Rhetoric Commons^™

Biblical Rhetoric Of Separatism And Universalism And Its Intolerant Consequences, James Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

The long history of the Jewish and Christian use of separatist rhetoric and universal ideals reveals their negative consequences. The Hebrew Bible’s rhetoric about Israel as a people separated from the Egyptians and Canaanites is connected to Israel’s purity practices in Leviticus 18 and 20. Later communities wielding greater political power, however, employed this same anti-Canaanite pollution rhetoric in their efforts to colonize many different parts of the world. Separatist rhetoric was used to protect small Jewish communities in the early Second Temple period. The Christian New Testament rejected many of these purity practices in order to makes its mission …

Hear Me Roar, Abigail R. Seethoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hear Me Roar, a compilation of personal essays interspersed with short forms, grapples with the nuances of compliance versus autonomy in the context of the male gaze, beauty standards, and pop culture. The collection also explores what it means to treasure something—another person, an object—and how to express and deepen that affection.

A Power Man’S Theology: Marvel’S Luke Cage And Black Liberation Theology, Diarron B. Morrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Netflix released Marvel’s Luke Cage in 2016 to critical acclaim. Born from a 1970s comic book, the series features Luke Cage, an African-American superhero. Cage is a big, bald, bulletproof black man. Instead of tights and a cape, Cage wears a hoodie calling the audience to remember Trayvon Martin and other victims of white racism. Theologian James Cone created Black Liberation Theology in the 1970s. As a result of Cone’s work, Black Liberation Theology addresses the issue of white racism from a theological standpoint. In this thesis I present a close reading of Marvel’s Luke Cage using Black Liberation Theology …

Recycling A Colonial Puritan Sermon: A Case Study, David M. Powers

Sermon Studies

Notes which the teenager John Pynchon took in the 1640s as he listened to the Rev. George Moxon’s sermons in frontier Springfield, MA, have become the inspiration and the ingredients for sermon performances in 21st century New England. The project began with a word-for-word transcription of a symbol-for-symbol manuscript based on a code invented by Pynchon. Then a very few words which the notetaker skipped, in his rush to record just what he heard, were added to provide essential clarification. So, too, was introductory material to frame the experience by encouraging the listening congregation to “stretch” a bit to appreciate …

“Wild Mobs, To Mad Sedition Prone”: Preaching The American Revolution, Barry Levis

Sermon Studies

The Church of England in the American Colonies was really not a single institution. Because no local bishop governed the church in America, falling as it did under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, the clergy tended to have differing loyalties. Especially in the southern colonies, local vestries ruled the clergy because they controlled their stipends; therefore the clergy followed the lead of the local squirearchy and suppressed their personal views regarding independence. The New England Anglican clergy were equally in a difficult position. Midst the hostility of Puritanism and the Sons of Liberty, they seemed like an alien …

Preaching In Britain’S “Parish Church”: Sermons At London’S St. Paul’S Cathedral, In The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries, Frances Knight

Sermon Studies

This paper will address the conference themes of ‘space, place and context’ with an examination of the development of preaching at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, over the course of two hundred years. Completely rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666, on a scale which was intended to rival St Peter’s in Rome, the new St Paul’s was explicitly designed as a Protestant cathedral. Preaching, therefore, was highly valued. Yet, despite the adoption of Wren’s ‘preaching box’ plan, speaking in the colossal space, potentially to a congregation of many hundreds, presented considerable challenges. As one would expect over a two-hundred-year …

Setting The Stage And Building Homes: Architecture Metaphors And Space In Donne's First Caroline Sermon, Alexander S. Laws

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Through his use of "foundation" and "house" metaphors in his "First Sermon Preached to King Charles at St. James, 3 April 1625," John Donne discreetly presents his ideologies and principles before the new king, while simultaneously criticizing his contemporaries' misguided bickering over religio-political factions. This essay seeks to unpack the history surrounding, as well as the casuistical logic found within Donne's first sermon preached during the Caroline period, which both explicitly and implicitly addresses the foremost anxieties of the people of the changing age.

