Preaching and Technology: A Study of Attitudes and Practices

Historically, various technologies, print and the television, for example, have been adopted by religious groups to spread their teachings and faith. Presently, many churches are adopting various digital technologies to accomplish this aim. This study examines the adoption of digital technologies into preaching to determine the effects of this adoption on the sermon as a genre and preaching as a rhetorical practice. It contends that understanding genre expectations, which are steeped in the traditions and values of a community, is key to understanding how and why digital technologies are used in particular ways and further, how those uses shape or fail to shape a preacher’s ethos. Thus, it employs a combination of survey and case study research to determine how both preachers and congregants understand the sermon as a genre and how those understandings influence the practice of preaching and the adoption of digital technologies. The results of the study indicate that many preachers and congregants privilege the spoken word in the sermon because they perceive, for both historical and theological reasons, the sermon as an oral genre. As a result, they situate digital technologies as supplementary or peripheral to the oral act of preaching. Such a separation is a method for preserving existing practices, beliefs, and values, while simultaneously adopting new technologies. However, as long as preachers and congregants expect the sermon to be an oral genre and evaluate preachers by those expectations including digital technologies in the sermon will not help preachers construct or maintain ethos. This study concludes by articulating two options for building ethos through the use of technology: (1) to reconceive the sermon as a multimedia genre that integrates digital technologies as integral to the sermon, thereby taking advantage of their affordances, or (2) to use digital technologies to improve congregational ethos through accessibility. Digital technologies may allow congregations to become more user-friendly, thereby increasing their ethos as a whole. Ultimately, this study suggests that the sermon is a genre in flux, being reshaped by the introductions of new technologies, and that further study is necessary to fully understand preaching in an increasingly digital culture.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English/Rhetoric and Writing

Grantor dc:publisher

Bowling Green State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Witte, Alison C.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Blair, Kristine

• Religious History
• Rhetoric
• Religion
• ethos
• digital technologies
• sermons
• preaching
• visual rhetoric
• genre

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363350630

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:bgsu1363350630