Twelfth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

According to Foss and Griffin, an invitational rhetoric is one that invites the recipient to understand and accept instead of the traditional persuasion model that emphasizes a power relationship. Invitational rhetoric emphasizes self-determination, respects differences and invites the recipient to enter the rhetor’s worlds, i.e., see it as the rhetor does. Invitational rhetoric is based on the premise that each person has innate human dignity that must be respected and is based on creating an atmosphere of empathy and trust and genuine caring and concern for the other. Invitational rhetoric seeks to create a sense of safety while encouraging the recipient to experience something new and challenging. For some the gospels of the New Testament revel God’s word. They have had an overriding impact on the development of religion particularly in the west. The Gospels have impacted the course of history for over two thousand years. But the Gospels can also be viewed as rhetorical documents in that they were designed to inform and convert people to accept Christianity. As such they are rhetorical Using the concept of invitational rhetoric as a critical perspective, this paper examines the rhetorical devices used in the four gospels of the New Testament as well as the development of the style and content of the Gospel message over time. The argument of the paper is that the Gospel message is best understood in terms of an invitational rhetoric.