Thirteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

One of the common denominators that underlie Protestant sermons is their narrative character. Storytelling of different genres with different phases and culminations seems to serve the needs of the church for teaching via preaching. The storyline of sermons may include biblical stories (Gospel as well as other stories, such as parables), a story from a different source (lyrics, a poem, a joke, media, fiction, etc.) or a personal story (reminiscences, experiences, and the like), that is a narrative in the broadest sense of the word (cf. Nash, 1985, 26ff; Wierzbicka, 2001). The story as such carries the line of narration and helps point out ideas, illustrate the doctrine and draw conclusions. Moreover, the narrative line in sermons naturally includes all three Aristotelian persuasive appeals. The proposed paper strives to look at narrative as a tool of persuasion; it wants to demonstrate how stories take believers by the hand and lead them to persuasion, conviction and belief. Thus, the narrative line in protestant sermons appears to be a constitutive feature; not only does such a sermon attract the attention of listeners more easily, it enables the preacher to construe the intended structure of the message gradually and to conclude the sermon with a true (typically pathetic) punchline, that is a message that aims directly at the hearts and minds of the audience.