Rhetorical vision and the great commission

This study analyzed representative works of John Mott and Bill Bright using Ernest Bormann's method of fantasy theme analysis. The analysis confirmed that Mott and Bright, as leaders of two organizations that encourage college students to engage in evangelism, share an identical rhetorical vision. This vision can be labeled the Great Commission and is identical in thought and content to the words of Christ found in Matthew 28. The shared rhetorical vision encourages members of the rhetorical community to acknowledge the needs of the world and seek to meet those needs by sharing the gospel message of Christ.In addition to a shared rhetorical visions, the works considered in this study also share identical fantasy types: "Fetching Good Out of Evil," and the quest. The fantasy type of the quest has received little interest in other studies. This study suggests that the type might provide rhetorical critics with a useful form for future studies. Several fantasy themes also were found to exist within each artifact. The presence of shared fantasy types and the commonalties that exist between the fantasy themes verifies the presence of the shared rhetorical vision, the Great Commission.Department of Speech CommunicationThesis (M.A.