Dmt And “The Man Box:” Provoking Change And Encouraging Authentic Living, An Arts-Based Project, Steven Reynolds

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explores the mind-body experience through an arts-based research approach to examine, and redefine the emotional capacity and usefulness of males through societal determinants that limits and hinders men from living their authentic selves. Through the lens of a metaphoric “Man Box” 112 men participated in a workshop recreating their personal narratives of socialization through, style of dress, coping mechanisms, belief systems and who they should be as men through society's standards. In the “Man Box,” male bonding, and emotional feelings are discouraged, while the objectification of women, material property and physical/emotional strength are encouraged. This research investigates the …

A Praxis Of Oral Homiletics: Preaching From The Heart, Weiwen Tu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Christian preaching has been a central and significant custom to the practitioners of biblically confessional and creedal communities in worship, evangelization, and discipleship. Yet modern preachers confront two challenges presented by the New Homiletic and the media environment. Undue favor toward narrative-based form, audience-oriented eventfulness at the expense of biblical authority, and shifting media that alter the preacher’s identity and incapacitate the preacher’s orality have led to a dissonant handling of form and content and thus a profound decline in the quality of the Christian pulpit.

This project grows out of an attempt to integrate an Augustinian hermeneutic and homiletic, …

From Vatican Radio To Inter Mirifica And Beyond - 20th Century Popes On [Im]Media.Pdf, Jon Radwan, Dennis Mahon

CHDCM Publications

[Im]mediacy, a meaningful encounter or contact where there is no space between participants, is a central concept in understanding how 20th century Popes have learned to communicate. The 20th century was characterized by extensive growth of mass media technologies. Modern papal approaches to communication developed from an instrumental to an [im]mediate contact orientation. Where media were originally seen as important tools for sending messages, John Paul II made interpersonal contact the focal point of papal communication via his nearly continuous world tour. The tour itself is mass mediated for the world to see, and each pastoral event is an immediate …

Series Iii. Folder 7. Handwritten Notes, N.D, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

The final folder contains a miscellaneous assortment of letters, sermon manuscripts, and sermon notes or outlines. Topics include “Mutual Dependence” (1 Cor. 3), “A Stairway to Heaven” (Gen. 28:12), “The Misunderstood Christ” (Mark 15:36), and “The Looks of Christ” (several verses in Mark and Luke).

Series Iii. Folder 6. Poems, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains approximately 15 poems and 2 letters: a letter to a parishioner praising her singing voice, and one to Cummings thanking him for making regular payments on his account with the Benson Printing Co., located in Nashville, Tennessee.

Series Iii. Folder 5. Poems, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts and manuscripts of approximately 10 poems. Some of them show Cummings’ political side, criticizing what he saw as the shortcomings of the GOP and warning that “If you vote for Ike you’ll cut your throat.”

Series Iii. Folder 4. Poems, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts and manuscripts of approximately 15 poems. Topics include the dangers of cynicism, the fleeting nature of wealth, and Cummings’ reflections on his long pastoral career.

Series Iii. Folder 3. Articles, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains materials ranging from a poem written in honor of retired ministers to several sayings by a character named Josh Hayseed. Most of items are approximately 25 newspaper columns written by Cummings, under the titles “Clergyman Chatter,” “Our Weekly Message,” and “Our Weekly Visit.” The dates and names of the papers do not appear on the clippings; according to the Register, “Our Weekly Visit” appeared in the Grantsville News, with “other featured columns” published in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch.

Series Iii. Folder 2. Articles, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

The majority of the items in this folder are approximately 15 “Our Weekly Message” and roughly the same number of “Our Weekly Visit” columns. The dates and names of the papers do not appear on the clippings; according to the Register, “Our Weekly Visit” appeared in the Grantsville News, with “other featured columns” published in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch.

Some items appear to be duplicates of articles in Series III, Folder 3. Topics range from pastoral visitation to the value of optimism and a clear conscience to an anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Other items in this …

Series Iii. Folder 1. Articles, 1931-1965, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains approximately 20 columns and other newspaper pieces written by Cummings, most of which are entitled either “Our Weekly Message” or “Our Weekly Visit.” The names of the papers rarely appear on the clippings; according to the Register, “Our Weekly Visit” appeared in the Grantsville News, with “other featured columns” published in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch. Other examples of these recurring columns can be found in folders 2 and 3 of this series as well.

