Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Rhetoric and Christian identity in the Roman Empire : sources and method -- A classical ideal -- Classical therapy : its origins, tasks, and methods -- Psychagogy as a cultural ideal -- Psychagogy in its classical form -- Hellenistic refinements -- Cures for the Roman soul -- The psychagogic value of ancient texts -- Revising and recontextualizing classical therapy -- Augustine's early formation -- An ambitious young orator -- Being healed by beautiful words -- Christianizing classical therapy -- Christian philosophy and the cure of soul -- Christ's inner and outer rhetoric -- A new context for classical therapy -- Ordination crisis -- Controversies over the cure of soul -- Signs eliciting love -- Exegetical integration -- Teaching the uninstructed -- Augustine's homiletical practice -- The Christian rhetor -- Continuity amid discontinuity -- Critical skills -- Constructive guidance -- Therapy and society -- The incarnate word and community.

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