Speech act theory in the field of theology in Mark´s gospel speaking about Jesus as the Son of God

The purpose of this dissertation is to inquire into the application of the Speech act theory in the field of theology. First, philosophical part introduces distinctive topics of language-philosophy found in Wittgenstein, Austin and Searle. The main focus of this summary lies on Searle`s categorization of speech acts. If we approach Searle`s categorization from the perspective of Wittgenstein`s philosophy, we could understand his categorization in functional and not ontological terms and therefore we find a certain liberty to modify Searle`s categorization with regard to analysed phenomenon. In the beginning of the theological part we analyse the limits of the application of the speech act theory in the case of the confession of faith. Consequently we construct categorization of the speech acts of faith discourse based on its communicative and transformative dimensions. Afterwards we focus on one of the main types of faith discourse, namely the petitionary prayer. During analysis of the petitionary prayer in the Old and New Testament we gradually introduce considerable insights of theologians who applied Austin`s and Searle`s concepts in their work. These are followed up by our own observations. Second section of the theological part of the dissertation is concerned with the application of speech act theory in exegesis of particular texts, namely those passages in Mark`s gospel which speak about Jesus as the Son of God. Speech act theory evidently could not serve to settle exegetical disagreements by always locating the precise illocutionary point of every speech act, however it proves itself as a good tool for conceptual orientation and its application brings valuable insights