Arricia Conference: Communication And Theology, Rome, 2007
Organized by Jacob Srampical, The Theology and Communications Project (TCP)
Introduction
A major problem communications people have noticed is the large amount of theoretical input in theology given to future priests, religious, and laity in abstract doses, which they often fail to connect to reality. The Theology and Communications Project (TCP) speaks of the importance of associating theological studies with popular culture, popular religion, and many other aspects of communication studies. The project hopes contextualized cultural/theological studies, that look at our mediated reality, can help youth and adults make their studies contribute to their dream: the hop of Kingdom of God in this world. Often communicators wonder if the Church is at all interested in new cultures spawned by the media and our digital culture. Or is the Church on its own wavelength, continuing with its own teaching methods, unmindful of what is happening globally in a world globally affected by mediated cultures.
On the other hand, attempts have been made by communicators to use the media purely as instruments, to evangelize without a proper theology that explains why media usage is important. We feel it is necessary to develop a vision for communication and media education within the Church. It seems unless theologians wake up to these communication realities and their impact on our ministry, media will always remain an outsider in the Church. The TCP proposes to have an on-going dialogue between theology and communications all over the world.
Background
For the last 25 years, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Social Communications (CICS) at the Pontifical Gregorian University (PUG), Rome, has been offering an interdisciplinary communication studies program. Some professors at the CICS, with a team of international theologians and communicators, have been trying to develop links between the discipline of theology and communication studies. The eight very enriching Cavalletti Conferences, held on the outskirts of Rome from 1981, have resulted in some theology professors thinking about the interplay between theology and communications. Subsequent conferences in different parts of the world have resulted in the publication of a number of books that throw significant light on the various relations between theology and communication.
The TCP Conferences
Many conferences are normally done for a small number of people with each one contributing a paper; one area is usually studied thoroughly. Areas covered include: foundational relation between theology and communication; contextual theology; popular culture; new media and communications and culture, etc. Unless this relationship with theology and communication and culture is firmly established, the Church’s involvement in communication and media can remain peripheral and even superficial. Every now and then there are theology and communications professors emerging, both quite profound in their disciplines, but often they miss the link between the two disciplines. Hence the need to continuously contribute to the on-going debate on the inter-relations and interaction between these two disciplines by hosting a conference for additional people every 2-3 years; these are carefully documented for future reference by others.
Conference Themes
The major themes for these conferences could be the diverse relationships of theology and communication studies. The first, Communication Inside, Communication Outside - from the Centre to Periphery, takes up the twin themes of ecclesiology and evangelization: communication ad intra or within the Church and communication ad extra or outside the Church. In today’s contexts, communication media and technologies heavily influence both these movements. One could debate (and we should) whether these media serve this dual mission well or whether interpersonal communication would better serve the basic functions of organizational communication and evangelization.
The second recurrent theme, Theology and Communication, describes the central issues of these conferences. It also introduces the work of theologians who have incorporated the fruits of communication research into their work and those communication scholars who examine theology or the religious uses of communication media. Without going too much into the topic here, we can observe that these approaches carry the very real risks of people outside their areas of expertise making claims more serious research will not support. Sadly, much wishful thinking characterizes work on both sides of the theology and communication divide. The Cavalletti approach attempts to minimize these difficulties through academic dialogue and partnership.
Communication in Formation, another favorite theme, returns to one of the initial motivations for the Cavalletti conferences: How should the Church prepare future ministers in terms of communication in the contemporary world? Clearly, communication forms a central part of any ministry in the Church. What roles should rhetoric, interpersonal communication, and media studies play in the formation of clergy and lay ministers? Vatican II and the Pontifical Council for Social Communication asked for serious study of this issue, as have the Vatican Congregation for Seminaries and various national conferences of bishops. The Cavalletti approach consists of preparing materials, for example, books on fundamental theology, ecclesiology, moral theology, which can inform seminary classes without adding other courses to an already-crowded set of requirements.
There is also strong agreement about the importance of doing a contextual theology rather than an abstract, universalized version that ignores culture. The cultural context in which one theologizes is a point of intersection between theology and communication since the latter both expresses and creates cultures.
Communication’s main point of intersection with theology comes in pastoral theology. Cinema and media literacy courses have long been used in training people for ministry. Hence the conferences should highlight the need for a communication sensitivity and competency that includes critical self-reflection, an imaginative appreciation of culture, an appreciation of cultural richness in diverse groups, and an ability to integrate one’s own story into the larger context.
Communication experts can learn from theology and apply a type of theological reflection about communication phenomena. Some professors have already developed methods of using theological models to organize the program of communication studies. There is a great need to analyze the theoretical implications and cultural consequences of new forms of communication, the new digital media. A broad historical perspective is important since previous stages of communication (orality and literacy) do not disappear; they coincide with, and overlap, the new modes of communication. This raises more questions than it can answer about the impact new media developments will have on faith and culture. The revolutionary change one can see in young students points to a huge impact that needs to be understood so the Church can adequately respond in an effective pastoral manner.
Previous Conferences
From 1984 to 1997, there have been eight Cavalletti conferences, as well as two Cavalletti-like conferences in the United States, each focused on aspects of the theology and communication conversation.
