Logic in the Black Folk Sermon

Abstract

In his rhetorical analysis of old-time Black preaching in Macon County, Georgia, William Harrison Pipes (1951) classifies and ranks persuasive techniques used by various preachers. He concludes that main persuasive strategy of these preachers is emotional appeal. Pipes argues that folk preachers excite emotions of help audience escape from an 'impossible world' (p. 156). Pipes admits that ethical appeal is also important for Black folk preacher but argues that logical appeal only appears in sermons of more highlyeducated ministers in the less emotional points of (p. 157). Pipes is not alone in assigning emotional appeal predominance. Cowley (1966), in his study of Bahamian folk preaching, argues that main strategy of Black folk sermon is to play upon emotions of hearers (p. 16). Davis (1985) points out that emotional element of Black folk sermons has traditionally presented problem some scholars. He notes that both Pipes and Davis see emotional nature of preaching as evidence of a lack of sophistication and (p. 41). (Pipes sees education as means of providing Black worshipers with normal means of religious expression [1951, p. 158].) One problem with Pipes's analysis is that he does not specify what criteria he uses categorize persuasive strategies. Pipes gives plenty of examples of emotional and ethical strategies of sermons, but he does not tell how he isolated these examples. This