Frances Forde Plude

Communication Theology and a Self-Communicating God

By Rev. Anh Vu Ta

[Rev. Anh Vu Ta has served as faculty at the University of Santo Thomas, Manila (UT). He has written about Communication Theology within the context of Vietnam.]

1. The Trinity as Fountain of Life and Source of Communication 

1.1.1 The Origin of the Idea of a Communication Theology

The belief in the Triune God is at the heart of Christian faith. The Christian believes in a God who shows himself in the revelation and salvation history as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the name of the Triune God, any Christian is baptized: with this he/she enters the reality of the Trinitarian life. However, the Trinitarian communication dimension of this center of the Christian faith seems not to be in the awareness of the faithful. This inscrutability of the Triune God seems not to be related to the reality of life. Greshake points out:

The explicit confession to the Trinitarian God seems to be a sanctified, ritualized relic which one commonly may not negate, but perform in ecclesial homology and by liturgical gesture. Nonetheless, it marginally affects the personal existential act of faith, and more than ever the perception of the existence and the world. Rather, the Trinity appears to many people as abstract object of speculation and mythological encryption.[1]

For this reason, perhaps, there is a common conviction of Christians that it is enough to believe in Jesus Christ, to follow him, while the belief on the Trinity seems to play a secondary role. The document Dei Verbum of the Vatican II, however, has particularly exposed the communal work of the Triune God who enters into communion with His creature and raises human beings to a participation of the divine life as well as to a life as family of humanity.[2]

The key concept of communication theology is the concept of the self-communication of God. Apparently, Friedrich David Schleiermacher (1768-1834), Herman Schell (1850-1906) and Romano Guardini (1885-1968) had applied this term in their theological reflection.[3] However, Karl Rahner indicates with this term that God communicates himself to human beings as he is. In the divine self-communication, the giver who himself communicates is likewise the communicated gift. In other words, God as the giver and the gift of God as the divine grace are the same.[4] With the concept of God’s self-communication, Rahner has brought out the communication dimension of theology.[5]

Looking at the communication dimension in the Trinity, there are some central and fundamental aspects of communication theology.

1.2.1 The Trinity: Communion Through Self-communication & Self-communication in Communion

A long time ago, theologians used a Hellenistic philosophical idea to describe the divine nature and the relation of the Father, with the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This caused many debates on the problem of subordinatianism or modalism and this led to the Nicean Creed (325). Later, theologians have gone another way to reflect on God, taking the divine revelation as leitmotif for their reflection. They came out with the new concept: The one God is not a static, lonely monad. Rather, God is, in himself, plural: Life, Love, Communio.[6] The Father sends his Son and his Holy Spirit, who themselves possess the same divine nature, to the world so human beings encounter God as he is. In this perspective, there is no more thinking of a transcendent monad which is the final reference point for all reality. 

In a concise way, Greshake describes the Trinity as follows: “God is communio in which the three divine persons carry out the one divine life as mutual self-communication in the threefold interaction of love”.[7] The communication dimension of God is exactly included in this statement. The divine communio is seen as ongoing “exchange” of unity and plurality and is the primary reality of the divine life. In this perspective, the life of God entails, analogically speaking, different moments of a mutual communication happening according to the respective divine person: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each divine person communicates itself to the other in a specific manner which belongs only to this person. In this perspective, the moments of self-communication of the three persons form a dynamic reciprocal self-communication in the Trinitarian life. 

Here, the divine being essentia divina is communion. This communio is possible because of the mutual love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The father fulfills his own being while he fully gives himself to the “other” as the Son, in this way he possesses his Godhead as giving love, therefore also receives the being as Father. The Son is receiving and responding love while he himself receives wholly from the Father, and in grateful manner gives to him honor. The Spirit is uniting love while he himself receives from the relationship between the Father and the Son as “the Third” and at the same moment glorifies both the other divine persons. He is the receiving, returning and uniting love. Greshake calls this dynamic sharing of life in God “eternal Rhythmic of love” in which each divine person is considered as rhythm that specially plays its “role” in a communicative happening. Each divine person lives, in its very own way, in the relation from and to the other: giving / receiving, receiving / giving, and uniting / receiving / returning.

