John Nicholson's The Preceptor is the first book dedicated to an explicitly Mormon rhetorical theory, which he attempts to employ in the troubled landscape of LDS missionary training. This essay examines Nicholson's advice to missionaries, and argues that The Preceptor links logos and the Holy Spirit together in homiletic division of labor, connecting traditional Christian preaching with indigenous Mormon style and theology. By studying The Preceptor we can gain an appreciation for how rhetorical theories develop specific features that reflect a particular culture's location in history and society, and examine a rhetoric that served as an alternative to mainstream American religious and secular rhetorical development.

John Nicholson’s The Preceptor is the first book dedicated to an explicitly Mormon rhetorical theory, which he attempts to employ in the troubled landscape of LDS missionary training. This essay examines Nicholson’s advice to missionaries, and argues that The Preceptor links logos and the Holy Spirit together in homiletic division of labor, connecting traditional Christian preaching with indigenous Mormon style and theology. By studying The Preceptor we can gain an appreciation for how rhetorical theories develop specific features that reflect a particular culture’s location in history and society, and examine a rhetoric that served as an alternative to mainstream American religious and secular rhetorical development.