_{The present research conducted within the framework of lingua pragmatics studies persuasive features of religious texts from the Holy Bible to digital sermons of nowadays. The aim of the paper is to identify strategies of persuasion used in religious texts in the indicated historical periods, classify them in accordance with basic principles of argumentation and describe linguistic means used to realize them. The corpus for the analysis comprises a collection of religious texts belonging to different historical periods. The volume of the corpus subjected to analysis exceeds 40 000 words, the total number of persuasive strategies retrieved from the corpus subjected to analysis is 2315. Persuasion is viewed in the article as a type of social interaction aimed at influencing the audience and change their attitudes and post-communicative behavior in an atmosphere of free choice. Persuasive argumentation is based on three major principles: logos, ethos and pathos. The authors emphasize the importance of the ethos and pathos components of persuasion as rational argumentation may occur only in an atmosphere of emotional engagement. The authors give ample examples and present a thorough analysis of the persuasion techniques used in the analyzed corpus. The analysis allows to describe the mechanism of persuasion used in religious texts and to trace the evolution of persuasive means. It is noted that within the period under consideration, religious discourse developed together with cultural ideas about the role of the individual and his well-being. Unlike early religious texts and medieval sermons that promoted ideas of divine authority and piety, modern digital religious discourse is focused on the audience and emphasizes its capabilities. This shift reflects broader cultural trends, among which egocentrism and increased self-awareness are of paramount importance. The multimodal nature of modern religious discourse is also noted.}