In Trinitarian theology, the term “perichorese” is used to explain the essence of the Trinitarian communio. In this way, the divine self-communication is an ongoing communication of mutual giving and receiving, an interpersonal happening of love.[8] In this interpersonal interaction and perfect communication (actus purus), God is also the absolute unity in which each divine person, in its own special personality, is communicative and constitutive to the other. Divine communion is the unity of the oneness in distinctiveness, and this is originally inherent in the Trinity.[9]

The concept of Trinitarian theology is a theological effort which tries to explain the divine reality in human language so we can imagine it in an intelligible way when speaking of God. In fact, this concept is not a result of a speculative thinking process the Church has developed in her theological efforts. Rather, the belief in the Trinitarian God is based on the experience of Jesus Christ who reveals God to human beings in, and through, his life. Through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, God approaches the human world. In this encounter God shows to human beings his innermost nature and allows them to participate in divine life. Carlo M. Martini asserts: “In the Incarnation and in the paschal mystery, we come to know the Son whom St. Ignatius of Antioch calls ‘the Word proceeding from silence’. It is he in whom the Father (the Silence, the hidden mystery who is the origin of communication) expresses himself and makes himself known. ... As Word proceeding from the Father, Jesus communicates himself to men and women of every age up to today, sending the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can be called “the Encounter”: the encounter of the Word and of Silence, the encounter of the Triune God with humanity. Through the Holy Spirit, an encounter-with-love mysteriously happens within every one of us, the love which the Father has for us from eternal silence and which he shows to us, in time, in His Son.”[10]

Martini refers to several biblical verses which address the intimate relationship of Jesus with the Father.[11] Especially, the disciples experience and witness the deep relationship between Jesus and God, the Father, as well as the connection with the Holy Spirit when Jesus explains to them about God and when they see that Jesus prays to God. Numerous biblical passages recount this, particularly the Evangelist John: “No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6), “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9), “When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn. 16:13, 14), and other verses like (Jn. 14: 10), (Jn. 15: 9), (Jn. 15: 15), (Jn. 16:15), (Jn. 17:11), (Jn. 17: 22, 23), etc.

The Triniatrian dimension of communication can be described with Bernhard Häring’s words as follows:

Communication is constitutive in the mystery of God. Each of the three Divine Persons possesses all that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful, but in the modality of communion and communication. Creation, redemption, and communication arise from this mystery and have as their final purpose to draw us, by his very communication, into communion with God. Creating us in his image and likeness, God makes us sharers of his creative and liberating communication in communion, through communion, and in view of communion.[12]

In brief, we can say: The Trinitarian life is a communio through self-communication; and in turn the Trinitarian life is self-communication in communio. The divine self-communication is the ground of created realities. Especially, human beings can communicate because God has created them in his own image and likeness (Gen 1:26). Therefore, Avery Dulles asserts “Christianity is, first and foremost, the religion of communication” (Dulles, 1992, 38).[13] All acts of God in creation, revelation, redemption, are grounded in the self-communication of God in the Trinity. Dulles states “the entire work of creation, redemption, and sanctification is a prolongation of the inner processions within the Trinity”.[14]

1.3 Human Existence and the World in Trinitarian Perspective

1.3.1 The Creation as Communicative Manifestation of the Trinity

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the sky proclaims its builder's craft.
One day to the next conveys that message;
one night to the next imparts that knowledge
There is no word or sound;
no voice is heard;
Yet their report goes forth through all the earth,
their message, to the ends of the world.
God has pitched there a tent for the sun;
it comes forth like a bridegroom from his chamber,
and like an athlete joyfully runs its course.
From one end of the heavens it comes forth;
its course runs through to the other;
nothing escapes its heat." (Psalm 19:1-7)

In the view of this biblical text, the whole manifestation of the creation is public communication. All the elements of the created reality give testimony by their beauty to the God who has made them. In fact, Christianity considers the origin and destination of the whole creation and human beings from the Trinitarian background. Created reality has its 'place' in the communicating and loving exchange of the Triune God; it receives its forms, structures, and dynamic, organic processes as image of the Trinitarian life which entails unity and plurality, singularity, and interconnectedness. In this way, the whole creation communicates through its reality the divine presence. It is determined through relationality and complementarity, plurality, and communality. Here it is important that there is a complex unity of identity and difference, of unity and plurality, autonomy and interconnectedness, more precisely: autonomy in and through intercommunication with the other.

