1 General concepts. The subject and objectives of the course.

Rhetoric is one of the most ancient philological sciences.

What is rhetoric? What is she studying? Answers to these simple questions are not as straightforward and straightforward as it may seem at first glance. In any case, the authors of numerous textbooks and manuals (especially intended for philologists) all (or mostly all) the content of rhetoric boils down to describing means of expression or analyzing rhetorical genres. In other words, the subject of study, subject to the attention of science called “rhetoric”, boils down to only one concept - “ eloquence ” (according to the successful definition of the famous Russian judicial rhetor AF Koni (2nd half of the XIX - 1st half of the XX centuries. ) eloquence is “a gift of the word, exciting and enthralling listeners with the beauty of form, the brightness of images and the power of apt expressions”) The illegality of this approach was very well noted as far back as 1832 by the Russian teacher and rhetor NF Koshan in his book “Private Rhetoric”: “There are people who suggest eloquence in loud words and expressions and think that to be eloquent is to shine with rhetorical decorations ... They care little about thoughts and their disposition and want to act on reason, will and passion trails and figures. They are wrong. This is called a recitation "). Much more widely than the notion of “eloquence,” the subject studied by rhetoric is described by the notion of oratory (by the definition of AF Koni, this is “the ability to speak competently and convincingly”). First of all, oratory is understood as a complex of knowledge and skills of an orator to prepare and pronounce public speech: the ability to select material, analyze problems, invent ideas of speech that can influence listeners, create a composition of a future speech, edit speech, choosing the optimal, appropriate means of stylistic expression , the ability to persuade and attract the audience to their side. Here, by the way, it is necessary to immediately warn against the other (along with the understanding of rhetoric only as an ability to speak beautifully) extremes: the reduction of rhetoric to the theory of argumentation, when the main advantage of speech is only conviction . This understanding of rhetoric was in ancient Greece at the dawn of its origin as a science, that is, in the 4th century BC. Already at that time, the main content of rhetoric was the theory of argumentation in practical social activities , mainly judicial and political. The creator of rhetoric, the great Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle (384-322 BC) defined this science as “the ability to find possible ways of persuading about each given subject”. The Roman statesman and famous orator Cicero (106-43 BC) adhered to the same view of rhetoric as a science about the effectiveness of speech influence on the audience.

According to Aristotle, the problems solved by rhetoric were to build for a wide range of people who are not knowledgeable in science and philosophy arguments that would make the moral principles for society, on which public life should be based, more convincing than selfish and material practical considerations. Aristotle, in particular, wrote: "Rhetoric is useful, because truth and justice are inherently stronger than their opposites, and if solutions are not delivered properly, then truth and justice must be overcome by their opposites, which is reproducible."

During the time of the Roman Empire a somewhat different understanding of rhetoric appeared: it began to be understood not as an art to speak convincingly , but only as an art to speak beautifully . Most fully, this understanding of rhetoric found expression in Mark Fabius Quintilian, who wrote “The Twelve Books of Rhetorical Instruction” - a work devoted to the theory of tropes and figures of speech and thought. The function “ to speak convincingly ” is replaced by another function - “ to speak beautifully ”, which is, as we have said, one of the extremes in understanding what rhetoric is as such.

In fact, the subject of rhetoric is not limited to any one of these two concepts, from which it follows that rhetoric, along with the ability to speak, also beautifully studies the ability to build a correct and convincing speech based on certain knowledge.

Thus, rhetoric can be defined as the science of a beautiful and expedient persuasive word . Since we live and act in society, we accept the solution of most problems that arise in the course of life together. We confer on joint decisions with each other, and since we confer only on what different opinions are originally about, then for making a decision we convince each other through rational arguments, which are always expressed in words. To convince is to substantiate the proposed solution so that those who participate in its discussion agree with the proposed arguments and join them.

