In this dissertation I seek to offer a constructive proposal in the area of an ecumenically-oriented Roman Catholic theology of the word, by addressing the specific topic of the sacramentality of preaching. This inquiry is guided by a characteristic that distinguishes the sacramentality of preaching from either the sacramentality of the Scriptures or most of the sacraments proper, namely, the variability that arises from preaching's adapted or interpretive quality. This characteristic yields a highly important consequence: the creative activity of the preacher and hearers is intrinsically related to the sacramentality of preaching. As a result, the basic agenda of this dissertation will be the following: to explore the sacramentality of preaching, construed in terms of an encounter with Jesus Christ, from the angle of its creativity through the coordinated contributions of the Holy Spirit and human imagination. In addition to the introduction and conclusions sections this dissertation has six chapters, three each devoted to the implications for the sacramentality of preaching of Yves Congar's pneumatology, and Paul Ricoeur's philosophy of the imagination. In the theological chapters I examine the role of the Spirit in the apostolic and prophetic dimensions of preaching, and its sacramental structure. Approaching the sacramentality of preaching from a pneumatological perspective has significant consequences, such as: the recognition that the preaching of every member of the church can mediate a sacramental encounter; that the Spirit acts as the church's "memory" of the events at its origins; and that the Spirit works both from without and from within to make of preaching an interior, living word of faith. Mirroring the theological chapters, in chapters four to six I examine the role of the imagination in the present, future, and past temporalities of preaching. Drawing on a great range of Paul Ricoeur's published works, I identify the role of the productive imagination in preaching in a variety of ways including, but not limited to: the split-level reference of poetic and religious language; the configuration of the preached word; epochÌÄåãÌ¢åÛåÏ, free variation, and metaphoric transfer in prophetic utopian projections; and the representation of the past.