According to Rahner, the finite, created “expression” ad extra is a continuation of the immanent constitution of "image and likeness" and takes place in fact through the Logos (Jn 1:3). This is a free continuation.[15] Therefore, “all beings are by their nature symbolic, because they necessarily 'express' themselves in order to attain their own nature”.[16] Here, the symbol, speaking in the strict sense of symbolic reality, is the self-realization of a being in relation to the other which is constitutive of its essence.[17] The plurality that exists in a created being is not always implicitly the pointer to finiteness and imperfection, but this is ontologically vestige and image of the Trinity; plurality in relation. In similar perspective, Häring asserts “the creation is dynamic presence of the creative Word (of God)”.[18] The created reality, in its history, its space and time, is the public stage of communication which constantly develops in the historical progress of the world. In fact, we can see the dynamic relation and the relevance of the communicative dimension in all phenomena within the creation as such, and especially, within the human life in its relation to one another and in the relation to the world as created reality.

A close look at the creation account gives an additional insight. At the beginning, there was chaos; there was nothing. God created and ordered the world and all things one after the other by his creative and communicative Word “let there be” or “let happen”. After having made and ordered the world, God finally created human beings in his “image and likeness” (Gen 1:1-31). The world and all things belonging to it are made so the human being can live in it. “God saw how good it was” means it is beneficial for human life. In this context, creation and human beings stay in a communicative relation. The non-human created reality serves to us as living conditions in which human persons show each other mutual love, in which humans work for each other, and in which we can communicate things of our life to the other, up to the point of giving ourselves. All these aspects contribute to the intercommunication of humanity. Therefore, human life and reality of the world with its historical progress must be considered in a holistic view of creation theology which is derived from Trinitarian theology, and this life and reality, based on the Trinity, are communicative and constitutive.

1.3.2 Human Being - Created in God Image and Likeness – a Call to Communicative and Communal Life

O Lord, our Lord,
how awesome is your name through all the earth! ...
When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and stars that you set in place--
What are humans that you are mindful of them,
mere mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them little less than a god,
crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them the rule over the works of your hands,
put all things at their feet ...
O Lord, our Lord,
how awesome is your name through all the earth!" (Psalm 8)

Reflecting on God's self-communication in the Trinity, Karl Rahner describes the divine communication as follows: “each one of the three divine persons communicates himself to man in gratuitous grace in his own personal particularity and diversity. This Trinitarian communication is the ontological ground of man's life in grace and eventually of the direct vision of the divine persons in eternity”.[19] Further, he asserts in another book, entitled Grundkurs des Glaubens, “the human being is the event of a free, gratuitous and forgiving, absolute self-communication of God.”[20] Human beings are created in God's image and likeness (Gen 1:26-27). Therefore, the human person is a substantial self. This aspect designates human uniqueness, freedom, and dignity. At the same time, the human person bears, in itself, the relational dimension: she/he is able to communicate. From this Trinitarian understanding, being a person is relational and communicative. This is not only applicable to God, but also to human beings. The oneness of the person is always related to the distinctiveness of the other. 

A 'person', in Christian perspective, constitutes itself with, and through, other persons so there will become a We-relation. In interpersonal relation and communication, a person will not lose itself, but, rather, it will come to the individual self, enriched through the “perichoretic unity” in which each participating person co-relates to the other in its own way.[21] Considered in the Trinitarian view, a human being is neither exclusively an individual, I-centered, isolated self, nor is it only a point or particle in the socialization process. Instead, a human is a unique self-being which attains its own self through a mutual giving and receiving process which means communication. In other words, the human person, created in God's image and likeness, is a unique, free, and relational being who is able to communicate with God and with the other (cf. GS, No. 12).[22]

2.     Communication Dimension in Revelation 

The Vatican II’s document Dei Verbum declares:

Through divine revelation, God chose to show forth and communicate Himself and the eternal decisions of His will regarding the salvation of men. That is to say, He chose to share with them those divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind.[23]

From the Trinitarian life, God communicates himself; he creates human beings, addresses himself to them, and opens to them the secrets of his personal life. God’s intention is to offer to humans a share in his life. God, the living God, has spoken to humanity in its concrete life and history. This is the fact that dominates the whole process of divine self-communication which is documented in Scriptures.

