Rhetoric and the Practice of Wisdom
Speech as Stewardship; Truth Joined to Love
By Theresa Willen · October 30, 2025
Speech as Sacred Trust
In a fractured age where words have become currency for power, speech as stewardship restores the moral weight of language. Every word becomes an act of obedience, a reflection of the character of Christ who is Himself the Logos—the Word made flesh.
In every generation, the Church must recover not only the content of truth but the manner of speaking it. In Scripture, wisdom is not abstraction but embodiment—truth expressed through conduct, tone, and integrity. To speak rightly, therefore, is not a matter of eloquence but of holiness. Christian rhetoric begins not with persuasion but with purification. Words are sacraments of the heart—vehicles through which love, humility, and truth are revealed.
The Wisdom That Descends from Above
James contrasts two kinds of wisdom: earthly and heavenly. Earthly wisdom is self-referential, “unspiritual, demonic,” marked by jealousy and ambition (James 3:14–16). Heavenly wisdom, by contrast, is “pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17). This passage provides not merely an epistemology—what we know—but an ethic—how we speak. Speech, in the biblical imagination, reveals spiritual formation: rhetoric is the audible shape of the soul.
Earthly Rhetoric
- Boastful, competitive, self-justifying
- Driven by outcomes
- Uses truth to win
Heavenly Rhetoric
- Peaceable, humble, open to reason
- Anchored in obedience
- Uses truth to heal
The meekness of wisdom does not silence conviction; it sanctifies it. When truth is joined to love, rhetoric becomes redemptive—its goal not victory but restoration.
The Classical and Christian Traditions
To understand how the Church once viewed speech and knowledge, we look first to the ancients.
The classical world regarded rhetoric as the art of persuasion, cultivated through ethos (credibility), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion). The Christian tradition re-centered this triad around virtue:
- Ethos becomes moral integrity—character shaped by grace.
- Logos becomes divine truth—the Word revealed, not merely reasoned.
- Pathos becomes compassion—the love that seeks another’s good.
From antiquity through the high Middle Ages, love was the unifying principle of knowledge. Plato’s Symposium describes the soul’s ascent through love toward the Beautiful (Plato, trans. 1951). Augustine deepened this vision with his doctrine of ordo amoris—the “order of loves”—in which virtue consists in loving things according to their proper worth (City of God, XV.22; Augustine, trans. 1950).
Thomas Aquinas synthesized this into a theology of knowledge: caritas formans scientiam—charity forms and perfects knowledge (Summa Theologica II–II, Q. 45). For Aquinas, truth was not merely correspondence between mind and object but communion between creature and Creator. Love was epistemic: it ordered reason toward its proper telos, the contemplation of God.
The Reformers likewise viewed rhetoric as a pastoral instrument. Calvin wrote with intellectual precision yet spiritual tenderness, seeking persuasion through claritas—truth made luminous through grace. Christian rhetoric, therefore, is not the abandonment of persuasion but its baptism. It reclaims eloquence for edification and logic for love.
In this pre-modern vision, to know rightly was to love rightly. The intellect served the will, and the will was healed by grace. Education was the formation of rightly ordered desire—a moral and spiritual ascent from knowledge to understanding to wisdom.
Descartes and the Displacement of Love
The seventeenth century introduced a radical epistemological turn. René Descartes’ famous dictum Cogito, ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”) re-centered knowledge upon the autonomous subject rather than upon love’s participation in the divine Logos (Descartes, 1641/1984).
In his quest for certainty through methodological doubt, Descartes detached reason from affection and truth from communion. The knower became an isolated mind; the world, an object to be measured rather than a mystery to be loved.
This shift dismantled the classical-Christian synthesis in three ways:
Epistemologically: truth became mechanical rather than relational.
Anthropologically: the unity of soul and body fractured into res cogitans and res extensa.
Pedagogically: learning ceased to be formation in virtue and became accumulation of information.
As Taylor (1989) observes, this “buffered self” no longer orbits divine reality but stands apart from it, treating knowledge as possession rather than participation. Love, once wisdom’s center, was displaced by doubt as the engine of inquiry.
