Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
How do you remove rhetoric from reality?	paraclete	04/05/05
I'm greatly disturbed by a statement I just witnessed on the PBS program "newshour" An american female was being interviewed regarding the Late Pope and she said "we know he will always be there and we can pray to him" Surely catholics dont equate the Pope to God, to Christ, don't think he now has any ability to answer prayer, surely the catholic church has moved on from this nonsense of saints as intercessors
Answered By		Answered On
curious98		04/05/05
Well, it is a matter of opinion. Yours, in any case. Although I do not see what you imply by removing rhetoric from reality. I'll give you 4 definitions of rhetoric: Plato: Rhetoric is "the art of winning the soul by discourse." Aristotle: Rhetoric is "the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion. Cicero: "Rhetoric is one great art comprised of five lesser arts: inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, and pronunciatio." Rhetoric is "speech designed to persuade." Quintillian: "Rhetoric is the art of speaking well." On the other hand, my encyclopedia reads: (from Greek ρητωρ, rhêtôr, "orator") is one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar). While it has meant many different things during its 2500-year history, it is generally described today as the art of persuasion through language. Rhetoric can describe a persuasive way in which one relates a theme or idea in an effort to convince" As for the American lady, if she feels like praying to any saint or to the Pope John Paul II, I do not see what harm is she doing to anybody. She can pray to the BIG BOSS or try to seek some attention from anyone of HIS favourite subaltern. What is wrong with that? Curious98

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