In the Old Testament God shows himself to Israel. From his free will, God intervenes into the history of Israel. This intervention is conceived under the form of an encounter between God and His chosen people: God speaks; Israel listens and answers. God addresses mankind and humans, hearing God, answer by faith and obedience. The fact and content of this communication is called revelation. Hence, to consider the way of God’s revelation is to consider the dimensions of God’s communication. Israel experiences in the encounter with God his sovereign power which changes the course of its history and the individual existence. René Latourelle says God’s “activity is not a brute display of power; it is always incorporated in words.”[24] The power of God’s word is the dialogues, the announcements, the explanations, the manifestations of a plan. In the course of revelation in the Old Testament, however, God does not speak to the whole of humanity, but he chooses, first of all, the people of Israel. This people are intermediaries who transmit His word to others. 

The Old Testament very often uses the expression “Word of Yahweh” as a favorite expression, to express divine communication. The theophanies, the visible manifestations, are always subservient to the word. In the revelation of the Old Testament, it is not primarily the fact of seeing the divinity, but the fact of hearing the Divine Word. God’s call to Abraham is presented as a pure act of speaking on the part of God (Gen. 12:1ff). God speaks to Moses “face to face as one man speaks to another” (Ex. 33:11). In the revelation on Sinai, the whole burden of the story rests on the word of God. Among the prophets, the words also play an essential role, even in their visions. Through His word, God communicates himself and introduces human beings to the knowledge of his intimate being. The Word of God, in the whole course of Israel’s history, directs and inspires this people.[25] The end of this process of divine communication is that Israel comes to know its God and lives with him in the covenant. 

From this background, the Old Testament is a testimony of Israel's belief. In this book, Israel communicates to the next generation the experience of God who acts in various communicative ways throughout its history and who asserts his will and his power to save his people. Franz-Josef Eilers states “the whole Old Testament can be considered a report on God’s communication with Israel, his people”[26]. There are some fundamental moments of God's communication in the whole historical development of the Chosen People Israel.  

2.1 Communication Story with Abraham

Not without reason, the story of God’s initiative to continue his communicating to humans is presented directly after humanity fails to build a city in order to live with each other and to keep communication among themselves, still more “to make a name” for themselves; the plan is unsuccessful (Gen. 11). The story of Babel remains a symbol of miscommunication and misunderstanding among humans because this undertaking is based only on human capacity and power. Within the story of humanity (Gen. 1-9), God speaks to a concrete person Abram to reveal himself, and to communicate his plan for humans, and thus the story between God and Israel, considered in biblical perspective, begins (Gen. 12). God communicates his plan to Abraham and gives him a promise that he will become father of a great nation and a blessing for them with whom he shares life (Gen. 12:1-3). According to Erich Zenger, the election of Abraham and the promise for the land are two constitutive elements of the existence of Israel.[27]

2.2 Communication Story with Moses

The book Exodus narrates the history of Israel’s deliverance. The high point is the encounter with God on the Sinai. In this story, God comes in contact with the chosen people through Moses. God appears to Moses, addresses him, and calls him into his special service from the burning bush (Ex. 3:2). On the Moses’ story, Eilers comments that Moses approached the bush probably “more out of curiosity”. Here, “God uses the need and sense for news of human beings to establish relationships and pass on his messages and concerns”.[28] Israel comes to “know” God primarily when it experiences God’s power which delivers it from the slavery of Egypt; and it progressively deepens its faith in God through many words and deeds which God had fulfilled in its own history (cf. DV, no. 14). In this communication happening, God uses nature (the plagues of Egypt, the passage through the Red Sea) to show his power and his will to liberate Israel and to make it into His chosen people. Even the superpower of Egypt cannot hinder God from carrying out his plan for Israel. This deliverance ends up in the theophany on Sinai where God presents himself to his people and seals the alliance with Israel (Ex. 19, 1-7). For Carlo M. Martini, the hour of the alliance on Sinai is a “fundamental event” in the communication of God with Israel.[29] In this special relationship, the communicated Divine Word (Decalogue: “Ten Words”) grounds Israel’s existence and makes it into a nation. 