Rhetoric as a science studies those verbal techniques and forms of persuasion leading to agreement, which take into account a person’s free will, his ability to reasonably evaluate and discuss the proposed arguments and make a decision on his own. It is in this sense that rhetoric is a theory of argumentation, since any argument of one mind, suggesting the presence of intellectual contact with other minds, tends to attach them to their opinion. But in order to find and argue arguments proving the correctness of the propositions put forward, it is necessary to have these provisions, that is, first of all, to find the solution to the problem yourself .

Word is the means of reasonable persuasion, and the persuasiveness of the argument depends mainly on which words are used and in which persuasion is used.

In all the variety of kinds and kinds of literature that make up the culture of the language and the current social and language practice, rhetoric studies a certain aspect of verbal creativity - the argument related to making a decision .

The subject of rhetoric is a work of a word that has not yet been created, but which is to be created. Rhetoric is designed to answer the question: how to create a specific statement in the conditions specified in a certain way, and in what specific forms of its verbal embodiment do this? Thus, it is possible to give a more precise definition of rhetoric as a science about the art of a beautiful and expedient persuading word.

Rhetoric includes two main sections, which are called general rhetoric and private rhetoric. The general rhetoric includes the principles of constructing speech in general, regardless of the type of speech, the purpose of the speech and the scope in which it is pronounced. Private rhetoric considers the use of these principles in certain specific conditions of communication.

In our case, private rhetoric should be understood as missionary speech in its various genres. But before proceeding to the consideration of our particular case, it is necessary to begin to get acquainted with the basics - in other words, the study of the course "Rhetoric" must begin with the study of general rhetoric. That is why we will not immediately engage in the study of the specifics of building missionary speeches, but begin with an introduction to the fundamental concepts and categories of rhetoric.

The structure of the general rhetoric reflects the progress of the utterance of the utterance from the idea to the embodiment in the text of the verbal work. General rhetoric contains: 1) the doctrine of the rhetor; 2) the doctrine of argumentation, that is, the relation of arguments to the audience to which they are addressed and which makes a decision about their acceptability; 3) the doctrine of rhetorical construction, that is, the verbal work in the course of its creation rhetorician. In the academic presentation, the doctrine of rhetorical construction is basic and usually absorbs the doctrine of the rhetor and the doctrine of argumentation. This is done in order not to complicate the already time-consuming and systematic creative work of the learning process.

The rhetorical construction is the doctrine of the so-called " inner word ", or " inner utterance ." The statement is considered at the level of the general idea, at the level of the verbal construction and at the level of the verbal incarnation, which is manifested in the classical division of the general rhetoric of invention (invention), location (disposition), verbal expression (elocution), memorization (memorial) and utterance (action )

The main goal of the study of rhetoric is practical (mastering the art of an expedient persuasive word). The art of the word is the most necessary, but also the most difficult of all the arts, therefore studying it requires very serious work. Mastering rhetoric is impossible without fluency in the literary language, without knowledge of history, philosophy, literature, the foundations of law, without acquaintance with other branches of knowledge, in other words, without comprehensive scholarship. Otherwise, rhetoric turns into the most ordinary empty word. To increase the degree of erudition, everyone who wants to become serious and, most importantly, a successful missionary must make active personal efforts to educate themselves outside the framework of this course.

To really learn how to build a competent and persuasive written and oral public speech, you must: 1) understand how the argument is structured, that is, know the theory; 2) read and analyze the works of classic authors who are a kind of model in order to develop the ability to understand the work of a word; 3) to practice building various kinds of oral and written texts, that is, to master the skills of independent creative work with the word; 4) speak and write publicly in the real circumstances of public life, which, in fact, is the very essence of missionary activity.

The first three tasks are solved in the training course of rhetoric, and the fourth, the main task, in the course of the professional activity of the speaker (in our case, in the process of real missionary activity). A rhetoric course is just the foundation of a missionary’s professional competence. The actual art of the word, the ultimate goal of which is to bring to the Orthodox faith and the church life of those who are still far from this, is born only in the practice of public argumentation.