Hello,

Rhetoric’s domain expanded greatly from Ancient Athens to the Roman Empire due to the vast size of the empire, but mainly because of the shift to the Holy Roman Empire. Education was a factor, but to understand the Christian faith, and the teachings in the Bible, people had to understand rhetoric. However, varying levels of expertise were still important.

For example, rhetoric when applied to the Christian faith at the individual level centers entirely around interpreting the truths of the Bible teachings correctly. Without understanding argumentation, evidence, and persuasion the Bibles teachings would be hard to understand. Therefore there was cultural need for  individuals to understand the use of words for teachings and truths.

On a more advanced level, priests or anybody giving a sermon, not only had to understand the extraction of truths from the Bible, but they had to understand how to phrase the Bible’s teachings into oratory that would make sense to the audience or congregation. This required a great deal of rhetoric study. However, this alone created a cultural issue.

The argument of knowledge in rhetoric was brought up yet again in reference to preachers truly understanding the “correct” truths of the bible. It was observed once again that words are slippery and can have a negative affect on the moral soul of the audience if the speaker does not have the correct knowledge and understanding.

Due to the shear size of the empire, and the dire need to understand word, oratory, and what arguments meant, rhetoric domain expanded greatly as it moved into the Christian/Holy Roman Empire world.