God calls this nation out of Egypt, accompanies it through the desert, and now God gathers it and gives Israel His word that grounds and guarantees the new-born nation (Ex. 20:2-17). This communicative happening is, according to Erich Zenger, the third element of Israel’s existence.[30] God’s communication aims at making humans part of divine communion. The event on Sinai is the existential significant moment of communicative relation between God and the People Israel in which God makes Israel, as his first-born son, to his communication partner so from now on it lives in a relationship with God by keeping the covenant. Because of this, Zenger calls the first part of the Bible, commonly identified as the Old Testament, the First Testament.[31] Based on this experience, Israel believes the same God, who has raised it from the nothingness of slavery of Egypt, has also raised the cosmos from nothingness and put it into existence.

From this perspective, the world is grounded in God’s word. God’s communication has a concrete plan and it is the fundament for every event happening in the world. God speaks and everything is created. He names created things and, at His call, creation rises out of nothingness. The word of God gives existence and subsistence to the created reality (Gen. 1:1 ff). Psalm 33 expresses this belief: “By the Lord’s word the heavens were made; by the breath of his mouth all their hosts… For he spoke, and it came to be, commanded and it stood in place” (Ps. 33:6, 9). Created things are called into being by the word of God. They manifest His presence, His majesty, His wisdom (Ps. 19:2-5; Job 26:7-14; Prov. 8:22-31; Sir. 42:15-43; Wis. 13:1-9). In other texts of the Old Testament, God communicates himself in terms of natural apparitions: He appears veiled in a cloud (Ex. 13:21), burning like a burning fire (Ex. 3:2; Gen 15:17), thundering in the tempest (Ex. 19:16; Ps. 29: 2ff), gentle as a light breeze (1 Kgs. 19:12 ff), a kind of non-verbal communication which accompanies and confirms the Divine Word. Moreover, the word of God creates order that gives human life security. According to the source of the priestly tradition in the Old Testament, the universe is an expression of the will of God which, through the stars and the seas, determines the liturgical times, the Sabbath and the feasts (Gen. 1:3-8); God’s communication creates order as condition of life against the chaos that damages life.[32] After Israel has gained the new life, due to God’s gratuitous intervention, it has to preserve this life by keeping the order which God has given to it for safeguarding the life. Thereby, God continuously communicates his order from the “meeting tent” as the symbol of divine presence in the midst of Israel (Lev. 1:1). The whole book Leviticus describes the rules to guarantee the new community.

2.3 Communication Story through the Prophets

The communicative happening of Sinai always remains a central and fundamental moment of God’s communication. Through his word, which God communicates on Sinai, Israel gains its national and religious identity. In the time of exile, Israel seems to lose just this national and religious identity, for God seems to abandon it. However, even when there did not exist anymore the temple and the nation (the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, Israel was deported), God unceasingly communicated his word to the scattered people through the prophets. He used the prophets to comfort and to enlighten Israel in the new situation. His communicating word gave hope to the shattered people who live in exile (Ez. 33:1 ff). Through the prophets, God reminded Israel of its origin where God has made it into a people from its nothingness in Egypt. Just in the midst of a desperate situation, God sends his prophets to Israel who transmit, publish and announce the word of God. According to René Latourelle, “Yahweh addresses His word to the prophet. In the prophet this word is an active reality, charged with the very power of a God who communicates”.[33] According to Erich Zenger, God communicates himself through the prophets as the one God who concretely intervenes in human history. He reveals himself as the God who commits himself to humanity and world’s history (Zenger, 2008, 425).

In the midst of national and religious crisis, Israel again and again heard the Divine Word which has a dynamic power upon all created reality (Is. 40:26; 45:12; 48:13). God’s word has not only created all things and rules them, but it has its dynamism in the history. From the beginning of Israel’s history, God always communicates his word and reveals the plan for Israel (45:18-19; 48:16). God holds the poles of history (Is. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12). Israel’s history is intelligible because it unfolds according to a plan that God reveals progressively to men. The prophetic word finds its field of activity in history. According to Latourelle “the prophetic word is creator and interpreter of history”.[34] The Hebrew people came to know God by the way they experienced His intervention in the course of human history: the birth of Israel as a nation, the deliverance from the slavery of Egypt, the wandering through the desert, the conquest of the Promised Land. Throughout forty years, God marches through all the ways with His people, shows His presence through many signs and marvels, leading them as a shepherd. The prophet constantly refers to these events, either to remind Israel of the faithfulness it owes the covenant, or, during the time of exile, to proclaim a new exodus, a new covenant (Is. 54-55).

