Dissertation

AN EXAMINATION OF THE DENOTATIVE AND CONNOTATIVE MEANING ASCRIBED TO RELIGIOUS AND THEOLOGICAL TERMINOLOGY BY MEMBERS OF HERMINIE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, HERMINIE, PENNSYLVANIA

BROWNING, SCOTT DAVID

1980

Overview

The purpose of this project was to analyze the denotative and connotative meaning ascribed to twenty theological terms by the members and regular attenders of Herminie United Methodist Church, Herminie, Pennsylvania. This analysis was made with the intention of improving communication in the teaching and preaching ministry of the church. This project consisted of four main parts: (1) preparation of the instruments, (2) use of a Preaching Review form before and after the analysis of a Communication Survey, (3) administration and analysis of the Communication Survey, and (4) communication of the results to the leaders and members of the church. The twenty terms analyzed were: God, spirit, presence, religion, theology, Jesus Christ, Lord, grace, love, gospel, faith, sin, forgiveness, resurrection, baptism, church, Christian, prayer, Bible, and soul. Bailey developed a semantic differential instrument to measure the connotative meaning of these twenty terms which was used as a part of this project. Items from instruments developed by Sease and Hertzler were used to measure the denotative meaning of these same twenty terms. A personal data form was included to determine the age and sex of each of the respondents and the importance each assigned to twelve church activities: Sunday worship, preaching, Sunday school, prayer meeting, committee and board meetings, evangelism, community service activities, missions, social action, Bible study, discussion of social issues, and human singing. A Preaching Review was conducted with a representative group of twenty members of the congregation to analyze three sermons prior to the survey and three sermons following the analysis of the Communication Survey. Participants were asked to indicate which words they heard and to react to their use on a semantic differential scale. Analysis of the Preaching Review showed a reduction in the number of words reported as used that were not used and a four percent increase in the percentage of persons hearing the words used. The mean response to the semantic differential increased by +.18 and the percentage of most positive responses increased from fifty-five percent to sixty percent. Written comments concerning sermons were more positive after the analysis of the survey data. The Communication Survey revealed that 67.6 percent of the answers selected on the denotative form were the best answers. The words: church, theology, spirit, and presence had less than the best answer by more than half the respondents. The connotative portion of the study showed extremely positive responses to all the words with more than half of the useable answers receiving the most positive rating. Only the word sin received approximately neutral responses. Religion, theology, Lord, church, and soul had a median response below the highest possible. Persons over age seventy gave unuseable responses in 36.5 percent of the possible responses on the connotative study. The analysis of the personal data revealed that the respondents represented the membership. By analyzing the importance assigned to various church activities, using Hoge's categories of public and private protestants, it was determined that thirty-one percent of the respondents were private party members, twenty-eight percent were public party members, and the balance were bridges--persons who did not favor either party. Reports were made to the Administrative Board, the adult church school teachers, and appeared in written form in the church newsletter. It was concluded that these theological words evoke a positive response when they are heard; however, there is onlyy a 67.6 percent agreement as to their meaning. They should be used sparingly and only when no other word or phrase can communicate the exact meaning intended. When they are used, the pastor or teacher should explain the shade of meaning he or she wishes to communicate.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Theology
• ISBN: 9798662065109