Verbal Giftedness and Responsibility in Speech: Rhetorical and Homiletic Dimensions

In contemporary educational contexts, verbal giftedness is often reduced to linguistic proficiency, fluency, or rhetorical effectiveness, while its ethical and meaning-oriented dimensions remain insufficiently examined. Specifically, this article proposes a reconceptualization of verbal giftedness through the prism of responsibility in speech, which, following the theoretical frameworks of R. Sternberg and J. Habermas, is understood as an intrinsic criterion of mature verbal development rather than merely an external moral supplement. Drawing on contemporary theories of giftedness and talent development, rhetorical theory, and homiletic-hermeneutic approaches, the study conceptualizes verbal giftedness as a multidimensional capacity integrating cognitive structure, discursive competence, and ethical accountability. The analysis demonstrates that mature verbal giftedness emerges not merely through expressive ability, but through ordered thinking, interpretative fidelity, and awareness of the social and ethical consequences of speech. Rhetoric and homiletics are examined as complementary models of responsible speech: rhetoric disciplines verbal expression through argumentation, coherence, and audience orientation, while homiletics emphasizes interpretative responsibility, contextual sensitivity, and answerability to meaning. On this basis, the article proposes an integrative model of verbal giftedness in which responsibility in speech functions both as the medium of realization and as the criterion of maturity. Consequently, the findings have significant implications for gifted education, suggesting – in the light of the concepts developed by J. Renzulli, D. Kuhn, and D. Dai – a shift from performance-oriented assessments toward pedagogical practices that cultivate structured thinking, interpretative discipline, and ethical awareness in communication.