The activity of God, which makes history a work of salvation or reprobation, is his relentless communication which begins and directs all events and interprets the meanings of Israel’s history. When the Word imposes on things, it creates, when it imposes on man, it becomes law. All historical events of Israel must be considered under the perspective of a communicating God. The prophetic word not only announces history and puts it in motion, but also interprets it. The prophet is steeped in the history of his time; in the actuality of this history, God reveals his will to the prophet, His plan of salvation. The prophet serves as mediator between God and humans in this salvific plan. Based on God’s word, the prophet perceives the meaning of events, interprets history from the point of view of God, and makes it known to the people of his time. Latourelle states that “the precise content of this word (of God) becomes intelligible only through the word of the prophet. Revelation-event and Revelation-word are, as it were, the two faces of the word of God.”[35]

2.4 Other Communication Dimensions

The sapiential literature represents a very ancient tradition in Israel (1 Kgs. 5:9-14; 10:1-13.23-25). Sapiential literature enjoys a new popularity in the Persian and Hellenistic times: the existing collections (for example Prov. 10:1-22, 16; 25-29) are augmented by numerous creations (Job, Ecclesiastes, Sirach, Wisdom). The sapiential literature has to do with human effort for a right knowledge which allows human beings to perceive the all-embracing order, existing in daily life. However, the people of Israel believe wisdom is grounded in the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:7). There are various forms of communication in wisdom: proverbs, discourses, riddles, poetries, tales, etc. Israel gains its sapiential knowledge through experiences in life among themselves and by intercultural encounter with other neighboring peoples. These sapiential treasures were soon transformed by Israel into an instrument for communicating the divine message. The same God who gives light to the prophet makes use of human experience to communicate himself to human beings (Prov. 2:6; 20:27). At the beginning, this wisdom is simple reflection, positive and realistic, on man’s conduct, to help him direct his life with prudence and discretion. In Greek culture, this reflection will take a more speculative trend and change into philosophy. In Israel, the treasure of human experience and wisdom was quickly animated by the breath of Yahweh’s religion: Human experience and wisdom were adopted, but interpreted, and transmitted in the light of Israel’s faith in Yahweh. Moreover, the experience from which this sapiential reflection is refined frequently belongs to revelation: creation (Sir. 43), history which makes known the ways of God (Sir. 44-50), the historical books, the Law and the prophets (Sir. 39:1 ff).[36]

2.5 Characteristics of Word of God

Noetic and dynamic function

Through all the ways which God communicates to humans in the history of Israel, the Word of God bears in itself a noetic and dynamic dimension. Latourelle analyzes the meaning of the dabar to show this double character of the word of God. The dabar is “what comes out of the mouth” (Num. 30:13) or the “lips” (Jer. 17:16) of man, but it also has its source in the heart of the man. The dabar expresses, exteriorizes, what the man has already said in his heart (Gen 17:17; Ps 14:1), or what rises to his heart (Jer. 3:16; Is. 65:17) or his mind. The word is thus not the pure expression of abstract ideas; it is full of meaning, it has a noetic content, resulting from a man’s concentration on an object, or the rising up within him of thoughts which seize upon him, but, at the same time, it expresses a state of soul; something of his soul impregnates the spoken, articulated word. Latourelle says:

For Israel, the word possesses a double force: noetic and dynamic. On the one hand, it is the expression of thoughts, intentions, projects, decisions; it is intelligible discourse; it enlightens the meaning of events; it ‘names’ things, for name is reality in so far as reality is intelligible. And on the other hand, it is an active force, a power which accomplishes what it signifies; it effects what man thinks and decides in his heart. The word of desire, promise, commandment – its activity abides throughout the whole process it sets in motion.[37]

Relational function

From this background, the word of God communicates in a deep sense the innermost being of God that gives life to human beings and at once changes the course of their lives. When the word of God is communicated to a human person, it sets loose a power which moves and fundamentally changes her/his life. The person, to whom God communicates, is not anymore the same person as before. Her life will be changed by God’s communication: this person is called to a new identity or a new life. This fact is shown primarily in the change of the name, and always in relation of the formula “blessing and cursing” (Gen 17: 5, 15; 35:10 and Gen 27; 2 Sam. 12:1-8; 5:12-31). On the one hand, it creates the world, imposes His law, and sets history in motion. On the other hand, it manifests the will of God, His salvific plan. The word of God infallibly effects what it says. God sends out His word as a living message and He keeps guard over it to accomplish it. Finally, the word of God, as it has been communicated, always leads human beings to encounter God. It gives them a chance to live in relationship with Him.

