And on the Eighth Day, God Created Rhetoricians: A Case Study of the Creation Museum

Abstract

This article begins with a literature review that, first, justifies museums as rhetorical artifacts and situates the Creation Museum within museum theory; second, it outlines my theoretical framework: Bormann’s fantasy theme analysis, his rhetorical form “fetching good out of evil” (a derivative of the Puritan jeremiad), and Paul Messaris’s mechanisms of visual persuasion, foundational to museum analysis. With Bormann as my analytical frame, I examine the various rhetorical techniques the Creation Museum uses to fortify believers’ faith by showing the intrinsic beauty of Eden, depicting calamities within the post-fall world, and positing the inerrancy of scripture.