Sacred words often provide succor, summoned to comfort individual victims and entire communities ravaged by acts of violence. History also demonstrates, however, that religious discourse, like rhetoric itself, functions as a pharmakon—both a remedy and a poison. Religious discourse evoked to incite or justify violence functions as a kind of rancor or intense partisan anger that distorts reality, exacerbates harm, and eschews the accountability of its perpetrators. Moreover, a third function of religious rhetoric synthesizes sacred succor and rancor to express the productive tension of righteous indignation employed by speakers to decry violence and demand social justice.
This compendium of both historic and contemporary speeches on the intersecting themes of religion, rhetoric, and violence endeavors to complicate the rhetoric/violence binary by interpolating religion (another foundational and cultural belief inextricably entangled with both rhetoric and violence) into the dialectic.
Afterword by:
Sergio Peña
Edited by:
Christopher Oldenburg,
Adrienne Hacker Daniels
Series edited by:
Daniel S. Brown
Imprint: Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Country of Publication: Switzerland
Edition: New edition
Volume: 4
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 355g
ISBN: 9783034351836
ISBN 10: 3034351836
Series: Speaking of Religion
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 24 March 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword – List of Rhetors – Introduction – Race, Gender, and Violence – Part 1: Joseph Biden, ""100th Anniversary of Tulsa Race Massacre"", 2021 – Part 2: Sojourner Truth, ""Address at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio"", 1851 – LGBTQ and Violence – Part 1: ""Harvey Milk vs. John Briggs"" Televised debate transcription, 1978 – Part 2: Tony Kushner, ""Matthew’s Passion"", 1998 – Geopolitics, Violence, and Remembrance: ""Interfaith Meeting with Pope Francis at September 11 Memorial and Museum"", 2015 – Education and Violence: Barack Obama and Interfaith Speakers, ""Interfaith Prayer Vigil Address at Newtown High School,"" 2012 – Religion and Violence – Part 1: Julius Streicher, ""The Night of Broken Glass"", 1938 – Part 2: Josef Schuster, ""80th Anniversary of Reichspogromnacht"", 2018 – Borders/Immigration and Violence – Part 1: Jefferson Sessions, ""Zero Tolerance Policy Speech"", June 2018 – Part 2: Pope Francis, ""Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis at Ciudad Juárez Fair Grounds"" Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. February 17, 2016 – Afterword – Notes.
Christopher J. Oldenburg is Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies and Chair of the Communication Arts Department at Illinois College. He is the author of The Rhetoric of Pope Francis: Critical Mercy and Conversion for the Twenty-First Century (Lexington Books, 2018) Religious Communication Association Book of the Year Award 2019. Adrienne E. Hacker Daniels is the A. Boyd Pixley Professor of Humanities and Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Illinois College. She is editor of the volume, Communication and the Global Landscape of Faith (2016). Her second edited volume, Casting the Art of Rhetoric with Theatre and Drama: Taking Center Stage is forthcoming 2024.
Reviews for Rhetoric, Religion, and Tragic Violence: Sacred Succor and Rancor
“The strengths of this book include its application of the “pharmakon” concept—how discourse can serve as remedy and poison at the same time, comfort, and punishment, bringing a fresh dimension to religious rhetorical studies. The creative use of several different theoretical approaches enriches the reader’s understanding of each text.” —Elizabeth McLaughlin, Professor of Communication, Bethel University (Indiana)