2.6 Characteristics of Divine Communication 

• God is first the initiator of communication. Based on this, human beings are called into an interpersonal communicative happening. 

• In the encounter between God and Israel, it is not man who discovers God. Rather, God is the one who shows himself when He will, to whom He will, and because He will. He reveals himself in various forms and ways: like the Lord to his servant, then progressively like the father to his son; like a man with his friend; like a bridegroom with his bride, etc. All these communicative attempts of God aim at inviting and leading Israel to live in the covenant with God as communication partner.

• God communicates himself by His word. The religion of the Old Testament is a religion of the word. The Divine Word that once has called all things into being has been continually expressed throughout the Israel’s history, aiming at re-connecting Israel with God. It constitutes and safeguards the life of mankind. Hearing the word of God and following it, Israel comes to know Him and His plan. Blessing or curse, life or death, is dependent on man’s attitude, whether s/he accepts or refuses God’s word (Dt. Chaps. 5 and 6). But the goal and end of God’s communication is the life and salvation of individuals, their communion with God.

• God’s communication is not abstract, but His word is spoken concretely, in history and through history. The message of God is always incorporated into history. He uses the way of nature, human experiences, and history, to communicate His will to human beings. He uses the varieties of personalities (priests, sages and prophets, kings and aristocrats, peasants and shepherds, women and men) to transmit His messages. He chooses diverse ways of communication (theophanies, dreams, consultations, visions, ecstasies, trances, etc.) to make known his plan for Israel. He expresses His will is expressed in oracle, exhortation, autobiography, description, hymn, sapiential literature, mediation, etc.). In other words, He uses human cultures and means of communication to approach them so humans can hear His word. “God communicates thus in many ways, verbally and non-verbally, and finally his communication is presented, preserved, and sealed in a book, a means of communication which is the proof of God’s communicative action.”[38]

• Studying God’s communication in biblical perspective, Carlo Martini discovered some criteria for God’s self-communication which he considers as basis for any human and Christian communication (Martini, 1990, No. 30ff).[39]

1.  Divine self-communication is prepared in silence and in secrecy of God.

2. God’s communication to humans is progressive, cumulative, and historical. God’s self-communication is not realized only in one instant, but rather comprises diverse times and events which should be understood and read in their whole process. 

3. Divine self-communication realizes itself in a dialectic way. This communication does not proceed from glory to glory, in a light without shadow. There is rather a succession of events of light and shade. Only a patient deciphering of the whole process of words and events can lead to the full understanding of God’s communication.

4. Divine Communication does not reach its fullness here on earth. One must distinguish between the communication in via and the communication in patria. Divine communication on earth has its values in anticipating what is to come in the fullness of time when we see God how he is (1 Jn. 3:2). 

5. Divine self-communication is personal. God communicates himself, not something else. Everything God communicates out of himself is a sign and symbol of his will to communicate himself as a supreme gift. At the same time, divine communication is interpersonal. It appeals to the human person who receives this gift.

6. God’s communication finally assumes all kinds of interpersonal communication. His communication is informative, appealing and at the same time self-communicating. In his communication God informs about himself and appeals to humans by calling, promising, threatening, admonishing; but all his communication is finally self-communicating because what he really wants to communicate is His person.

There are various ways of God’s communicating in the Old Testament. They are presented in the form of promises, orders and threats; of terrible or familiar theophanies; of oracles, of dreams and visions; of rites and institutions. “This multiplicity of forms resolves itself, in the New Testament, into the unity of the Person of the Son incarnate, expressing Himself by means of the flesh, that is, by gesture, word and action” (Latourelle, 1967, 68).

