AbstractsPhilosophy & Theology

My work on invention begins with the parallel histories of religion and rhetoric and explains how I define invention. Rhetoric and homiletics were once closely related and are now, at best, estranged. My thesis explores their complex history and argues that this separation is detrimental. I will then engage inventional theory and focus on two binaries that run through invention scholarship: heuristic vs. hermeneutic and creation vs. discovery. Within each binary I will consider the homiletic concerns and implications as well as rhetorical ones. Throughout this work, I will argue that homiletics is a useful and interesting site in which inventional theory and practice are present in a unique, synthetic way. To conclude, I will explore some homiletic textbooks and analyze the heuristics they use, taking into consideration the inventional theory and definitions discussed.