A retórica religiosa de Santo Agostinho como continuidade da retórica clássica.

Abstract

This dissertation is situated within the Cognitive Processes and Textualization research line, which involves the interaction between cognitive and cultural processes, especially the linguistic, aiming at the construction of meaning from reading. The purpose of the study was to analyze how St. Augustine thought they could use the theoretical corpus of Greco-Roman rhetoric or classical rhetoric for the purposes of religious preaching. He gathered his thoughts in his text The Christian doctrine that came to be constituted as one of the first works of religious rhetoric. Our thesis is based mainly in this work. In the first chapter of our work, we briefly characterize the tradition of classical rhetoric. Then, we show how Augustine returned to the idea expressed that Plato, in Phaedrus, of rhetoric only having value if on the service of truth. This attitude is shared by Augustine, for he said the truth of Christianity must be defended from the lie and therefore rhetoric is his "weapon" in defense of the faith. The content of the Christian revelation is found in the sacred texts of Christianity, the Bible, whose canon was already established at the time of Augustine. At that time, disputes have arisen over how to interpret those texts. In the Sacred Scripture, the language is not quite linear, but at times transposed. Thus the words institutionalized to mean something, can also mean something beyond that initial order. For Augustine, the work of Christian speaker is to able to read and interpret correctly, within Holy Writing, the proper signs and the transposed signs. Then he was forced to develop a hermeneutic for the analysis of the Sacred Scripture. He supported it in a general theory of signs. This hermeneutics and semiotics that give you this background is the theme of the third chapter of our dissertation. In the fourth chapter we are concerned with the question of the proper style of religious preaching. In treating this subject, Augustine turns to Aristotle and especially Cicero. The sacred orator, according to the religious, need to pass the message of revelation to the faithful. To this end, the preacher must use the apparatus of rhetoric to be able to persuade. At this point rises, the eloquence, the third part of the rhetorical art. St. Augustine is concerned with determining which are the issues that the speaker needs to know, how it should behave in their religious life, which is the oratorical style that should be used as the subject matter. Thus, we reach our goal by showing the manner and purpose of Augustinian rhetoric and filled a gap in the study of rhetoric in the religious sphere.