Rhetorical Reading Plan

​The word “praedictor” means something like an oratorical prophet or a prophetical orator rather than a fortune teller or even homilist. The English word “preacher” does not convey to our minds exactly what the medievals would have thought about when they heard the word.

While we admit there is an obvious difference between preaching and oratory, we often tend to dismiss the latter in favor of the former when it comes to ministry. This would seem idiotic to someone like St. John Henry Newman, who, as homilist, undoubtedly benefited from his classical education.

Now, Newman is not exactly our model preacher today. Audiences change; they use different words and prefer different (usually shorter) word arrangements. It is the responsibility of the preacher to understand this. However, there is much to learn from Newman, as well as there is much to learn from classical oratory (and its most recent practitioners).

​We supply this list below in order to equip eventual friars with the ancient know-how. Any one of these books will do. 

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Stage 1

1. George A. Kennedy’s A New History of Classical Rhetoric
2. Aristotle’s Rhetoric (specifically G. A. Kennedy’s commentary and translation)

Stage 2

1. Robert Wardy’s Birth of Rhetoric
2. James Fredal’s The Enthymeme

Stage 3

1. James Humes’s Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln
2. Ted Widmer’s American Speeches

Stage 4

1. John Henry Newman’s Pastoral Sermons
2. John Henry Newman’s Fifteen Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford