Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

1988

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department / School

Speech

First Advisor

Michael R . Schliessmann

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the rhetoric of the American Lutheran Church, and the various interest groups within this organization, as it applied to the merger with the Lutheran Church in America and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches to form a new organization, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. To achieve this purpose this study attempted to answer the following questions: 1. What groups, including the ALC leadership and special interest groups from the ALC membership, emerged and were involved in the rhetoric of this merger? 2. Who were the main spokespersons for these groups? 3. What issues of the merger proposal created controversy and the need for rhetoric? 4. What arguments and forms of support were offered in the discussion of these issues? The limits implied in ·these questions narrowed the study to a subdivision of the classic convention of invention. The study was also limited only to the rhetoric of the ALC and did not include the other national organizations involved in the merger proposal.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Lutheran Church - United States

Rhetoric -- United States

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

176

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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