A critical examination of W. A. Criswell's sermons from Acts in comparison with his theory of preaching

The purpose of the dissertation was to answer the question, to what extent do the sermons in Acts preached by W. A. Criswell embody his theory of preaching? The sixty-three sermons of Criswell from Acts were analyzed in comparison with his theory of preaching.;The first chapter introduced the research question with the problem and its setting. Also, the researcher provided a state of research on the preaching of Criswell and selected methodologies for the study.;The second chapter involved an investigation of Criswell's life and ministry in order to identify significant factors which influenced his preaching. The study revealed that Criswell's preaching was shaped by some important factors from his life and ministry: influential persons, especially his mother; educational background including elocution and expression lessons; and critical experiences, especially the change of his preaching method at the First Baptist Church of Muskogee.;The third chapter studied Criswell's theory of preaching. The researcher discussed Criswell's view of preaching, the preacher, and Scripture. Also, the researcher demonstrated Criswell's three emphases in the content of the sermon and Criswell's sermonic structure regarding the foundational, formal, and functional elements. This section included an examination of Criswell's general and specific preparation of his sermons.;The fourth chapter contained an analysis of Criswell's selected sermons from Acts. This section concerned the examination of his sixty-three sermons on Acts in order to identify the correlation between Criswell's preaching theory and practice.;The conclusion answered the research question from the results of the study. This section presented a summary of the chapters. Furthermore, the effectiveness of Criswell's preaching and his contributions to the field of preaching were addressed in this section.