Dr. James Tallmon

Professor of Rhetoric and Director of Debate at Patrick Henry College, presented a Fireside Chat on the subject of

“Excellence in Theological Disputation:

What Lutherans Can Learn from Aristotle’s Topica

(with examples from Monty Python)”

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Part 1:

http://seminaryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Tallmon1.flv
Download Part 1 High-Quality – iPod

Part 2:

http://seminaryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Tallmon2.flv
Download Part 2 High-Quality – iPod

This interactive discussion will help you to identify premises and presuppositions  in conversation, argument and debate.

Dr. James Tallmon is Professor of Rhetoric and Director of Debate at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia since 2007. Previously Dr. Tallmon was Professor of Rhetoric and Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program at Dickinson State University in North Dakota.  He earned his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Ethics from the University of Washington in 1993.  Dr. Tallmon enjoys teaching students to apply classical theory to the resolution of contemporary problems.  He contributes regularly to classical liberal arts education conferences, and his “Rhetoric Ring”(www.phc.edu/rr_ring_d.php) provides online resources especially dedicated to helping classical educators successfully teach the arts of eloquence.

Dr. Tallmon is published in the areas of rhetorical theory, reason, casuistry and pedagogy, ethics, argumentation, debate, first amendment jurisprudence, and broadcast regulation.  He is currently at work on a series of handbooks on Rhetoric (Public Speaking, Advanced Public Speaking, Argumentation & Debate, and Oral Interpretation of Literature) for high school students being classically educated.  This series will also critically engage the cultural phenomenon of teens growing up in America with their “second lives” online. 

Dr. Tallmon serves as Associate Editor for The Classical Education Quarterly and as Executive Board Secretary and Chairman of the Technology Committee for the Consortium for Classical and Lutheran Education (CCLE).  Tallmon also consults in Total Quality Management. 

Dr. Tallmon and his wife of 29 years, Bonnie, live in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. They are members of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Winchester, Virginia, where Jim serves as Elder and High School Sunday School Teacher.  In his spare time he volunteers for the Vector Speech and Debate Club for junior- and senior-high homeschool students in Purcellville, Virginia.