Download Paul Soukup: Teaching communication and theology

ABSTRACTS OF ALL THE PAPERS/Rome
1. Carlos Coupeau
Communication, Spirituality and Bologna process.
“Excellent communicator,” “able to communicate the mission,” and expressions alike appear ever more
often in job descriptions published by Catholic journals in English, like America and The Tablet. Not
only with communicative skills, the curriculum that an international body of students will choose at the
Istituto di Spiritualità of the Pontificia Università Gregoriana will have to reckon with communication
and cultural theory in the near future. This paper chooses to make a start and meet that challenge for
our conversation by submitting to discussion an example of curriculum transformation.
Methodologically, it draws the concepts of the “subject” from communication theory after ideology
criticism and redefines the task of Spirituality accordingly. Then, it introduces the student-centered
Bologna process of learning and particularly brings competence and performance to the focus through
six academic profiles to which communication skills constitute a transversal dimension.
2. Norman Melchor Pena, SSP
Elements of a theology for the instruments of social communications
Examines the elements of a theology for the instruments of social communication as read in the Church
documents Inter Mirifica, Communio et Progressio and Aestatis Novae. As instruments of secular
reality, the instruments of social communication can also be instruments of grace. They are gifts of
God - diaconia of truth - that achieve their saving significance in their participation of making God’s
truth become flesh. Films, plays, television series and written resources are cited throughout as
paradigms.
A hermeneutics of communication is presented identifying two complementary nodes of understanding
communication: process and semiotics. While the former centers on the transmission of messages and
analyses made on communication as effective or ineffective, the latter focuses on the creation of
meanings on what is transmitted and analyses made in terms of reading. Paper links them both with
the attitude of the Church towards communication that thus has given shape to the documents cited.
Paper reads the documents, identifies the theological elements inherent in them and groups them in
three: 1) truth, communio, mission; 2) spiritual contribution of the people of God to the instruments of
communication of which conscience and its formation is vital; and, 3) understanding communication.
As part of the saving mystery, these instruments are ordained for communio et progressio, for
communion and progress of the people of God with themselves, with others and with God.
3 . Joseph Palakeel
Theologizing in the Multimedia Culture
Towards a Communication Theology
According to the emerging cultural studies approach to communication (vis-à-vis instrumental
approaches), the media are more than just tools/instruments of transmission; they also signify a
particular state of mind, habit of thinking and mode of self-expression. Each media age - from orality,
writing, print, audiovisual to digital – has a corresponding mind-set and consciousness. The “language
of sound” (ancient poems and epics), the “language of the alphabet” (printed texts) and the “language
of electricity” (audiovisual communication) have different vocabulary, syntax and logic. Naturally
philosophy and theology of each media age are affected.
Today, convergence of technologies (digitization) has rendered mediated communication really
synergistic and synaesthetic, making it possible for sound, image and text to work in tandem to create
and convey meaning. This has crucial epistemological and semantic implications for theologizing. The
present-day theology originated in the print culture (previous media age) and, consequently, exhibits
the mindset of literate/textual communication. To make sense in the multimedia age, theology has to
match the state of mind of the current media culture. This paper is an inquiry into the shape of theology
in the digital age.
4. Paul Soukup
Teaching communication and theology
A media ecology approach allows a better integration between theology and communication,
either as a unit in an existing course or as a stand-alone course. Teachers can further borrow an
approach from catechetical instruction and highlight the communicative aspects of theology by
presenting the Christian collection, cult, creed, community, and code as broad areas of study. The
presentation shows how each of these depends on communication and how teachers can use the
media ecology approach to introduce students to relevant literature and habits of thought.
KEYWORDS: communication, theology, media ecology, orality and literacy, religious
expression.
5. Norman Tanner
Inter Mirifica (Vatican II): Document, Implementation and Future
The text for the talk is the section (pp. 93-118) on Inter Mirifica in the speaker’s recent book, The
Church and the World: Gaudium et Spes, Inter Mirifica (Paulist Press, 2005).