1983 Cavalletti I: Theology and communication: general approaches.
1984 Cavalletti II: Fundamental theology and communication. How might communication study and research inform the basic grounding of theology? What kinds of basic questions for theology could communication address?
1985 Cavalletti III: Philosophy and communication. Objectives: to examine approaches to communication philosophy (philosophy of language, explorations of meaning) as a foundation for seminary courses attuned to the role of communication.
1988 Cavalletti IV: Moral theology and communication. Does the media world have an impact on moral theology? How might moral theologians take advantage of media products or the work of communication scholars?
1988a Marquette University Conference on moral theology and communication. This follow-up conference addressed the same themes, bringing together additional scholars.
1988b Santa Clara University Conference on communication in the U.S. Church. This conference approached the communication, theology, and culture questions from the view of the Church in the United States. The conference originated as a way to reproduce the fruits of the Cavalletti conferences in other locations.
1989 Cavalletti V: Ecclesiology and communication. What might communication study teach us about the organizational structure of the Church? More specifically, participants were to “focus on current developments in ecclesiology and the significance of conceptions that were new, and new cultural patterns of communication for ecclesiology and for the life of the Church” (Granfield, 1994, p v).
1991 Cavalletti VI: Foundations for a Theology of Communication. Objectives here were: (1) work toward a systematic synthesis regarding the theology of communication using Nos. 1-18 of Communio et Progressio as a point of departure; (2) prepare a book presenting some of the major themes of a theology of communication and a commentary on that theology; and (3) exchange ideas on teaching communication and theology.
1993 Cavalletti VII: The New Image of Religious Film. How does film contribute to religious meaning? What historical trends appear in the use of religious themes in the cinema? Can theology contribute to film criticism? This conference brought together members of the International Catholic Organization for the Cinema (OCIC) and theologians.
1997 Cavalletti VIII: Media, religion, and popular culture. How does popular culture express religious images, themes, and sensibilities? [This is the first of the Cavalletti-like conferences, held not at Villa Cavalletti, which the Jesuits had sold, but at another retreat center located across the lake from Castel Gondolfo.]
2007 Ariccia IX: Rethinking theology and ministry in the light of today’s developments in communications. A summary conference which considered most of the major issues.
Some Terms Explained
Theologizing began to be talked about from the early 1970s. This is an attempt to find the meaning of everyday events in the light of Faith, i.e. interpreting Scripture and doctrines in the light of human experience and explaining human experience in the light of Scripture and Tradition (Faith). Its primary presupposition is that God is active and present in history, and is always involved in the various events of the day; hence history can be seen as events shaped through God’s intervention (Word event). Theologizing thus is the continuous dialogue and interaction between the gospel or the Christian message and the realities of today.
The gospel or Christian faith puts questions to the actual situation and, on the other hand, the present realities put questions of faith so the faith itself may be re-interpreted. The content of Christian faith needs continuous interpretation and re-interpretation so it may become understandable and relevant for the people of today. Such interpretation is needed both to distinguish between the core of the message and its historical cultural expressions, and also to safeguard the authentic faith against its historic distortions.
Communication theology is understanding, reinterpreting or re-expressing the categories of communication into the very process of theologizing; something like St. Thomas using Aristotle; or Rahner referring to transcendental philosophy. Here we try to say that theology is all about communication. It is more a methodological approach to redefine theology. Theological subjects like Trinity, Revelation, Sacraments, Missiology, Ecclesiology, Christology, Catechetics, Liturgy, etc., have strong communication dimensions. These can be linked to communication and taught from that perspective.
Theology of communication is to make a theology about communication, its science and process – like a theology of the cross, or theology of liberation. In this, one’s analysis interprets or applies the concepts of communication to the categories of theology.
Communicative theology is studying theology from the perspective of communicating it effectively. Often theology is studied as abstract concepts. Here we talk of Theology being made practical and experienced by common folk. Media language demands that abstract subjects like theology and philosophy be made concrete, image-based, sensorial and experiential. For example, when one adapts teaching methods like group discussion, debates, role plays, or other audio-visual aids, or uses vocabularies sensible to modern people to explain theological concepts, it is communicative theology. This can be said to be a kind of inculturation of theology.
Books from Previous Conferences
1988a Marquette University Conference on moral theology and communication: Rossi, P. & Soukup, P. A. (Eds.). (1994). Mass Media and the Moral Imagination. Kansas City, MO: Sheed and Ward.
1988b Santa Clara University Conference: Soukup, P. A. (Ed.). (1996). Media, Culture, and Catholicism. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward.
1989 Cavalletti V: Ecclesiology and communication: Granfield, P. (Ed.). (1994). The Church and Communication. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward.
1993 Cavalletti VII: The New Image of Religious Film: May, J. R. (Ed.). (1997). New Image of Religious Film. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward.
2007 Ariccia IX: Rethinking theology and ministry in the light of today’s developments in communications. A summary conference which considered most of the major issues. Srampickal, Jacob, Mazza, Giuseppe, Soukup, Paul (eds): Theology and Ministry in a Technological Age (in preparation).