the
14 traditional and conceptual rhetoric message and the effect on an audience. Philosophical rhetoric has close ties to dialectic or logic, to ethics and political theory, and sometimes to psychology. Its natural topic is deliberation about the best interests of the audience, but the philosophical strand in discussions of rhetoric is often found in combination with technical or sophistic rhetoric. Aristotle’s Rhetoric is a classic work in the philosophical tradition, but it also contains much technical rhetoric. Cicero’s dialogue On the Orator at- tempts a synthesis of all three traditions. In the Middle Ages, the chief manifestation of philosophical rhetoric is in dialectic. In the Renaissance the philosophical view of rhetoric inspired the transfer of invention from rhetoric to dialectic, but a purer strain reappeared in the work of Bacon and Fénelon in the seventeenth century. pp. 14-15
Kennedy then traces the development of rhetoric essentially taking note in each phase of Western civilization of which one of three factors of rhetorics is emphasized and and whether rhetoric is primary or secondary.
Some definitions will help to trace the influence and adaptations of classical rhetoric through western history. One is the concept of primary rhetoric. Primary rhetoric is the conception of rhetoric held by the Greeks when artistic techniques were first described in the fifth cen- tury b.c. Rhetoric was primarily an art of persuasion; it was primarily something used in civic life; it was primarily oral. Primary rhetoric involves utterance on a specific occasion; it is an act not a text, though subsequently it can be treated as a text. The primacy of primary rhetoric is a fundamental fact in the classical tradition: through the time of the Roman Empire teachers of rhetoric, whatever was the real situation of their students, took as their nominal goal the training of persuasive public speakers; even in the early Middle Ages, when there was reduced practical opportunity to exercise civic rhetoric, the definition and con- tent of rhetorical theory as set forth by Isidore and Alcuin, for example, show the same civic assumption; the revival of classical rhetoric in Renaissance Italy was foreshadowed by renewed need for civic rhetoric in the cities of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; and the great period of neoclassical rhetoric was the time when public speaking emerged as a major force in church and state in France, England, and America.
Secondary rhetoric, on the other hand, refers to rhetorical techniques as found in discourse, literature, and art forms when those techniques are not being used for an oral, persuasive purpose. In secondary rhetoric the speech act is not of central importance; that role is taken over by a text. Frequent manifestations of secondary rhetoric are commonplaces, figures of speech, and tropes in written works. Much literature, art, and informal discourse is decorated by secondary rhetoric, which may be a mannerism of the historical period in which it is composed. Secondary rhetoric, however, contributes to accomplishing the purpose of the speaker or writer, but indirectly or at a secondary level. It provides ways of emphasizing ideas or making them vivid. It enlivens the page and relieves the tedium of the reader. It may demonstrate the writer’s education, eloquence, or skill, and it thus often makes the writer more acceptable to an audience.
It has been a persistent characteristic of classical rhetoric in almost every stage of its history to move from primary to secondary forms, occasionally then reversing the pattern. For this phenomenon the Italian term letteraturizzazione has been coined. Letteraturizzazione is the ten- dency of rhetoric to shift focus from persuasion to narration, from civic to personal contexts, and from speech to literature, including poetry. Such slippage can be observed in Greece in the Hellenistic period, in the time of the Roman Empire, in medieval France, and from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries in Europe, and still occurs to today: rhetoric as understood in English departments of colleges and universities is largely secondary rhetoric. The primary cause of the letteraturizzazione of rhetoric was probably the place given rhetoric in education through the centuries, combined with limited opportunities for public speaking and an increased role for writing in society. pp 2-3
Out of this intellectual fervor there emerged three approaches to rhetoric that are continuing strands in its tradition throughout the history of western Europe. The first and most conceptualized of these strands may be called technical rhetoric in that it is the rhetorical theory of a technê, or rhetorical handbook. Technical rhetoric grew out of the needs of democracies in Syracuse and Athens, and it remained primarily concerned with public address. Of the three factors in the speech situation identified by Aristotle (Rhetoric 1.3.1)—speaker, speech, and audience—technical rhetoric concentrates on the speech at the expense of the other two. It is pragmatic; it shows how to present a subject efficiently and effectively but makes no attempt to judge the morality of the speaker and pays little attention to the audience. The characteristic defi- nition of rhetoric in this technical tradition is ‘‘the art of persuasion.’’ Technical rhetoric of the fifth and fourth centuries in Greece is the ancestor of Latin manuals of rhetoric, including Cicero’s On Invention and Rhetoric for Herennius. Its focus on public life, and especially on speech in the lawcourts, made it attractive to Romans, who transmitted it in turn to the western Middle Ages and thus to later times. Technical rhetoric repeatedly experienced letteraturizzazione and was often reduced to guides to composition and style.
The second strand, also a development of the fifth century b.c., is sophistic rhetoric, rhetoric as understood by Gorgias and other sophists, carried to full development by Isocrates in the fourth century, revived in the Second Sophistic of Roman times, and converted to Christianity by preachers like Gregory of Nazianzus in later antiquity. Sophistic rhetoric was a stronger strand in the Byzantine tradition than in the western Middle Ages but reemerged as a powerful force in the Renaissance. It emphasizes the speaker rather than the speech or audience and is responsible for the image of the ideal orator leading society to noble fulfillment of national ideals. Some sophistic rhetoric is deliberative, some epideictic. It is often ceremonial and cultural rather than active and political, and though moral in tone, it tends not to press for di≈cult decisions or immediate action. Sophistic rhetoric is a natural spawning ground for amplification, elaborate conceits, and stylistic refinement, and thus is often criticized, but it has positive qualities that have ensured its survival. Like technical rhetoric, the sophistic strand often has experienced letteraturizzazione, seen in large-scale works of literature that are intended to be read and enjoyed for their eloquence.