Theopaideia and the Formation of Speech
Within Aletheia’s Theopaideia framework, rhetoric belongs to the sphere of wisdom as practice—the culmination of knowledge and understanding in love rightly ordered.
To recover the pre-Cartesian vision is not to reject reason but to redeem it. If knowledge is truth apprehended, and understanding is truth integrated, then wisdom is truth embodied—lived and spoken in right relation to God and others.
Speech, therefore, becomes a site of sanctification. It trains the will toward humility, disciplines the passions toward peace, and orders the intellect toward discernment.
Three movements of formation:
Listen before speaking — echoing Proverbs 18:13, “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.”
Name truth with grace — reflecting Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt.”
Join speech to conduct — embodying James 3:13, where wisdom proves itself through good works done in gentleness.
The Christian educator models speech as formation. In classrooms, pulpits, and conversations, rhetoric becomes a tool of discipleship—a shaping of hearts through words ordered by love.
Christian education re-centers the intellect under charity:
Knowledge apprehends truth.
Understanding integrates truth.
Wisdom embodies truth in love.
When love again governs learning, rhetoric ceases to be a tool of persuasion and becomes an act of participation—the Word made flesh through speech. The Christian scholar or teacher, then, practices rhetoric not to dominate but to disciple. The tongue becomes a means of grace.
Speaking in a Digital Babel
Modern culture has democratized speech and cheapened it. Platforms reward immediacy, outrage, and performance. Yet the believer’s call remains unchanged:
This tension forms one of the great pedagogical challenges of our time: How can Christian educators, parents, and leaders teach the next generation to steward language amid noise?
Three practices emerge:
Slowness — resist reaction; cultivate silence before speech.
Sincerity — refuse manipulative rhetoric or emotional spectacle.
Sanctity — speak as one under authority, accountable to the Word.
When truth and love converge, rhetoric regains its dignity. It becomes not self-expression but self-offering—speech as sacrifice, intellect as intercession.
The Harvest of Peace
James concludes:
This agricultural image recalls the pre-modern order of knowledge—truth cultivated through patience and charity. It reminds us that speech bears fruit over time. Words rooted in heaven yield peace on earth.
To speak with grace and integrity is to join the slow work of cultivation—the formation of souls and societies through the gentle power of truth. The Christian scholar, teacher, or student who disciplines the tongue participates in this redemptive work.
When love is restored to the center of reason, education recovers its sacred purpose. Rhetoric once again becomes the practice of wisdom—speech joined to grace, truth joined to love.
Reflection and Practice: The Stewardship of Speech
To translate wisdom into daily practice, pause this week to consider these patterns of speech as formation:
Listen before you speak.
Begin each conversation with an inward prayer: “Lord, let my words serve truth and heal.” Notice how silence clarifies motives before you respond.Join conviction to compassion.
In a debate, classroom, or family discussion, hold two questions together: Am I clear? Am I kind? Truth and love mature together, not apart.Let tone reveal theology.
Review your recent words. Do they mirror the meekness of wisdom in James 3? Where might repentance open the way for renewal?Bless aloud.
Speak one intentional blessing each day—to a colleague, student, or friend. As with seed and soil, blessing multiplies when spoken.Sow peace through patience.
The fruit of righteousness grows slowly. Resist the culture of instant reaction. Practice the patience of the sower who trusts the harvest to God.
References
Aquinas, T. (1947). Summa Theologica (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Trans.). Benziger.
Augustine. (1950). The City of God (M. Dods, Trans.). Modern Library.
Descartes, R. (1984). Meditations on First Philosophy (J. Cottingham, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1641)
Plato. (1951). Symposium (M. Hamilton, Trans.). Penguin Classics.
Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Harvard University Press.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. (2001). Crossway.
Continue the Journey
This reflection is part of The Theopaideia Series — Aletheia Christian College’s 52-week exploration of education as sanctification.
Next week: “Grammar of Creation”