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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 378 616 CS 508 791 AUTHOR Chandler, Daniel Ross TITLE Religious Humanism as a Rhetorical Movement. PUB DATE 94 NOTE 58p. PUB TYPE Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.) (120) Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Higher Education; *Humanism; *Intellectual History; Leaders; *Persuasive Discourse; Religion; *Religious Organizations; *Rhetorical Criticism; S,cial Values; United States History IDENTIFIERS Discourse Communities; Historical Background; *Religious Movements; Secular Humanism; *Unitarian Universalist Association ABSTRACT Noting that college students in the 1990s are once again becoming interested in religious/spiritual phenomena, this analysis of religious humanism as persuasive discourse first touches upon the event-filled 1960s and 70s, which saw social unrest and turbulent change, much of it emanating from university students. As background, the analysis points out that during those same decades a sophisticated history-of-ideas scholarship emerged from communication scholars, joined with a humanistic interdisciplinary approach to examine the rhetorical discourse of mass movements and public campaigns. The analysis employs a theoretical model constructed by Bill Balthrop (1975) to examine the humanist-theist controversy within early 20th century Unitarianism as a rhetorical movement having enduring significance in the intellectual history of American religious experience. The analysis discusses:(1) the structure of the Unitarian group;(2) religious humanism as an emergent scientific perspective (giving attention to the discourse of its leaders John H. Dietrich, Curtis W. Reese, and Charles Francis Potter); (3) its membership and organization; and (4) agents of social control. The analysis concludes with a concise discussion of existentialism in American religious thought and with the hope that studying religious rhetoric in history will help today's students resolve their own ideas about life in the future. Contains 114 endnotes. (NKA) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Daniel Ross Chandler 1994 U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Off ce of Educational Research and Improvement Religious Humanism as a Rhetorical Movement PERMISSION TO REPRODUCETHIS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) MATERIAL HAS BEEN ,41!TMs document hasbeen reproduced as received from Me person or organization originating L) Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction Quaid,/ Background Points of view or opinions staled in lhiSdOCrr men) do not necessarily represent whoa! OEM position on policy TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).- The event-filled nineteen sixties and early-seventies were the historical context for the unfolding developments and growingmomentum that characterizes turbulent social unrest and apcereratedcultural change. From dramatic racial boycotts paralyzing Montgomery andBirmingham, from student-occupied university administration buildings stretching fromBerkeley to Cambridge, and from chanting banner-bearing protestors fillingthe streets of San Francisco and New York's Washington Squarearose a distinctive discourse forged with defiant affirmations and striking phrases. Whilecommunication scholars analyzed this spirited rhetoric in numerous theses anddissertations, students recognized the importance of rhetorical movements and reoccuring rhetorical patterns inAmerican historical experience and concluded that speechmaking upon controversialcontentions during crucial disputations exerta significant influence upon the development of American intellectual history. A sophisticated history-of-ideasscholarship emerged as students examined the rhetorical discourse from mass movements and public campaigns. The singlemost significant consequence from thisspecific emphasis was probablyan innovative interdisciplinary approach that employsthe rich resources from the humanities. Communication students comprehended that persuasion happens withinan elaborate, complex cultural context that Bitzercalled the "rhetorical situation."1 Understanding communicative behavior within this situationwas facilitated by %.!1 McBurney's observation that speakinghappens within a context where relationships oftenexist between values, politicalsystems, epistemologies, behavior, approaches r) 4.. BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 for a speaker, and the outcomes. This expanded perspective for studying communicative behavior was sustained by Baird'sbelief that rhetoric does not function as an isolated, independent disciplinewith a confined subject matter, but utilizes the various academic disciplinesincluding logic, philosophy, ethics, 3 psychology, political science, literature,language, science, and metaphysics. The 1970 National Developmental Projecton Rhetoric reinforced these expanded paramaters for communication studies by concludingthat concepts about "reason" and "rational decision" should be expanded,emphasizing that rhetorical invention should receive primary attention, recommendinga scholarly method more flexible than a mechanistic application of Aristotelianand Burkeian models, and recognizing that concrete rhetorical transactions sholdevoke their particular analytical categories and organic configurations. Rosenfieldexplained that the required revisions in communication studiesare more extensive than simple rennovation 4 and inherent within a general effortto regenerate historico-critical thought. Booth described a "new rhetoric"as a pluralistic philosophy embracing "the whole 5 of man's efforts to discover andshare warrantable assent" and declared that an interdisciplinary methodology for studyingcommunicative phenomenona should employ psychology, sociology, anthropology,linguistics, and philosophy. Perleman stated that a "new rhetoric" should not remainrestricted to using the techniques designed for analyzing a specific audience,a single communicative medium, or the 6 contents within a particular message. Believing that one cause for a decline in communication studies isa general tendency to separate subject-matter from rhetorical form and to divide thoughtfrom expression, Corbitt maintained that a "new rhetoric" should embrace the intellectualsubstance of communicative 3 7 discourse and the rhetorical form. Bryant indicated that rhetoric should be seen as the comprehensivestudy which shows how the principles established or discovered by thebehavioral scientist, as well as those from the social scientist,the historian, the moralist, the ethicist, the literary historian andcritic, and the philosopher, may be organized and employed so as to best describeand account for the phenomena and the functioning ofthe suasory-instructional in discourse. 8 Bitzer emphasized that communicativestudies and rhetorical practiceare vitalized by their relationship to subject-matter. One conference committee concluded: Rhetorical studies are properly concerned withthe process by which symbols and systems of symbols haveinfluence upon beliefs, values, attitudes, and actions, and theyembrace all forms of human communication, not exclusively public addressnor communication within any one class or culturalgroup. 10 Communication studies, the conferenceparticipants concluded, should "focuson how and in what ways man uses and is used by symbols of inducement; how man'ssymbol- using affects and determines personaland social decision-making, what values guide his conduct."11 Students were encouraged to analyze"outgroup" communication that reveals rhetorical patterns insocial movements; such research should discover the clusters of socialvalues existing in various places and different periods. These scholars maintainedthat communicative studies are enriched when subject-matter and rhetoricalform receive critical analysis, when communication is studied within complex dynamicrelationships, and when interdisciplinary methodologies are constructed to illuminehuman symbolic interactions. Studies analyzing rhetoricalmovements were strengthened with several doctoral dissertations that refinedresearch methodologies. Feld examined the implications for social movementtheory by surveying the definitions and classifications, and she synthesizedhypotheses concerning the organization, 4 4 12 ideology, tactics, and life-cycles withinmovements. Feld concluded that using a single research methodology isunnecessary and recommended that scholars should comprehend the implications in socialmovement theory and employ different methodologies. Anderson constructed dramatisticand rhetorical methodologies for 13 analyzing ideological statements. Harral concluded that traditional rhetorical concepts should be developed to embrace communicativebehavior beside spoken discourse, developed a concept called"counter synthesis," emphasized combining rhetorical and sociological theories, andstated that contemporary communicative transactions should be addressed inan attempt to develop testable hypotheses.14 Purnell described a socialmovement as a public drama or extended transaction between competing contengencies and theiraudience, and she examined the implied 15 value premises supported by differentadvocates. Wilder discovered that using a dialectical conflict model for studying socio-rhetoricalprocess provided a viable methodology for analyzingthe phases, developmental requirements, variables, 16 and dialectical
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