The third strand, philosophical rhetoric, began with Socrates’ objections to technical and sophistical rhetoric in dialogues by Plato. It tended to deemphasize the speaker and to stress the validity of the
14 traditional and conceptual rhetoric message and the effect on an audience. Philosophical rhetoric has close ties to dialectic or logic, to ethics and political theory, and sometimes to psychology. Its natural topic is deliberation about the best interests of the audience, but the philosophical strand in discussions of rhetoric is often found in combination with technical or sophistic rhetoric. Aristotle’s Rhetoric is a classic work in the philosophical tradition, but it also contains much technical rhetoric. Cicero’s dialogue On the Orator at- tempts a synthesis of all three traditions. In the Middle Ages, the chief manifestation of philosophical rhetoric is in dialectic. In the Renaissance the philosophical view of rhetoric inspired the transfer of invention from rhetoric to dialectic, but a purer strain reappeared in the work of Bacon and Fénelon in the seventeenth century. pp. 14-15
Kennedy then traces the development of rhetoric essentially taking note in each phase of Western civilization of which one of three factors of rhetorics is emphasized and and whether rhetoric is primary or secondary.
November 11, 2012
Hmm, a seemingly comprehensive coverage of the theme yet somehow a bit dry and not quite the flavour I was hoping for.
I'll plug on to complete it, but for now I'm tending to skim for relevant stuff.
Ok, now that I've reached the Christian rhetoric section, I'm finding this to be more interesting.
I'll plug on to complete it, but for now I'm tending to skim for relevant stuff.
Ok, now that I've reached the Christian rhetoric section, I'm finding this to be more interesting.
July 23, 2016
I first read it thoroughly, the first 15 pages, then skimmed toward the twentieth century, then found myself fascinated and read the whole thing from start to finish. I just got more fascinated (and nerdy) the more I studied rhetoric and came back to it. Great stuff by a great author!
March 30, 2024
Kennedy's book is the seminal survey in the field. Its overview of the classical period and Judeo-Christian rhetoric is especially noteworthy. Recommended for anyone who wishes to get a big picture grasp of the scope of classical rhetoric and its continued influence to the present day.
May 3, 2010
Good, solid overview, though Kennedy plays it a little too straight for my taste.
April 2, 2017
3.5 stars, low.
Writing: 2.5 stars. Use: 4 stars (authoritative reference). Truth: 3 stars (uncommon).
At 300 pages, a good primer on the history of rhetoric. Kennedy is useful to the Christian student of rhetoric because one major chapter is on Judeo-Christian rhetoric, and throughout the book are mentioned many applications of J-C rhetoric in various times.
Kennedy goes out of his way to mention women in the history of rhetoric. Unfortunately, this is almost always stilted; the examples mentioned are usually in no other way noteworthy, and they occupy a disproportionate number of pages. The great instances of women's contributions to rhetoric that are mentioned, on the other hand, are not emphasized enough, or not enough historical context is given. E.g., Hortensia's oration before Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus was a stirring example, and I wanted to hear more of its historical impact.
Finally, the last chapter on 20th century rhetoric is inferior. I assigned this book in my classical Christian school's Rhetoric I class, and in this primer I read nothing of one of the major resurgences of the study of classical rhetoric: classical schools and Christian homeschools. To metastasize this lack, Kennedy talks neutrally of the cancer of Marxist theory and Deconstruction, with one exception of excoriating generally Brian Vickers. He calls Derrida a "powerful thinker," perhaps fundamentally misunderstanding the meaning of the word "thought."
However, this last, bumpy chapter does not undo what even his opponents might at minimum characterize as a decent beginning history of rhetoric. I intend to keep the book, and am even considering reading his Comparative Rhetoric, which he plugs in the concluding lines of the last chapter.
Writing: 2.5 stars. Use: 4 stars (authoritative reference). Truth: 3 stars (uncommon).
At 300 pages, a good primer on the history of rhetoric. Kennedy is useful to the Christian student of rhetoric because one major chapter is on Judeo-Christian rhetoric, and throughout the book are mentioned many applications of J-C rhetoric in various times.
Kennedy goes out of his way to mention women in the history of rhetoric. Unfortunately, this is almost always stilted; the examples mentioned are usually in no other way noteworthy, and they occupy a disproportionate number of pages. The great instances of women's contributions to rhetoric that are mentioned, on the other hand, are not emphasized enough, or not enough historical context is given. E.g., Hortensia's oration before Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus was a stirring example, and I wanted to hear more of its historical impact.
Finally, the last chapter on 20th century rhetoric is inferior. I assigned this book in my classical Christian school's Rhetoric I class, and in this primer I read nothing of one of the major resurgences of the study of classical rhetoric: classical schools and Christian homeschools. To metastasize this lack, Kennedy talks neutrally of the cancer of Marxist theory and Deconstruction, with one exception of excoriating generally Brian Vickers. He calls Derrida a "powerful thinker," perhaps fundamentally misunderstanding the meaning of the word "thought."
However, this last, bumpy chapter does not undo what even his opponents might at minimum characterize as a decent beginning history of rhetoric. I intend to keep the book, and am even considering reading his Comparative Rhetoric, which he plugs in the concluding lines of the last chapter.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews