Abstract
This thesis is an exploration of the craft of fabricating figurative stories for preaching. In this paper I assert that story telling is an essential tool in the preacher’s tool kit for sermon preparation. Then I look specifically at the practice of creating fictional stories for use in preaching. I begin by surveying genres of fable, allegory, and parable, with the understanding that such fictional stories have been used for millennia for rhetorical purposes. In doing so I look specifically at the literary building blocks of plot, character, setting, and dialogue noting how these raw materials of story are fabricated into narratives that bring wisdom, ethics, abstract concepts, and imaginative worlds to life for the hearer. This is followed by studying three sermons of modern preachers who employ story fabrication and storytelling in preaching. Finally, I bring all of this together in my own theory of fabricating figurative stories for preaching, using three of my own sermons as examples.
