What is it about?
Many Quaker writers used their pamphleteering to promote a range of politico-religious demands: liberty of conscience, rejection of a separated priesthood, and of tithe-paying. This paper explores Quakers' varied approaches to persuasion and identifies a number of Aristotelian strategies observed in a corpus of early Quaker writings. A tract is analysed in some detail to illustrate a gentle yet effective approach to promoting the Quaker way.
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Why is it important?
Quakers in the 17th century carried out a radicalcampaign of persuading everyone to repent and change their ways before the expected apocalypse. This paper looks at the aristotelian rhetorical strategies they used, and how many adopted powerful emotion language rather than reasoned doctrine in their (successful) efforts at convincement.
Perspectives
Discourse analysis intp early Quaker language is still an under-studied methodological approach. Corpus-assisted interdisciplinary enquiries such as this one enable a larger picture to be drawn than close study of just a few texts. Patterns of usage are more easily discerned and suggested generalities bring a more nuanced understanding to the material.
Judith Roads
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This page is a summary of: Quaker Convincement Language: Using Pathos and Logos in the Seventeenth Century, Quaker Studies, December 2020, Liverpool University Press,
DOI: 10.3828/quaker.2020.25.2.5.
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