This article utilizes the field of communication ethics to sharpen a critique of a form of interreligious dialogue that de-emphasizes the necessity of proclamation, as well as to provide helpful tools to recover a notion of proclamation that acknowledges its persuasive and purgative aspects. The article begins by showing how a particular form of communication ethic, invitational rhetoric, coheres with a form of interreligious dialogue promoted by John Cobb. Such cohesion will enable a critique of interreligious dialogue utilizing similar critiques levied at invitational rhetoric. Following this critique will be a brief recovery and strengthening of a notion of proclamation as persuasion and purgation, with the aid of portions of Augustine’s and Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical theories.
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