Temporizing and Essentializing the Enemy : A Logological Reading of Finnish Lutheran Clerical War Rhetoric

Abstract

This article looks at the shift between logical and temporal vocabularies, called by Kenneth Burke the temporizing of essence. It combines “logology” with a rhetorical analysis of how it was applied in a concrete historical situation as a means of persuasion. First, I discuss Burke’s logology, which is the theory underlying the idea of temporized essence. Second, I turn to the notion in relation to its two main forms, origins and fruition; third, Finnish clerical rhetoric during the Continuation War 1941–44 will be analyzed using ideas drawn on logology.