Existential Crisis Rhetoric – Setting an Example of Embodied Trust in a Sermon Preached during the Pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52610/rhs.v26i84.81Keywords:
crisis, pandemic, preaching, sermon, trust, existential, body, affect-emotionAbstract
During the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown and the risk of infection with corona virus caused, for many people, a heightened degree of bodily affect, and, for some, emotional stress. The crisis seemed to call not only for medical advice and political action, but also for existential interpretation. This essay analyzes a sermon held in the Danish Lutheran-Evangelical Church during lockdown and shows how the speech, by speaking through, of and to the body, invited a change of emotions from unrest and anxiety towards hope and gratitude. Following a study of the affective-emotional dimensions of a eulogy by Landau and Keeler Jonker and working from an understanding of trust as affective and embodied, the essay argues that the sermon manifested emotions of trust,
through the rhetoric’s symbolicity as well as its materiality. The
speech set an existential example to emulate – a trustful yet
informed, embodied example that might relieve affect and help
enable constructive action
References
Agrell, B. (2016). "Consolation of literature as rhetorical tradition: Issues and examples". LIR-journal 4 (15), s. 10-35.
Allen, D. S. (2004). Talking to strangers: Anxieties of citizenship since Brown v. Board of education. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226014685.001.0001
Andersen, L. S. (1996). Ordet der høres. Frederiksberg: Anis.
Baker, J. A., D. Beaudine, F. Deckas, R.L. Gross, S. Mailloux, N. Martinez, M. K. Norman & S. Vanderveen (2020). "Rhetorics & viruses". Philosophy & Rhetoric, 53 (3), s. 207-216. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.53.3.0207
Bjørkdahl, K., J.E. Kjeldsen, L. Villadsen & O. Vigsø (2021). "Argumentum ad solidaritatem: Rhetorical leadership strategies in Scandinavia during COVID-19". I M. Lewis et al. (eds.). Communicating COVID-19 (s. 163-183). Dordrecht: Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79735-5_9
C. Castelfranchi & R. Falcone (2020). "Trust: Perspectives in cognitive science". I J. Simon (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Trust and Philosophy (s. 214-228). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315542294-17
Chartrand, T. L. & J. A. Bargh (1999). "The chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 76(6), s. 893-910. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.6.893
Courtright, J. L. & K. M. Hearit (2003). "A social constructionist approach to crisis management: Allegations of sudden acceleration in Audi 500". Communication studies 54(1), s. 79-94. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510970309363267
Critchley, S. (2020). "To philosophize is to learn how to die" New York Times 11/4 2020.
Doxtader, E. (2020). "editor's note: in the midst of…?" Philosophy & Rhetoric, 53(3), s. vi-ix. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.53.3.00vi
Dunn, J. R. & M. E. Schweitzer (2005). "Feeling and believing: The influence of emotion on trust". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88, s. 736-748. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.5.736
Fafner. J. (1997). "Retorikkens brændpunkt". Rhetorica Scandinavica 2, s. 27-45. https://doi.org/10.52610/SXJJ2879
Furman, K. (2020). "Emotions and distrust in science". International Journal of Philosophical Studies 28(5), s. 713-730. https://doi.org/10.1080/09672559.2020.1846281
Gelang, M. (2008). Actio-kapitalet - retorikens ickeverbala resurser. Åstorp: Retorikforlaget. https://doi.org/10.52610/HXNR9931
Gelang. M. (2021). "Kairos and actio - a rhetorical approach to timing". Res Rhetorica 8(3), s. 111-124. https://doi.org/10.29107/rr2021.3.6
Hardin, R. (2002). Trust and trustworthiness. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Hansen, J. B. (2016). "At kommunikere for øret. Tale og mundtlighed". I J. B. Hansen & H. S. Pedersen (red.). Stemmen og tilhøreren (s. 16-33). Ödåkra: Retorikforlaget.
Hawhee, D. (2009). Moving bodies - Kenneth Burke at the edges of language. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
Hoff-Clausen, E. (2010). "Retorisk handlekraft hviler på tillid". Rhetorica Scandinavica 54, s. 49-66. https://doi.org/10.52610/FNQE4057
Hoff-Clausen, E. (2018)."'When everything is NOT awesome': Affekt, agency og krisen som kontekst". Rhetorica Scandinavica 77, s. 22-45. https://doi.org/10.52610/TSYO7895
Hoff-Clausen, E. (2020). "Prædikenen i folkekirken". I M. Lund (red.). Danske taler - 20 opbyggelige analyser (s. 289-322). Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
Horsburgh, H. J. N. (1960). "The ethics of trust". The Philosopical Quarterly 10(41), s. 343-354. https://doi.org/10.2307/2216409
Jacobsen, M. H. (2011). "Frygtkulturen - om frygt, ondskab, mistillid og asocialitet i den flydende modernitet". I P. Hegedahl & G. L.H. Svendsen (red.). Tillid - samfundets fundament. Teorier, tolkninger, cases (s. 323-341). Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag.
