Seminar 11: Rhetoric and the Sacred: Figuring the Extrahuman

Leaders: Paul Lynch (Saint Louis University) and Steven Mailloux (Loyola Marymount University and University of California, Irvine)

“Rhetoric and the Sacred: Figuring the Extrahuman” studies the phenomenology, history, and theory of
extrahuman rhetorics, especially in religious studies, scriptural hermeneutics, and political theology. Under the heading of extrahuman rhetoric—sometimes described as a “rogue category” in rhetorical studies—the seminar focuses on a set of related but sometimes conflicting ideas: the sacred and the holy, the religious and the spiritual, the divine and the magical. These areas of human experience all invite rhetorical response, just as they all exceed human powers to control.

The seminar’s central objectives are: 1) to introduce participants to a rapidly expanding discussion within
rhetorical studies; 2) to trace, and to interrogate, the terms of that discussion, particularly its default Christian theological assumptions. The seminar begins with the interrelated histories of rhetoric and religion in the twentieth century before turning to more recent scholarship on the phenomenology of the sacred and its challenges to rhetorical theory. Our work will then open up questions of hermeneutics and ethics, before turning to the question of political theology within the rhetoric of religion. We close with a discussion of religious responses to AI.

Our audiences include graduate students just beginning their research, early career faculty advancing projects already begun, and later career faculty whose work has begun to intersect with the extrahuman. Beyond offering an orientation to a key subfield of rhetorical studies, the seminar will also scrutinize that subfield’s vocabulary, inquiring into the rhetorical work undertaken when a discourse is described as “religious,” “sacred,” or “holy.”

There will be no A/V equipment available in this seminar. The seminar leaders encourage participants to bring charged devices with their preferred hardware and software pre-loaded, especially for any participants who have accessibility needs. You should indicate any accessibility needs on your registration form.