Pragmatic Implications of Contextual Constraints and Delivery Styles in Selected Academic Sermons

Abstract

Academic sermons (preaching tests) which depend largely on pragmatic choices, are used to determine the preachers’ quality and qualification for theological certification. Previous studies on religious discourse have not recognised the influence of delivery constraints on the overall output of academic sermons. This study, therefore, examined the pragmatic implications of the preachers’ choices. The study adopted aspects of pragmatic act theory. Stratification and purposive sampling methods were used to select three seminaries from which data were gathered. The penultimate year student-pastors were purposively selected for data collection and data were subjected to pragmatic analysis. Four performance contexts and six delivery styles with eight strategies demonstrated training-induced delivery constraints, which conditioned preachers’ pragmatic designs and determined their level of compliance to training in the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminaries. The perfect orientation to narrative and prescriptive styles suggested compliance to training, but the partial orientation and complete disorientation to analytical, invocational, affiliative and professing styles implied pragmatic misadjustment and professional deficiencies with implications for pastoral competence.