Gemeinde überzeugen. Das persuasive Moment des evangelischen Gottesdienstes

This contribution discusses the option of interpreting Protestant services regarding its persuasive moment. Based on current theological and rhetorical findings, the concept of persuasion is presented. Furthermore, the transcripts from two services are analyzed more closely focusing on how persuasive argumentation is brought forward in them. The analysis of rhetorical and of linguistic and prosodic patterns such as topics, speech rate, pausing and stressing unveils the rich persuasive moment in the context in which it has seldom been seen before.