Johnson, J. (2016). "'A man's mouth is his castle': The midcentury fluoridation controversy and the visceral public". Quarterly Journal of Speech 102(1), s. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2015.1135506
Jones, K. (1996). "Trust as an affective attitude". Ethics 107(1), s. 4-25. https://doi.org/10.1086/233694
Jones, K. (2019). "Trust, distrust, and affective looping". Philos stud 176, s. 955-968. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-018-1221-5
Kasten, L. (2018). "Trustful behaviour is meaningful behaviour: Implications for theory on identification-based trusting relations". Journal of Trust Research, 8(1), s. 103-119. https://doi.org/10.1080/21515581.2018.1479967
Kennedy, G. A. (1992). “A hoot in the dark: The evolution of general rhetoric”. Philosophy & Rhetoric 25(1), s. 1-21.
Kennedy, G. A. (1998). Comparative rhetoric: An historical and cross-cultural introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kiewe, A. (ed.) (1994). The modern presidency and crisis rhetoric. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Kjeldsen, J. E, Ø. Ihlen, S.N. Just & A.O. Larsson (2021). "Expert ethos and the strength of networks: Negotiations of credibility in mediated debate on COVID-19". Health Promotion International daab095, s. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daab095
Landau, J. & B. Keeler-Jonker (2018). "Conductor of public feelings: An affective-emotional rhetorical analysis of Obama's national eulogy in Tucson". Quarterly Journal of Speech 104 (2), s. 166-188. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2018.1447138
Lewis, A. & J. D. Weigert (1985). "Trust as a social reality". Social forces 63(4), s. 967-985. https://doi.org/10.2307/2578601
Lewis, A. & J. D. Weigert (2012). "The social dynamics of trust: Theoretical and empirical research, 1985-2012". Social forces 91(1), s. 25-31. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sos116
McCullough, P. (2013). "Sermons". I A. Hadfield (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of English Prose 1500-1640 (s. 1-19). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199580682.013.0034
Mehrens, P. (2022). "Sparamagmos - retorisering, dramatisering och rituell desintegration av offentligt språk under covid 19-pandemin". I I. Löfgren, L.S. Therkildsen & M. Rosengren (red.). Pandemiska reflektioner. Retoriska och litteraturfilosofiska undersökninger i coronas tid (s. 101-143). Uppsala: Uppsala Rhetorical Studies.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2016). Kroppens fænomenologi 2. udg. (1945). København: Det lille forlag.
Möllering, G. (2001). "The nature of trust: From Georg Simmel to a theory of expectation, interpretation and suspension". Sociology, 35(2), s. 403-420. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0038038501000190
Møllehave, J. (1983). Til trøst. København: Lindhardt & Ringhof.
Nielsen, B. F. (2010). "Praksis, krop og ritualisering". Religionspædagogisk Forum, 3, s. 9-26.
Nussbaum, M. (2019). Frygtens monarki - et filosofisk blik på vores politiske krise. Oversat af J. Wrang. Aarhus: Forlaget Klim.
Roer, H. (2020). "Derfor er Brostrøm en god kommunikatør: Den svære kunst at være helt enkel". Kommunikationsforum 13/3 2020. https://www.kommunikationsforum.dk/artikler/Derfor-er-Brostroem-en-god-kommunikatoer
Rösing, L. M. (2020). "Modsat hvad kulturministeren mente, blev coronaen en højtid for kulturen". Politiken 20 juni 2020.
Schiappa, E. (2003). Defining reality: Definitions and the politics of meaning. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press.
Thagard, P. (2019). Mind-Society - from brains to social sciences and professions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190678722.001.0001
Viklund, J. (2022). "Den politiska hanteringen av sorg i coronakrisen - berättelser och ritualer i demonstrativ politisk retorik". I I. Löfgren, L.S. Therkildsen & M. Rosengren (red.). Pandemiska reflektioner. Retoriska och litteraturfilosofiska undersökninger i coronas tid (s. 63-99). Uppsala: Uppsala Rhetorical Studies.
Thomsen, S. U. (2020). Tro mod ritualet - Kristendommen ifølge.... København: Eksistensen.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Open Access; CC Erkännande-IckeKommersiell-IngaBearbetningar 4.0
