Memory of Deductive and Inductive Sermons: Empirical Research Into the Effects of Transmission of Theological Concepts in the Doctrinal Mode

Journal of Empirical Theology

Journal of Empirical Theology 23 (2010) 201-231 brill.nl/jet

Memory of Deductive and Inductive Sermons: Empirical Research into the Effects of Transmission of Theological Concepts in the Doctrinal Mode

Chris Hermansa and Anneke Mooijb a) Professor of empirical study of religion, Radboud University Nijmegen The Netherlands b) Research assistant empirical study of religion, Radboud University Nijmegen The Netherlands Corresponding author: [email protected] Received 5 November 2009; accepted 27 May 2010

Abstract Transmission of religion is important in order to pass on the beliefs, rituals, stories, devotional practices etc. as part of a religious tradition to the next generation. According to Whitehouse (2004) two requirements have to be fulfilled in order that this transmission is successful: it must take a form that people can remember and people must be motivated to pass on these beliefs and rituals. In the empirical research, five categories of predictors can influence memory in the doctrinal mode. With regard to memory of sermons five predictors were included in the research: (1) the type of reasoning that is used in the sermon in order to achieve logical integration and coherence (deductive or inductive reasoning); (2) word comprehension; (3) frequency of church attendance as an indicator of the number of times that believers have heard the same (complex) theological teaching; (4) strength of believing, especially orthodoxy and (5) the value an indi- vidual places on the theological teachings (concept) of the sermon and the relevance for life situations. Memory is measured by the number of elements of the reasons offered in the sermon that could be reproduced by the believers. The sermons were part of the ordinary Catholic Sunday service by the local parish pastor in order to guarantee ecological validity, i.e. to resemble the real-life situation of sermons which are researched. The sample consisted of 77 listeners to the deductive sermon and 64 listeners to the inductive sermon. The results of the research show that listeners in general have a poor memory of the content of the sermon. Listeners remember more if they are frequent church attendees and if they hold more orthodox beliefs. These results cor- roborate the modes theory developed by Whitehouse and also lead to further refinement. The type of reasoning in sermons and word comprehension (intelligence) are elements which should be included in the modes theory for the doctrinal mode because of their influence on memory. The research also suggest a tedium effect in the influence of repetition on memory. The element of personal valuation and connection to life situations finds no support in the research.

Keywords modes theory, doctrinal mode, theological reasoning, sermons, memory, deductive, inductive

1. Introduction What do Church goers take home from what they have heard in sermons? Do they remember anything or were their thoughts somewhere else during the sermon? Regular Church goers are repeatedly confronted with the same (theological) message in sermons. What motivates them to be attentive to listen to the preacher? Is this influenced by the fact that the content of the sermon is connected to situations in their daily life? Research suggests than only one- third of listeners could remember the core message of the sermon. Often Church goers take a different message home than the preacher delivered, or at least intended to deliver (Bolkestein & Thomas 1972, 18; Reid 1967, 29). What is the cause of this poor result? In the field of research on sermons the major explanation is sought in the fact that the message of the sermon appar- ently did not match the experiences of the listeners: their joys and sadness, their hope and despair, their positive and negative feelings (Freshley 1959, 65). In practical theological theory preaching is characterized as religious- hermeneutical communication (Dingemans 1991). From this theoretical perspective the mismatch between the message of the sermon and the experiences of the listeners is seen as a hermeneutical problem: there is no fusion of the horizon of meaning of the sermon and the horizon of meaning of the experiences of the listeners. Religion is seen as a cultural meaning system, and of course this is a sound (literary-)theoretical perspective on sermons. But, cultural meanings do not create understanding; memory, feelings, etc. A hermeneutical theory fails to explain why some meanings of sermons are remembered and others not. Religious meanings are remembered (or not) by human people, i.e. in the mind of the listener of sermons meanings are stored and remembered. An explanatory theory about the memory of sermon needs to be based on the way the human mind works. Such a theory is developed by Harvey Whitehouse in his modes of religiosity theory. In this article we will first describe the conditions of transmission of theological ideas in the doctrinal mode, which is the focus of our research (Section 2). In the ‘modes’ theory, weekly Sunday services are defined as high frequency (i.e. every week), low arousal (i.e. no strong emotions connected to special occasions), doctrinal (i.e. transmission of theological ideas) rituals. Next, we will develop a distinction between two types of sermons, namely deductive and inductive sermons (Sec- tion 3). With this distinction we add a new element to the theory of the modes of religiosity related to the process of memory of sermons. In Section 4 we describe the research design: research questions, sample, measuring instruments, design of analysis, and in Section 5 the results of our research are presented. The article ends with a summary of the results and a discussion (Section 6).