The section considers (1) how the council came to compose the decree (2) analysis of the contents of
the decree (3) reception of the decree since Vatican II (4) some considerations for the future. Tanner
will present a short summary of the four sub-sections of the book and will then invite comments and
discussion by the participants.
6. Jacob Srampickal sj
Contextual theology is an attempt at communicating theology: formation attempts
Looking at concepts like culture, inculturation, incarnation etc and backed by the Vat II’ Ad Gentes,
Sacrosanctum Concilium and other related documents on local theologies and inculturation and
Lonergan’s ideas of communicating theology, the author highlights how contextualized theology is an
attempt at communicating theology. Drawing from his own personalized doing of theology and
theories of communication, he concludes, India’s dalit theology, a contextualized regional theology
following earlier versions like liberation theology, black theology etc, helps future priests relate in
depth with dalits, the poorest, and the untouchables in society. He concludes by suggesting how
theological formation can be made more communicative.
7. Marie Gannon, FMA
Social communications: secular teaching and Church teachings in the light of the moral
Standards of communication – some common ground
Is there common ground between indicators for good communication in the secular reality and
good communication in the Church? This is the question at the basis of my presentation. It is part of
the foundational work for the doctoral thesis, whose core Dtssa Christine Mugridge already presented
for this Study Seminar. This topic seems to me to be very important so establishing the understanding
that the Church did not copy standards and methodology for excellence in communications from the
secular communication sciences, but has consistently, even before the development of this field,
proposed and implemented these standards and methodology with varying degrees of success. In this
editorial commentary regarding part of Christine Mugridge’s Doctoral Thesis which I guided, I would
like to present two areas: the historical development of the teachings found in the secular science of
social communications in the first section and then, in the second section, the historical development of
the Church’s teachings in this field, prior to the contributions of John Paul II.
8. Basilio G. Monteiro
The Language of New Media: Some Theological Reflections
This paper examines the language of the digital media, simultaneously characterized by words, sounds
and images, which shape the user of this digital media a different, sense of self, of the other, and of
God, from non-user of digital media. Language is the keystone of human achievement and the essence
of humanness; language is the means to conceive the understanding of self, other and God (Hertzler);
language is the basis of human spiritual development; it is a vehicle of relationship with the other and
God. Digital media provide another platform for us to communicate with meanings, and tap further into
our need to make symbols – animal symbollicum (Cassirer). Further, the language of the digital media
forces the users to re-examine concepts of mediation, telepresence, multi-location, and community.
Traditionally Catholic Theology is constructed on the synthesis of Hebraism and Greek philosophy; the
language of the digital media is challenging the theology founded in the Greek pre-suppositions and
Hebraic thought.
The theological reflections borrow from Karl Rhaner’s Theology of Symbol, Karl Barth’s “who talks,
and whence comes the talk” as commented by Graham Ward, Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic of
proclamation, and Jacques Ellul’s theology of icon.
This study proposes that the language of digital media negotiates mediation, telepresence, and
community, in other words, understanding of self, the other, of God, and relationship with them in a
personal manner, in a decentralized digital context. The notion of God itself is undergoing a
metamorphosis in the language of digital media.
9. José M. Galvan
ICT and The Eternal Beauty of Truth
The aim of this paper is to underline some aspects of modern Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) that can give the opportunity to rediscover, at a cultural level, some aspects of the
Christian Revelation. The paradigm-shift between modernity and post-modernity is seen as the key for
rediscovering the relational dimension of mankind, that includes the sharing of the intentional
objectives of intellect and free will, including not only the spiritual dimension but also the physical
one. This new relational paradigm coincides with the finality of ICT. The transcendental foundation of
this relational paradigm is founded on the Trinitarian doctrine of the Missions, which includes the
material dimension of Creation into the Intra-trinitarian Dialogue.
