Speech act theory is an aspect of philosophy, particularly the philosophy of language.[1] It has been adapted for use by theologians and applied judiciously to the doctrine of Scripture to explain Scripture as divine speech acts.[2] In this article, I will give a concise explanation of the theory, make some observations about how it relates to God’s word, and then give some brief applications. [3]
1. This article reflects my earlier writings on speech act theory: Gregg R. Allison, “Speech Act Theory and Its Implications for the Doctrine of the Inerrancy/Infallibility of Scripture,” Philosophia Christi 18 (Spring 1995): 1-23; Gregg R. Allison and Andreas Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, Theology for the People of God series (Nashville: B & H Academic, 2020), 309-11, 320; and speech act theory video for the Compelling Preaching Initiative of the Center for Pastoral Theology.
2. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Divine Discourse. Philosophical Reflections on the Claim that God Speaks (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995); Kevin Vanhoozer, Is There a Meaning in this Text? The Bible, the Reader, and the Morality of Literary Knowledge (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2998); Anthony C. Thiselton, New Horizons in Hermeneutics: The Theory and Practice of Transforming Biblical Reading (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992); Richard S. Briggs, Words in Action: Speech Act Theory and Biblical Interpretation (London: T & T Clark, 2001); Timothy Ward, Word and Supplement: Speech Acts, Biblical Texts, and the Sufficiency of Scripture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
3. For the historical roots of speech act theory, see John Austin and John Searle. J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962); John R. Searle, Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974); Searle, Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). For a more contemporary discussion of speech act theory, see Daniel Fogal, Daniel W. Harris, and Matt Moss, eds., New Work on Speech Acts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
Speech act theory maintains that every communication between people consists of three aspects:
- a locution, the content of the communication
- an illocution, the type of communication (assertion, command, promise, declaration, exclamation, warning)
- a perlocution, the anticipated response or desired effect of the communication
Specifically, with a focus on illocutions and perlocutions:
- for an assertion, the expected perlocution is acknowledgment or belief; for example, the proper response to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed’s assertion that the Holy Spirit is to be worshiped and glorified together with the Father and the Son, is to worship the Holy Spirit
- for a command, the intended perlocution is obedience; for example, the right application to Paul’s imperative “be filled with the Spirit” is to obediently adopt a posture of yieldedness to the Holy Spirit
- for a promise, the projected perlocution is trust; for example, to the Jesus’s promise that “the Holy Spirit will be with you forever,” the correct reaction is the lessening of anxiety or fear that the Spirit will somehow abandon us when we grieve him and an increase in faith in his ongoing presence in our life
- for a declaration, the perlocution is a new state of affairs; for example, when an officiant at a wedding proclaims “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the result is a new state of affairs: that man and that woman are now legally and covenantally husband and wife (the declaration makes it so)
- for an exclamation, the awaited perlocution is joy or fear; for example, to the cry “Jesus Christ is coming again!”, the proper response for believers is exceeding delight, yet for unbelievers, is intense dread
- for a warning, the anticipated perlocution is action or avoidance; for example, when my wife alerts me “there’s a snake in the grass” of our front yard, I either avoid going outside or, more likely, I grab the shovel from our garage and chop its head off
Diagrammatically:
Three key points arise from speech act theory:
4. Gregg R. Allison, The Word of God and the People of God: The Mutual Relationship between Scripture and the Church,” in John DelHousaye, John J. Hughes, and Jeff T. Purswell, eds., Scripture and the People of God: Essays in Honor of Wayne Grudem (Wheaton: Crossway, 2018), 4. This affirmation should not be (mis)understood to be a criticism of the traditional evangelical insistence on the propositional nature of divine revelation.
5. Timothy Ward: Words of Life: Scripture as the Living and Active Word of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 12.
- God does things with his words: God himself is the agent who communicates through his Word, and God does more than just state things. “Accordingly, speech act theory emphasizes the divine agency associated with the many-faceted utterances of Scripture: God himself is the agent who communicates through his Word, and God does more than merely state things, that is, make propositional statements.”[4] As Timothy Ward underscores, “the words of the Bible are a significant aspect of God’s action in the world.”[5]
- The Holy Spirit is especially associated with the perlocutionary aspect of a divine speech act.[6] Through his ministry of illumination, “the Spirit plays a particularly crucial role in helping the hearers/readers of Scripture to understand it correctly and to respond rightly to God’s Word. The Spirit stirs up obedience to its commands, ignites faith in its promises, prompts a sense of dread to its warnings, and the like.”[7]
- By viewing Scripture through the lens of divine speech acts, the church should give attention to the following: “Through his speech act the triune God savingly engages his people through assertions, commands, promises, exclamations, declarations, and warnings, and their response must be fitting to this inscripturated trinitarian communication.”[8]
6. Kevin Vanhoozer, First Theology: God, Scripture, and Hermeneutics (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2002), 155.
7. Allison and Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, 310.
8. Allison, “The Word of God and the People of God,” 7.
Thus, speech act theory is not just a philosophical framework applied to Scripture; it can be practical in application. For example, for those who preach/teach/counsel/disciple, the two above points should undergird their sermons/teachings/counseling sessions/lessons. Preachers/teachers/ counselors/mentors are not merely making assertions, communicating information, telling some facts; but the Spirit speaking through Scripture as they preach/teach/counsel/disciple is promising, commanding, warning, and the like.
Moreover, the illocutionary aspect of sermons/teachings/counseling sessions/lessons should mirror the illocutionary aspect of the text being preached: as Scripture promises, commands, or warns, so should sermons/teachings/counseling sessions/lessons promise, command, or warn the congregation.
Finally, as Christians preach/teach/counsel/disciple, they should depend on the Holy Spirit to (1) ignite faith as the proper perlocutionary response to a promise, (2) prompt obedience as the proper perlocutionary response to a command, and (3) stimulate fleeing from danger as the proper perlocutionary response to a warning.