Topics of columns in this folder range from death and eternity to George Washington’s birthday to the various meanings of the word …

Series Ii(B). Radio Sermons. Folder 3. Radio Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains of approximately 20 sermons delivered on the radio at unspecified times (some bear the month and date, but not the year). Some are typed, others handwritten; some are complete, others unfinished. Topics include “domestic subjects,” church membership, and “turning defeat into victory.”

Series Ii(B). Radio Sermons. Folder 2. Radio Sermons 1948-1960, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 20 sermons Cummings delivered between 1948 and 1960. Most were broadcast on WMON, a radio station in Montgomery, WV; one, a “Pre-Christmas Sermon,” was done for the “chapel” of WSAZ, a TV station with studios in Huntington and Charleston. Other topics include self-examination, “falling and rising,” “trusting in God,” and “the importance of the home and the family.”

Series Ii(B). Radio Sermons. Folder 1. Radio Sermons, 1929-1941, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons Cummings delivered on the radio between 1933 and 1941. One indicates that it was given on Cincinnati-based WLW; the station is not identified on the others. Topics come mostly from the New Testament and include the early church, the Apostle Paul, and the second coming of Christ.

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 9. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains a song/hymn entitled “A Sacrifice of Praise” and typescripts of approximately 15 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. Titles and text include “An All Night Wrestling Match” (Genesis 32:29), “Bartimaeus” (Luke 18:35-38), “The Laziest Man in this Community” (Proverbs 12:27), and “The Living Past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 8. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 15 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. Titles and texts include “After that the Judgment” (Eccles. 11:9), “Christ Our Example” (1 Peter 2:21), “Self-Examination” (2 Cor. 13:5), and “Ministerial Ethics” (no text specified).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 7. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. All are undated, but one—“The Hand of God in History”—is labeled an “Armistice Address.” Titles and texts of the others include “All Things Work Together for Good” (Romans 8:28), “Christ’s Charge to the Women of Jerusalem” (Luke 23:28), “Finding God” (Psalm 42:3), and “A Funeral Discourse for a Child” (Isaiah 49:21).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 6. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons. Titles and scripture texts include “Backsliding”(Luke 22:31-32), “Building Skyward” (Hebrews 8:5), “The Signs of the Times” (2 Timothy 3:1-6), and “The Span of Life” (Psalm 90:10).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 5. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. Some, such as “the father” and “the ideal husband,” appear to be duplicated in other folders; those unique to this folder include sermons on Moses, heaven, and the Christmas season.

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 4. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of 8 sermons. Titles and texts include “The Old-Fashioned Way” (Jeremiah 6:16), “Family Religion” (Mark 5:19), “Reasons for Missions” (Mark 16:15), and “His Riches—Our Riches” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 3. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts and handwritten notes for approximately 10 sermons. Titles and texts include “It is Not Good that Man should be Alone” (Gen. 2:18), “A New Commandment I Give unto You” (John 13:34), and a “Commencement Sermon” and “A New Year’s Message” (no texts specified).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 2. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts and handwritten notes for approximately 10 sermons. The texts come from both the Old and New Testaments; titles include “How to Get Saved,” “The Blessing of Suffering,” “The Home,” and “After that the Judgment.”

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 1. Sermons Of M. Homer Cummings, 1937-1960, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished. Most of the ones that are dated were preached in 1937, with others delivered in 1940, 1941, and 1952.

The texts for the sermons come from throughout the Old and New Testaments. Two of the sermons are about the new year; the rest are on such domestic topics as “the home,” “the mother,” “the wife,” “the father,” and “the ideal husband.”

Series I. Personal Materials. Folder 7. Miscellaneous Material Of Rev. M. Homer Cummings, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains approximately 15 miscellaneous items, including an unfinished sermon on Job; several poems; and ledger pages detailing Cummings’ account with the E. E. White Coal Company of Glen White, WV.