By R. Larry Overstreet
Sunukjian cogently distinguishes the two kinds of rhetoric as the "plain" style (Atticist) and the "grand" style (Asiatic). The plain style "was characterized by clearness, simplicity, and restraint," while the grand style used "florid, luxuriant, and bombastic rhetoric" (Sunukjian, 1982, p. 294). This "grand style" would naturally lead speakers to a high degree of self-reliance, with their oratorical skills and abilities, not the content of their speech, being that which would win the day. Sunukjian further observes how that in the common rhetorical approach in Corinth during the time of Paul, "it mattered little whether the speaker had a purpose in speaking. The glory of the speech was an end in itself," and furthermore rhetoric "made the speaker more important than the speech" (Ibid, p. 295). Sunukjian accurately concludes, "Paul had not come to Corinth with the flowery words and elaborate style of an Asiatic orator. Rather, he had spoken in reliance on the power of the Spirit . . . In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, therefore, Paul is not rejecting persuasion. Instead, he is recalling his continual determination to preach in a clear and cogent style, and to emphasize the message rather than the speaker" (Ibid, p. 296).
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Conclusion
Paul's preaching was persuasive. He desired to see people take "action," not merely "comprehend," when he preached the gospel of Christ. He knew this, his friends knew this, and his enemies knew this. Yet, Paul also knew and asserted that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is essential to successful preaching. That is still the case today.
"Paul's own point needs a fresh hearing. What he is rejecting is not preaching, not even persuasive preaching; rather, it is the real danger in all preaching — self-reliance. The danger always lies in letting the form and content get in the way of what should be the single concern: the gospel proclaimed through human weakness but accompanied by the powerful work of the Spirit so that lives are changed through a divine-human encounter. That is hard to teach in a course in homiletics, but it still stands as the true need in genuinely Christian preaching" (Fee, 1987, pp. 96-97).
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R. Larry Overstreet is Professor of Preaching at Northwest Baptist Seminary in Tacoma, WA.
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ENDNOTES
1 Tables 7 — 9 give representative uses of the words for persuasion in Greek literature.
2 The need for persuasion to be governed by ethical standards is recognized by secular communicators as well as Christian. For representative discussions see Hanna and Gibson (1992, 334-60), Ayres and Miller (1994, 252-54), Osborn and Osborn (1994, 359-63), Jabusch and Littlejohn (1995, 107-30), and Gregory (1996, 350-98)
3 For a detailed expansion of Litfin's presentation see, Duane Litfin, St. Paul's Theology of Proclamation: 1 Corinthians 1-4 and Greco-Roman rhetoric [sic] (Cambridge: University Press, 1994).
4 Sunukjian, Donald R. "The Preacher As Persuader." Walvoord: A Tribute. Ed. Donald K. Campbell. Chicago: Moody, 1982. For a detailed analysis of Paul's sermons in Acts, see Donald Robert Sunukjian, "Patterns for Preaching — A Rhetorical Analysis of the Sermons of Paul in Acts 13, 17, and 20" (Th.D. dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1972).