Peter Moore: Deploying Emotional Intelligence: John Chrysostom’s relational emotional vocabulary in his Beatitude homilies

This paper outlines findings from the author’s completed Ph.D. program in the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Sydney, 2013 and his thesis entitled: ‘Gold without dross: an assessment of the debt to John Chrysostom in John Calvin’s oratory’.

The author notes that the ability to engage emotion is at the heart of ancient rhetoric, and that the second of the two major Parts in his doctoral project comparing Chrysostom and Calvin involved a close study of both orators’ engagement of emotion.

The author then outlines Chrysostom’s treatment of emotion and vocabulary of emotion in his expositions on Matthew 5:1-12, 10:1-4. The author compares this with the anticipated emotional emphases suggested by these texts and by the rhetorical handbooks. The paper demonstrates that Chrysostom is much more interested in the emotions of relationship (love, compassion, hate, anger and the like) than either biblical text or rhetorical principle would suggest.

Conclusions are drawn from this on Chrysostom’s goals and method in preaching.