| Abstract [eng] |
The master thesis "Reflections of Aurelius Augustine's Rhetorical Philosophy in The Trilogy of Sermons 'Žmogaus ir Dievo metai (The Year of Man and God)' by priest Algirdas Toliatas" analyses how the moments of classical Christian rhetorical philosophy are reflected in today’s practice of preaching. By describing Augustine’s intensively debated questions of Christian rhetoric as a phenomenologically existentially hermeneutic rhetorical philosophy, and relying on the theories and methodology of the elements of this trinomial definition, it is researched what forms it takes and what content it fills in the sermons by Toliatas, who is a representative figure of contemporary homiletic discourse. The research of the trilogy of sermons by Toliatas is carried out according to formula of rhetorical situation of speaking: addresser–address–addressee. In the analysis of the addresser, which is based on the premise that it is possible to depict the detailed picture of the speaker from the linguistic expressions, the figure of Toliatas as the Christian orator (preacher) is brought closer to the context of Christian ethic, because the lifestyle and behavior of the speaker is measured according to the ethical, moral criteria. The research of discourse of sermons itself discusses the divisions of the spoken and written word, analyzes the wide amplitude of linguistic expression, the variety of sources of sermons, the structure of the whole trilogy and the composition of its individual parts. The analysis of listeners and readers of sermons, which is based on fundamental rhetoric’s orientation on the addressee, discusses how addressees can and do affect the words of the preacher, and looks what kind of characteristic features of audience and readers’ circle from the same words are revealed; also, attention is paid to those moments in the sermons in which the speaker seeks to persuade or influence in another way the addressees. These parts of the triple analysis of the sermons by Toliatas are inseparable from consideration how in general words perform in the discourse, how language functions as a way of thinking, communication and action. The research is permeated by Augustine’s theory of rhetoric, and some parts of it are supplemented with the Augustine’s sermons as examples, which complement and illustrate one or another aspect of analysis. In this MA paper the fixed entirety of convergences and distances of Augustine and Toliatas is considered as the rephrasing of the classical Christian rhetorical theory in the contemporary practice of the same rhetoric; as the today’s transformation of rhetorical tradition, which acquires the signs of post-secularism. |
