John D. Schaeffer claims that Augustine's writings should not be analyzed at all from the same perspective as the classical rhetoricians, because his works were produced in an entirely different era and for an entirely different group of people than those of the great classical rhetoricians. The issue for Schaeffer lies in the fact that Augustine was trying to bring together the elements of orality and the Christian religion, which was founded primarily upon the written scriptures and called for private introspection and prayer. Schaeffer says, “book 4 attempts to resolve a central paradox of early Christianity by synthesizing the oral world of public performance with a religion grounded in writing and addressed to the inner person…De doctrina presents Augustine’s attempt to bring classical rhetoric…to bear on Christian preaching.” Therefore, he argues that Augustine was not simply writing against the traditions of classical rhetoric and that scholars should consider Augustine's work within its own context.