10. Frances Forde Plude
Moving Toward Communication Theology
This paper explores the growth of analytical frameworks currently helping theologians to engage
communication studies (more systematically than in the past) as they elaborate the conceptual meaning
of faith. This also allows communication and cultural studies scholars to engage with the perspectives
of theologians. Such engagement can help theological insights inform and enhance a digital culture
rather than appearing to be anachronistic within the culture. Also offered: specific examples of the
growth of Communication Theology content, methodologies, and some concerns and difficulties as we
look through this lens or engage communication as a hermeneutical principle. A few recommendations
are offered.
11. Giuseppe Mazza
Communicating God, Communicating like God:
The Trinitarian/Incarnational Principle as a Global Communication Analogy
Aware of the fact that theological reflection always focused special attention on the “way of the
Trinity” and on the mystery of the Incarnation as keys to interpreting human and divine-human
communication, this paper will propose a theological understanding of communication from the
Trinitarian and Incarnational perspectives. The article especially insists on the analogical principle that
balances and synchronizes both ecclesiastical/pastoral communicative action and the globality of God’s
(Trinitarian and incarnate) self-communication, as a main concept for understanding and stimulating
every operative pastoral dimension.
12. László Lukács
The Triune God as source and fundament of all human communication
A sketch of communicative theology
The research in the theology of the Holy Trinity has much in common with communication
theories.
The main points of this “new theology” are as follows:
 The loving communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is the source and
final goal of the whole created universe;
 revelation is the self-communication of God who is love;
 incarnation, cross and resurrection are the peak-point of the history of salvation;
 the Church is the Sacrament of Salvation;
 the history of salvation is coextensive with human history with the final goal of reaching
the loving communion of the Holy Trinity.
Though communication and communion are non-theological concepts they stand in the
middle of recent theological considerations.
There are promising initiatives to elaborate a theology of communication, and, what is more,
to create a communicative theology.
Our argumentation is structured in three steps:
First step: Communication within the immanent Trinity (“ad intra”)
Second step: The “ad extra” work of the economic Trinity
1. Revelation as divino-human communication
2. Divino-human communication as sacramental interchange
3. The climax of revelation: Jesus Christ the Symbol of God
4. The church as sacrament of salvation and communion of the people of God.
Third step: the possible impact of a communicative theology for church and society.
13. Maria Way
Formation and Location
This paper seeks to follow the development of Vatican documents on communication and media
and to consider whether all that can be done is being done in regard to the formation of religious
and lay people. Is the formation they receive sufficient and suitable to enable them to spread the
Church’s message in the best manner possible. The paper will use empirical evidence and Vatican
documents in order to answer these thorny questions.
14. Joseph Faniran
Communication and theology in Africa: Towards becoming partners in dialogue
The Fathers of the first African Synod made the building of an inculturated Church the major task
of the Church in Africa in the third millennium. But long before then, the African theologians had
appropriated the term inculturation to describe the thrust of their theology. Yet, they pay little or no
attention to the issue of social communication, its technologies and the attendant cultural changes.
When they do, their attention is on the interpersonal or group level of social interaction, leaving out
the mass communication. This presentation, therefore, makes a case for the need for communication
and theology to become partners in dialogue in the life and mission of the Church so that the project
of an inculturated Church may be realized in Africa.
15 Joan-Andreu Rocha Scarpetta
A Comparative approach to the Theology of Communication in Christianity and Islam
The paper is focussed in Theology and communications and the meeting points between them. A
first introductory part presents the focal characteristics of the Christian theology of communication.
The central part of the essay defines the main features of a Muslim theology of communication and
its particular implications in the modern understanding of communication, public opinion and interreligious dialogue from a Muslim perspective. The final part of the paper offers a comparative
approach to Christian and Islamic theologies of communication as a ground for a better
understanding of the two religious traditions from a communicative, intercultural and inter-religious
perspective.
16 Jim McDonnell
The Role of Media Education in Ministerial Formation
For over thirty years there has been a struggle to introduce what can be broadly termed 'media
education' into ministerial formation.
