Matthew Boedy’s Speaking of Evil argues that for rhetoric there is no “beyond good and evil,” and there never can be. Drawing on theological, philosophical, and critical lights ranging from Benjamin to Bonhoeffer and Agamben to Arendt, with illuminating essays on Isocrates and Erasmus, Boedy offers a thoughtful and wide-ranging argument for the ethical essence of rhetoric.

Ned O'Gorman, University of Illinois

Boedy explicates evil's dwelling-unreflective places of stability. Rhetoric, at its best, intervenes via invention. Arendt equated evil with banality, extreme commonness. Those who resist learning from difference ignore the temporal home of the good. Boedy reminds us that evil inhabits the unexamined structures created by the good. Boedy reminds us that evil inhabits the unexamined structures created by the self-righteous.

Ronald C. Arnett, Duquesne University

A necessary and purposeful and compelling work. Matthew Boedy explores the idea of an ethical rhetoric in a new and profound way—in the context of the problem of evil itself. The seriousness and conscientiousness of this book are palpable, and the book’s culminating challenge is unshakeable.

James Crosswhite, University of Oregon