Augustine makes plain that the overarching aim of style is not to be showy; it’s to be an instrument of Spirit-led persuasion.
“A word fitly spoken,” observes King Solomon, “is like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (Proverbs 25:11). Fitly spoken... an apt phrase, that. It suggests the manner in which a message is spoken can be better or worse. There is a propriety to speech. Style and substance are not so easily divorced.
Saint Augustine wholeheartedly agrees. In our previous Preacher’s Toolbox, we looked at what the great doctor of the Church identified as the purposes of preaching: To instruct, to delight, and to move. But then he goes a step further, again following the lead of Cicero, and attaches a certain style to each of those purposes: Restrained, mixed, and grand, respectively.
Here I will briefly touch on these three registers which he identifies and then make some suggestions for when and how you might incorporate them in your preaching. I also encourage you to pick up Augustine’s On Christian Teaching for yourself.
Preaching with style(s)
The first style Augustine identifies he calls “restrained.” By this he means a tempered, “Just the facts, ma’am,” approach. In this style, the preacher places a premium on clear, straightforward communication, as befits the aim of instruction. He cites Saint Paul’s case for the superiority of the New Covenant in Galatians 4 as an example of this understated, logical style.[1]
Next is what Augustine dubs the “mixed” or “intermediate” style. As you can imagine, this is the one which is most difficult to define. Augustine himself hems and haws, sometimes punting by just saying this style is neither restrained nor grand (you don’t say!). The general idea, though, is the mixed mode incorporates some stylistic elements, such as rhythm or parallelism, without going full bore.[2] Augustine points to Romans 12, in which Paul adopts “a graceful flow of phrases, each duly balanced by other phrases,”[3] as a good example of the mixed style.
What Augustine calls the “grand” style is kindled less by the content of fiery rhetoric than by the conviction of an impassioned preacher. He writes, “[The grand style] is not so much embellished with verbal ornament as inflamed by heartfelt emotion.”[4] He continues:
[The grand style] is borne along by its own momentum, and derives its beauty of expression, if indeed this emerges, from the power of its subject-matter, and not the pursuit of elegance. It is sufficiently equipped for its purpose if appropriate words follow not from a search for elaborate vocabulary but from the promptings of a passionate heart.[5]
The reader will not be surprised to learn Augustine points to the tail end of Romans 8 as his preeminent example of the grand style. In that passage the hearer is swept along as Paul intones that nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love in Christ: “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth…” (Romans 8:38-39). Grand, indeed
In that passage the hearer is swept along as Paul intones that nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love in Christ: “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth…” (Romans 8:38-39).
At this point, an important caveat is in order. I have laid out Augustine’s stylistic taxonomy in a neat and clean fashion, which is helpful for examination and getting the lay of the land, so to speak. However, Augustine himself did not advocate for using only one style in any particular sermon. To the contrary, he urged variety: “Nobody should think it is against the rules of the art to combine these styles. On the contrary, our discourse should be varied by using all three, as far as is possible without impropriety.”[1]
With this stipulation in mind, how might today’s pastors apply these styles to their preaching?
Style & the Seasons of the Church Year
Augustine associates specific styles with particular purposes. Without pressing this too far, I think we could also tie certain styles to seasons of the Church Year. In this case, it seems evident the restrained style comports best with Ordinary Time, or the “green seasons” of the year, inasmuch as these Sundays tend toward teaching.
The mixed style, useful to the preacher when he wishes to delight the hearers, may be especially appropriate during the festival half of the year, and in particular the seasons of Advent and Lent. These times are well suited to more elevated speech.
As I alluded to above, the grand style is not only right but veritably required for your great feast days: Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and so on. On the high holy days preachers do well to bring out the homiletical fireworks to light up the hearts of God’s people.
A related point of application is considering what style is appropriate to various biblical texts and topics. For instance, when preaching on the resurrection, the grand style may well be called for, whereas a sermon on stewardship probably leans toward the restrained, unless it is pledge day! In any case, there is a natural point of overlap here with the seasons of the Church Year.
Style & Sermon Structures
Sermon styles can also complement sermon structures. Sermons which aim to instruct will privilege textual structures: A straight-forward Verse-by-Verse treatment is perhaps most appropriate. Some thematic structures, such as Cause/Effect and Comparison/Contrast, also lend themselves well to the restrained style
The mixed/intermediate style will especially find its home among the thematic structures. An Analogy sermon that sets a biblical teaching alongside a phenomenon from everyday life fits this bill. These comparisons often delight the hearers. Likewise, you could utilize a Paradox Maintained sermon, which pleasingly puts forth biblical antinomies.
Finally, the grand style goes hand-in-hand with dynamic structures, in particular story-shaped ones: Lowry Loop, Epic, and so on. The tried-and-true Law/Gospel or 4-pages structure can also be an ally to the grand style, because of the dramatic shift from conviction to consolation, from problem to solution. Style and structure fit together naturally.
That said, fitness is of utmost importance to the entire enterprise. Augustine makes plain that the overarching aim of style is not to be showy. It is to be an instrument of Spirit-led persuasion. “The general function of eloquence, in any of these three styles, is to speak in a manner fitted to persuade... and if he fails to persuade, he has not achieved the aim of his eloquence.”[2] Words fitly spoken, fitted to persuade, such is the function of homiletic style.
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[1] See Augustine, On Christian Teaching, IV §107-110.
[2] If I can use a driving metaphor: preachers use the mixed style to drop it into 4-wheel drive and so gain traction with the hearers, but they save the 4-low and locking differential of the grand style for when they really want to get the hearers moving.
[3] Augustine, On Christian Teaching, IV §111.
[4] Augustine, On Christian Teaching, IV §118.
[5] Augustine, On Christian Teaching, IV §119.
[6] Augustine, On Christian Teaching, IV §134.
[7] Augustine, On Christian Teaching, IV §143.
