I'll be taking a break from the internet for the duration of Holy Week. I will resume posting and responding to e-mails and comments after Pascha. I pray that everyone has a fruitful Holy Week and a wonderful Holy Pascha!
"What I would like to do, however, is offered an informal and provisional answer to your interesting question: Does an author adopt a polemical tone to change his reader’s opinion on a given subject? If I understand you properly, in your view this is exactly why one would adopt a polemic.
While there are no doubt exceptions, I don’t think a polemic is likely to get my reader to see things my way. In fact, I think getting people to change their minds is usually the exact opposite reason someone would adopt a polemical tone.
Like apologetics, polemics are not written for those outside but inside the tradition. Polemics, in other words, are meant to confirm people in their opinion. While a polemic can be done well, that is charitably, typically in a polemic those outside the tradition serve as a foil, or even a mere straw man, that the polemicist uses to advance the views he shares with only some of his readers..."
Praise the Lord, David! So glad you're taking a break.
ReplyDeleteBlessed Holy Week to you and yours!
http://palamas.info/?p=3601
ReplyDelete"What I would like to do, however, is offered an informal and provisional answer to your interesting question: Does an author adopt a polemical tone to change his reader’s opinion on a given subject? If I understand you properly, in your view this is exactly why one would adopt a polemic.
While there are no doubt exceptions, I don’t think a polemic is likely to get my reader to see things my way. In fact, I think getting people to change their minds is usually the exact opposite reason someone would adopt a polemical tone.
Like apologetics, polemics are not written for those outside but inside the tradition. Polemics, in other words, are meant to confirm people in their opinion. While a polemic can be done well, that is charitably, typically in a polemic those outside the tradition serve as a foil, or even a mere straw man, that the polemicist uses to advance the views he shares with only some of his readers..."
IS VERY GOOD..............................
ReplyDelete