Unfortunately, it is often seen as simply a means of
protecting students against the media, or as a marginal topic in pastoral practice or even dismissed
as irrelevant to 'real life' pastoral practice. This paper, drawing on the author's practical experience,
attempts to uncover some of the fundamental challenges raised by engaging in a study of the media
and offers some perspectives on how 'media education' and the study of media culture is related to
ministerial formation in general.
17. Francis Coffey
Words are not Enough:
Immediacy in Communication Drives Renewal of Teaching on Revelation
For its media and communicative aspects fundamentalism presents challenges for the development
of the theology of revelation. The direct contact --- with God, with the righteous life, with truth --claimed by fundamentalists concerns communication involving iconic signs. Pietri (2005) has
shown that communication is part of the teaching in Dei Verbum that the saving fullness of Christ
is revealed in deeds as well as words (2005). Media favours the iconic process that figures in the
communicative power of deeds. The article explores whether there can be a theology of
communications based on an analogy between media’s iconic capacity and the structure of
revelation as deeds and words. If the iconic was integrated with other communicative capacities,
Church media could develop practice that meets the felt-need of fundamentalists and offers
correctives to their reductionism by honouring revelation more fully.
18 Miriam Diez I Bosch
Towards a Church Communication Policy: The case of Spanish Bishop’s Conference
Abstract: The paper aims to present Church Communication Policy from the perspective of identity
and mission. By stating what constitutes an efficient communication’s strategy within the Church,
the essay underlines the weak points and the possibilities of communicating from an institutional
point of view, describing the simultaneous action between internal and external publics in order to
communicate its essence. We study the case of the Spanish Bishop’s Conference as an example,
highlighting the lack of a Public Relation’s policy in the Church. The final part suggests some best
practices in order to construct an effective Communication Policy in the Church.
19. Christine Muggeridge
Toward the Development of a Theology of Communications in John Paul II; Excellence in the
Communication of the Faith as Exemplified in the Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in America
The organic development of a more humanist approach to the field of secular research in
social communications coupled with the Church’s growing understanding of her relationship with
the culture of the media and the mediated culture coincided with the “mediated” pontificate of Pope
John Paul II. His theological perspectives were developed into a theology of communication with a
pastoral emphasis. This last conclusion is indicated in the sample text, Ecclesia in America through
the Pontiff’s proposal of a theoretical and strategic plan for the communication of the faith which
incorporates excellence in communications management, principles, method and theory.
20. Msgr. Lucio Ruiz
Finding a theological base for communications
From its own beginning, the Church has used all the available means of communication in every
moment of history. In our times it has shown a big interest in using media for transmitting the
faith. The Church has been also very active in reflecting about media, illuminating their pastoral
benefits, their limits and their possible risks. However, the Church has been much less aware of the
theological dimensions and the divine roots of every form of communication. Both the constituting
elements and the mere possibility of communication are rooted in its theological origin. The
ignorance of this profound reality leads to a reductive, instrumental/mediatic vision of
communication, impeaching a correct understanding of its true dimension, its importance in the
Church, and the place it would have to have as a theological-rooted expression of God’s life.
21. José M. de Mesa
Communicating “Revelation-Faith” With Culture in Mind
The paper proposes a methodology of communicating the foundational reality of revelationfaith in a culturally meaningful way. We first note the primary importance of both revelation-faith
and culture in theological understanding and communicating. Then the use and advantages of
“theological constants” as a theological methodology capable of ensuring rootedness in the culture
of a people and fidelity to the Judaeo-Christian Tradition are presented. With constants in mind, the
inculturated theologies of revelation-faith in the Bible, in neo-scholasticism and in personalist
theology are examined. After discerning the theological constants present in these theologies and
knowing how these were expressed differently, these same constants are used as a guide to
articulate a Filipino theology of revelation-faith.
