Kennedy's book is a historical overview of rhetoric beginning in ancient Greece and tracing its development through Greek and Roman tradition, through the middle ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment all the way through to the twentieth century. He tells the story by examining people, schools and theory. Who was important? What did they teach? What were the reactions? Beginning with Homeric Poetry, examples of this rhetorical analytical treatment include, Technical, Sophistic and Philosophical, Roman, Judeo-Christian, Humanist, Neo-Classical, American, Post Modern and more; people include Plato, Cicero, St. Augustine, Erasmus, Descartes, Kant, Marx, and Kenneth Burke. Covering over three millennia, Kennedy weaves these complex, technical ideas and divergent thinkers together in a very accessible and easy way.
Kennedy's treatment of the particulars of Judeo-Christian rhetorical themes and distinctions are particularly useful for my project. In two directions, forward and back, he traces Christianity's unique placement at the crossroads of very distinct and internally influential rhetorical forces, the Old Testament and the Hellenistic age in which the Church was born. A good example is Kennedy's treatment of persuasion as a goal. He points outs that the Biblical tradition, Jewish and Christian, makes no real effort to persuade. At least, not in a way a Greek would recognize or value. Looking back at the story of Moses and his confrontation of Pharaoh, Kennedy writes, "Persuasion takes place when God is ready, and not through the verbal activities or even authority of Moses."(140) Jews and Christians proclaim God, His existence, and His imminent judgment and action. "Authority" takes the place of ethos for the Christian orator who proclaims not persuades; "Scriptural truth must be apprehended by the listener, not proved by the speaker."(146) The use of "authority" is predominate in both Old and New Testament, but in the New Greek ideas about rhetoric are also present. For example, St. Augustine enjoins the Christian teacher to use whatever rhetorical means he or she finds helpful for communicating Truth. Kennedy's clear explanation of these differences are helpful in understanding the use of testimony in the life of the Christian, there rhetorical roles and limitations.
