The Future of the History of Rhetoric is Religious

Abstract

Recently, in peer reviews of my work on historical religious debates, I have been warned to “avoid[] getting absorbed in … doctrinal minutiae” and informed that such investigations “seem less relevant to contemporary society.” The former comment exemplifies a broader practice of bracketing off religion when studying historical rhetorics and the latter a common assumption that historical religious rhetorics have little to say to modern secular people. Unfortunately, these widespread attitudes risk robbing our field of rich theoretical and practical insights afforded by scholarly study of historical rhetorics of religion.In the past few decades, Western scholars of rhetorical history have increasingly recognized the critical necessity of studying diverse rhetorical traditions from across the globe and of marginalized groups within the West. Attending to religious rhetorics is key to this project. Throughout human history, religion has been a significant site of rhetorical activity: preaching, meditation, prayer, divination, communication with the dead, initiation rites, temple design, scriptural interpretation, proselytizing, liturgy. These rhetorical activities are oral, material, embodied, spatial, visual, and now even digital. Other less-studied rhetorical modes – touch, smell, taste – also feature in these sacred rhetorics. Further, religion has been a key inventional resource in sociopolitical rhetorics that have driven major movements in national and world histories, including abolitionism, anti-colonialism, feminism, and environmentalism. When we bracket off religious rhetoric, we ignore essential pieces of various historical puzzles. We also miss out on historical cases that could fruitfully contribute to contemporary discussions about peace-making, human rights, democracy, and deliberation.The following texts, published in the last five years, illustrate the diversity and scholarly contributions that increased inquiry into historical religious rhetorics would offer.The future of the history of rhetoric is religious.