Rhetoric of natural law in the public discourse of Benedict XVI

Abstract

AbstractThe paper examines the rhetorical imagination of the Catholic speaker in public discourse on the basis of the parliamentary discourses of Pope Benedict XVI. According to this researcher, Pope Benedict XVI’s rhetorical model in the speeches is an extended version of Michael J. Hostetler’s critical distance model supported by the translation idea of Jurgen Habermas. This conclusion is reached by analysis of the constituent elements of the arguments in three parliamentary speeches given by Pope Benedict XVI. James B. Freeman’s updated version of Stephen Toulmin’s argumentation model is used to discern the constituent element of the argument.

Keywords

• Rhetoric
• Pope Benedict XVI
• critical distance
• natural law
• translation of religious content
• religion in the public square