Abstract:

Currently, theological education in Russia is at the stage of reform. The new concept of theological education promoted by the Russian Orthodox Church includes further development of teaching methods of academic disciplines at seminaries with a special emphasis being made on boosting the future preachers’ rhetoric skills.

Teaching a future preacher how to be a good rhetor is key. It is done at all the three levels of education (bachelor, master, postgraduate). At the BA level, students acquire fundamental knowledge in the field of rhetoric as art of persuasion. At the master’s level, students are taught to analyze, capitalize and share the acquired knowledge through disputes and discussions. The aim of the postgraduate studies is to educate students as religious scholars capable of conducting independent research and adequately present its results to various kinds of audiences. Due to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church has put on the agenda the issue of educating a new generation of clergymen who will have sufficient competence to preach among young people and intellectuals, measures have been taken to strengthen rhetorical and pedagogical aspects of training future priests. Thus, such subjects as rhetoric and stylistics of the Russian language appeared in the curriculum. Rhetoric is one of the fundamental disciplines for all the theological subjects, since basic skills, required for the formation of the preacher, are acquired during the process of studying rhetoric.

Typically, the course of rhetoric in seminaries is designed for second-year bachelor students and is studied over two semesters. It has the following learning outcomes: to elaborate a rhetorical strategy depending on the characteristics of the audience; to learn the basic rules of the oratorical speech construction; to obtain the skills of various types of logical reasoning; to master philological and psychological tools of enhancing speech persuasiveness and expressiveness. Before proceeding to the study of this discipline, students take courses in the history of philosophy, history of the Russian religious philosophy and logic.

The rhetorical space is three-dimensional, the whole rhetoric system being built on triads. This is the universal character of education (trivium - lat. the place where three roads meet), which historically includes grammar, logic and rhetoric; and the oral public speech itself presented by monologue, dialogue, and polylogue. The rhetorical triad per se consists of three components: pathos, logos, ethos. Pathos is the orator’s intent, which he presents in the form most conducive to gain the adherence of the audience. Logos is represented by language means. The attitude of the speaker to the audience is expressed through the ethos (Rozhdestvenskiy 1999).

Modern rhetoric constitutes a certain return to the heritage of Christian culture, but with the due account of modern scientific knowledge (Volkov 2001). The main task of rhetoric is to form the linguistic personality of the rhetorician, which is expressed through the texts he produces (Annushkin 2017).

Thus, the future preacher should master rhetorical skills, since the success of his speeches depends not only on his individual qualities and intellectual baggage but also his ability to gain the attention of the audience.

Keywords:

Rhetoric, rhetor, theological education, art of preaching.