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Preaching and Technology: A Study of Attitudes and Practices

Witte, Alison C
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363350630

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, English/Rhetoric and Writing.
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.
Kristine Blair (Committee Chair)
Katherine Bradshaw (Committee Member)
Sue Carter Wood (Committee Member)
Lee Nickoson (Committee Member)
206 p.
Religion; Religious History; Rhetoric
ethos; digital technologies; sermons; preaching; visual rhetoric; genre

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Witte, A. C. (2013). Preaching and Technology: A Study of Attitudes and Practices [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363350630

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Witte, Alison. Preaching and Technology: A Study of Attitudes and Practices. 2013. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363350630.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Witte, Alison. "Preaching and Technology: A Study of Attitudes and Practices." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363350630

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1363350630
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© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.