22. Dr. Thomas A. Bauer
KERYGMA AND CONSTRUCTION OF SENSE
Communicative Competence as a key concept of a communicological interpretation of
ministry
When we find ourselves involved in a communication society and realizing that we are part of a
huge and rapid cultural change, any attempt to define what a life in faith or a religious life is under
the conditions of a media-, communication, knowledge, or (even) event-society, needs to be
precluded by thoughts on the paradigmatic meaning of communication (in the context of media, in a
context of societal organization of knowledge and in an event-environment) in relation to churchlife as well as all things which could define church life as a special version of communication. That
means, we have to rethink not only the ministry, we have to rethink - in relation to communication –
all moments that constitute church-life, which is the system (community) of believe – both the
practical side (culture of faith) and the scientific or logical side (theology of faith). The outcome of
the analysis is: Since communication’s rationality is –due to the pradigm of difference - to
generate diversity of meaning, the rationality of faith is to generate diversity of communication
(communication faith).
Robert A White, SJ
Some current challenges facing discussions of
the theology of communication
This paper argues that the Catholic Church, in many parts of the world, is losing its capacity
to stimulate a deeper communication with the self-revealing God. One evidence of this
complex phenomenon is the massive rejection of the Church, in regions such as Europe, as a
significant source of religious inspiration.
For Christianity, a religion of communication,
of crucial importance is a theology of communication which leads to sites of
communication with God in contemporary cultures.
Increasingly less attractive is the
theology of communication which leads people to attempt to find communication with God
in defensive rationalizations about religious matters proposed as the means of preserving
the internal integrity of one’s belief,
in doctrinal propositions developed by Church
theologians, in ritualistic rubrics, in acts of adherence to the authority of the Church, in an
understanding of symbol and sacrament which focuses on the legalistic obligation and in the
detailed prescriptions of the law of the Church which are taken as evidences of God’s will.
Increasingly attractive is a theology of communication which encourages
finding God
directly in the people and events of one’s daily life, in the dialogue and discernment of
religious experience of lay people in Christian communities, in the charismatic experiences
of the new Catholic movements, in the symbols and experiences of contemporary popular
culture, in highly personal religious experiences and in individual (non-institutional)
appropriation of fundamentalist tenets.
While the first mentioned theology of
communication encourages a rather solipsistic withdrawal into one’s own rationalizing, the
latter places great emphasis on communicative outreach, the use of media, dialogue with
other religions and openness to new communication technologies.
24. Franz-Josef Eilers, svd
Communication Challenges of a ‘New Culture’
The “New Culture” with new ways of communicating, new technologies, a new language and new
psychology demands also a theological re-thinking of our communication approaches and activities.
We should learn from history and dispose ourselves to embrace the “New Culture” in the spirit of
Communication Theology and a genuine spirit filled approach to modern pastoral and evangelizing
communication.
25. Peter Malone
Theology as a Fine Art
This is the title of a pamphlet by Monika Hellwig given to the American Theological Association in
1983. The theological method is: Contemplation, Sharing, Reflection.
Using this method for an experience of pastoral Christology, we can look at the same Gospel
episode as dramatised in the movies of the 20th century. We respond to different iconic
presentations, different Christologies, different ‘spiritualities’. Sharing these contemplative
responses building bridges of sharing and appreciation of others’ perspectives. This process
becomes a starting point for greater reflection and understanding of the person of Jesus.
The example: the woman taken in adultery in Intolerance (1916), King of Kings (1928), The
Greatest Story ever Told (1965), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988),
Jesus (1999), The Gospel of John (2003).
26. Lewicki Tadek
Communication as a relationship between Church, World and Culture”
“When the thief becomes a holy and the banquet helps forget the sorrow…». Performative rituals
and the quest for identity and preservation of culture”. The presentation and analysis of two rituals,
the antique one, called “Gayassa”, from the Chaldean liturgical tradition of the Holy Week, and
“Bocadu”, a younger ritual of the Ash Wednesday from St Tome y Principe Islands, could help the
understanding of the human quest for identification with own religious culture, through
transgression which the performance, theatre can offer. From one side there is a problem of the lost
roots which are re-discovered and from the other side the will to preserve basic elements of the
cultural – religious tradition, especially within the extreme socio-political situations. The
performance studies approach could help to evaluate the vital input of the popular, community
theatre into the religious communication.
27. Anna Maria Yvenez