NARRATIEWE KOMMUNIKASIE AS RETORIESE STRATEGIE IN DIE PREDIKING VAN DIE BLOEMFONTEINSE APOSTOLIESE GELOOFSENDING

• Main Author: Lotter, Marésa
• Other Authors: Prof JC de Wet
• Format: Others
• Language: en-uk
• Published: University of the Free State 2011
• Subjects: Communication and Information Studies
• Online Access: http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-11112011-111431/restricted/

Human beings are susceptible to the rhetorical power of narrative communication. Narrative communication is an organisational element that helps people to make sense of the world they live in. Rhetoric is the application of reason to imagination to bring the human will into movement. In the world of religious communication, especially communication within the Christian philosophy, narrative communication is used as a rhetorical strategy regularly. The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) is the oldest and biggest Pentecostal church in South Africa. The primary aim of the study was to analyse the use of narrative communication as rhetorical strategy within the preaching of the traditional Afrikaans-speaking Apostolic Faith Mission congregations in Bloemfontein. The research question is how narrative communication manifests as a rhetorical strategy in the preaching of the traditional Afrikaans-speaking Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) congregations in Bloemfontein. Secondary aims of the study were to measure the frequency of narrative communication as rhetorical strategy in the preaching of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Bloemfontein; to determine which narrative story elements and style elements are used; and to determine whether there is a difference in the application of narrative communication during the morning services and the evening services. Twelve sermons, three morning sermons and three evening sermons of two pastors of different congregations, were analysed by overt observation and content analysis. Video recordings were made of all the sermons in order for the researcher to go through all of the sermons again to verify the results. Content analysis was the primary research strategy during this study. During the church services, the researcher fulfilled the observer-as-participant role. There are different elements to qualify and identify a text as ânarrativeâ. These elements are called âstory elementsâ, seeing that they usually form part of a story. Storyline, narrative location and experience narrative are examples of story elements. If the communicator wants to capture the imagination of the audience and if he wants to get them emotionally involved in the message, he must pay attention to the style of the communication action. The communication action can be seen as narrative if these style elements are applied, even if there is not a complete story present. These narrative style elements include certain language elements and non-verbal elements. The unit of analysis for this study was the narrative story elements and style elements that were found in die twelve sermons. These elements were identified in the literature study. The categories of analysis were the story elements and the style elements. For the sake of this study, it was said that narrative communication was applied as a rhetorical strategy in a sermon when 50% of the identified narrative story elements or 50% of the identified narrative style elements were found within that sermon. This sub-minimum was met in every analysed sermon and thus it can be said that narrative communication was applied as rhetorical strategy during every sermon. Introduction, causal relations, protagonist and narrative location are the narrative story elements that were used most frequently. The use of humour, the use of metaphors and the self revelation of the storyteller are the style elements that were used most frequently. Narrative style elements were used more frequently than narrative story elements. The only difference between the use of narrative communication in the morning services and in the evening services was that narrative style elements were used more frequently during the morning services than during the evening services. The pastorsâ knowledge about the use of narrative communication during preaching was limited. However, the literature study showed that narrative communication can be applied as a rhetorical strategy during preaching with great success. Thus, the construction of a narrative model for preaching in the AFM, and in other denominations, could be useful.