Ramage and Jesus
As a Secondary Education major with a concentration in English, I am currently reading plenty of books. Some are textbooks with a concentration in grammar, others include short stories and poetry from various authors and others discuss the copyright laws that teachers are faced with in the classroom. Most of these promote intellectual thought, at least temporarily, some even evoke emotion, but there are only two books that I’m reading now that shake me to the core. Why, I’m not entirely sure, but I think it has to do with their similar approaches to material presentation.
What initially compels me to read these two books is the obligation from whatever source, whether it be my teacher or my Teacher, but as I read them, I feel inclined rather than required to continue. I won’t deny it; I am not always jumping for joy at the thought of leafing through the passages or even at the prospect of having to process what I’ve read. Unfortunately, however, both texts require me to do so, and in a fashion unlike my approach to my Introduction to Language textbook (next to no long term consideration). I’ll explain what I mean by beginning how these books differ.
The first book I’ve grown up on. My parents drilled it into me, telling me it was some sort of a lamp to my feet or a source of peace and strength or something. Some days I agree, other days I scoff at the idea, but nonetheless, I’m pretty thoroughly acquainted with this book. This book is pretty hefty, both in content and in size; it’s actually sixty-six books in one, whereas the other book only has six chapters. There are a bunch of characters in the first book, crazy, bold characters that fashioned a mold and forged a path for the rest of us. One of the characters, named Noah, actually built this insanely large ark and when everyone else died in the biggest flood in the history of man before and ever since, he and his family were the only survivors. Not to mention the rest of the animal population was saved too. This guy Noah actually brought a male and a female of every species and fit them on this ark with his family and they just floated around the world for forty days and forty nights.
Another character in this book actually lived to be 969 years old! The second book includes less than noteworthy characters, including an unremarkable salesman named Willy who unfortunately suffers a tragic end, and an allegorical character named the “Harley Guy” who represents everyone who falls into a consumer readymade trap. In the first book, there’s even a story about a rebellious guy named Balaam and his talking donkey who crushes his foot. Instead of a talking donkey, the second book has P-Dog, a dog who can’t talk; an inability which lends him his unconstructed identity. Ironic though, that P-Dog has a name, and the talking donkey doesn’t.
The first book I read every day, or at least try to, and attempt to uncover something profound in my reading each time. This is the kind of book that could be read 50,000 times with the potential to uncover something deeply different each and every time (or perhaps it’s the only book of its kind?). The second book I can’t say so much about, but it does get me to thinking. The second book I was just introduced to about a month ago, and unlike the first book, my parents would never understand its content and would never actually read it themselves for anything. Instead of perhaps leading me to the meaning of life, this book seems to want to lend me, or so the back cover disclaims, “equipment for living”.
Alright already, I’ll be frank. The first book is the Bible—the cornerstone and basis of my Christian faith. Reading it is highly recommended, encouraged, and basically essential for growth and knowledge of my faith. Like most books I read, some of it is boring, but most of it is fantastic, and all of it is essential. Every verse in every passage has a context and fits into the puzzle that is the self-proclaimed Word of God. It’s what you could call a user’s guide to a God centered life. The second book is not so legendary, but it does play a major role in my current existence, and coincidentally, it also happens to be the main topic of this paper. This second book is also a user’s guide, but this time, the basis is rhetoric rather than righteousness. As stated earlier, it only has six chapters, but these six chapters cover a LOT of ground. And this time, the author, instead of being attributed with the creator of the universe, is just little ol’ Doctor John D. Ramage.
What spurred me to make this comparison between the Bible and Dr. John’s Rhetoric: A User’s Guide was a question posed by one of my classmates about whether or not it is possible for a Christian to believe in rhetoric. So here I am, on a journey to answer that question, with God as my witness and Ramage as my guide.
I’ll begin with a quote by Ramage himself, “By forcing ourselves to accommodate divergent views, even if doing so forces us to challenge the beliefs and assumptions of our audience, we are forced to engage our creative powers and enrich our arguments (79)”. This quote is extremely representational of the internal conflict I am so often faced with concerning my faith and the attempt to share it with others. A major part of Christianity is evangelism, which entails sharing the knowledge and Truth that has been revealed to an individual, so, to an extent, a main aspect of Christianity involves persuasion. Ramage discusses persuasion in Rhetoric: A User’s Guide (“RUG”) and in support of the statement above expresses this thought,
No matter how secure people may be in their faith that their particular system is absolute and universal, no matter how strongly they may believe that everyone ought to join them in subscribing to their particular doctrine, getting others who do not share their beliefs to cooperate with them—and some form of cooperation is always required—or to adopt their beliefs means they must either use force or persuasion (70).
He goes on to warn against the dangers of coercive tendencies, and with that said, I can state my claim: Christians are the boldest rhetoricians out there.
In the beginning of RUG, Ramage introduces us to the Anti-Rhetoric Spokesperson, who states many different claims against the use of rhetoric, and reasons they think it should be abolished completely. These reasons include: Rhetoric is too messy. It can’t be tied down. It’s too unconventional. There’s no telling where it ends or where it begins. There’s no formula that explains it, no rubric to set it up against. It’s pure chaos. It can only exist in an imperfect world. It’s a sacrilege! It makes people do crazy things! Interestingly enough, most, if not all of these objecting claims reflect those posed against Christianity, throughout its existence. In Jesus’ time, the Jewish leaders who didn’t believe that Jesus was actually legit thought He and His followers were the most heretical things to hit the earth since, well, the Greeks. Christianity blew the law and the normal format of living which these guys were so used to out of the water. Healing someone on the Sabbath?! Unheard of! Not washing your hands before a meal? Claiming to be the Son of God?!! That’s more unethical than…than…RHETORIC for goodness’ sake.
The Pharisees (another name for the Jewish leaders) reflect that which Ramage refers to as the “serious” people. So concerned with the law, and with making sure they and others around them follow it completely, the Pharisees are like the serious people who are only in it for absolute Truth and are obsessed with methodology and rubrics and making sure everything they encounter fits their perfect mold. The reason Christianity posed such a culture shock was because for so many years the Jews had this doctrine, these laws, drilled into their heads, as though keeping them were the difference between life and death (which in some cases, it may have been), but when Jesus came along, He completely refaced man’s approach to God altogether. Suddenly there were exceptions to these stringent rules and suddenly these leaders were on the same playing field as the heathen.
Just as there still remains opposition to Rhetoric today, as there most likely always will be, likewise there continues to be opposition to Christianity. Current adversaries (which reflect Socrates and his Anti-Rhetoric efforts back in his day) claim that their way is the best way, and their humanistic perspective is centered on logical, tangible, inevitable evidence, with the most reduction of vague generalities possible. Faith, a main component of Christianity, can be said to be simply an emotional appeal, as it has no tangible evidence whatsoever, simply cannot be proven, and thus deemed unacceptable and useless. So therefore, from the very beginning to present day, Christians have had to fight for their place in this world of infinite opinions and perspectives, standing up for their claim even in the face of extreme, consistent adversity, just as rhetoricians have had to stand their ground against the Socrates, and his many variations, of this world.
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