3.     Dimensions of God’s Self-communication in the Incarnation

“In the times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke through us to a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe, who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being, who sustains all things by his mighty word” (Hebr. 1:1-3). These words of St. Paul to the Hebrews may be used as a summary of divine Self-communication in the Incarnation, in the person of Jesus Christ. In Him, God now communicates himself in a very personal way: God, again as initiator, seeks for a "common ground" to communicate himself to human beings. For this reason, "the Word has become flesh" (Jn. 1:14). The Son of God becomes a human person among the other. First of all, it is to note that the circumstances of the life of Jesus Christ as such must already be considered as communication: the simple way of His birth, His hidden years in Nazareth as preparation for His apostolate, His social status as the carpenter’s son, the 40 days in the desert, and His passion and death on the Cross, all these show how Jesus Christ did communicate. 

3.1 Fundamental Moments of Jesus' Communication

1. The Baptism of Jesus – a New Dimension of God’s Self-communication

In this special event, God breaks silence and speaks to humanity. The baptism of Jesus is a Trinitarian communicative act of God to human beings which characterizes a new exodus: (1) the Father, in a new and singular way, gives his Word (2) The Holy Spirit publicly discloses the true Image of God to all those who are present by the baptism act. Jesus is here revealed as a true Servant of God. (3) The Son, when he lines up with other people for the baptism by John and willingly accepts the baptism of repentance, represents the true Image of God’s Son as well as the true image of Israel, the “first-born son” (cf. Ex. 4:22). All these characterize Jesus as the one, who is the “new” communication of God to Israel. At the same time, he himself is, in his being, God’s message to human beings: Jesus Christ is the communicator and the communication. All these aspects determine and permeate the whole life of Jesus. They become tangible and visible through the multiform of his activities. 

2. First of all, Jesus Christ appeals to the people of his times as the one who announces and inaugurates the Kingdom of God. He does this through his teaching, his deeds, and most of all through his person.

Jesus communicates to human beings as the teacher of wisdom par excellence. In the beatitudes, Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God and declares the essence of its program so his hearers could memorize, ponder and live by it (Mt. 5:1-12; Lk. 6:20-26). He uses the disposition of his audience, their values which are grounded in the socio-cultural and religious perception of Israel to explain to them and to introduce to them the meaning and substance of God’s kingdom. He comes not to destroy those values, but to bring them to the fullness (Mt. 5:17). The so-called antitheses in Mathew’s Gospel prove Jesus’ competence and authority as communicator: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors… But I say to you…” (Mt. 5:27-48). He performs his activities of teaching on any occasion and at any place.

While Jesus uses the words to explain the relevance and the content of the message of God’s kingdom, his parables and stories of everyday life “visualize” the reality of the Kingdom of God in the perception of his hearers. There is a wide range of human experiences and activities in use for the service of Jesus’ teaching: sons leaving home to live elsewhere; travelers beaten and robbed on the lonely road hidden treasures being discovered; farmers sowing seed; workers hired; women preparing the yeast in the flour; etc.

In addition, the miracles performed by Jesus belong to the same communication as words. They are signs which Jesus uses to attest to the words, and to manifest the Kingdom of God. In his theological reflection on Jesus’ miracles, René Latourelle underlines four functions of miracles: (1) communication (2) revelation (3) attestation and (4) liberation and enhancement. First, he emphasizes the communicative function of Jesus’ miracles. According to him, “they are not simply traces, or vestiges, of a presence and an action, but express an intention to seek inter-personal communication… Prior to any further specification, miracles thus have the function of communicating. They show God’s intention of entering into a dialogue of friendship with human beings”.[40] There are many stories, like the narratives of the possessed man (Mk 5:20), the leper (Mk 1:45), the blind man at Jericho (Mk 1852; Lk 18:43), the deaf man (Mk 7:31-37), etc. These people are separated and isolated. Because of their illness, they lose their communicative ability and possibility. By healing their illness, Jesus reestablishes their communicative ability and gives them the possibility to return into human society and into communion with the Father.

To summarize the way of Jesus’ communication in his proclaiming the Kingdom of God, one might say:

The means used by Jesus for His communication cover the whole range of non-verbal and verbal communications of His time and culture. He non-verbally communicates through actions like miracles, healing, touching, writing in the sand, expelling the sellers from the temple, etc. His actions, thus, can be communicating directly or symbolically, expressing a deeper meaning. He verbally communicates in preaching, teaching, dialogue, group sharing like with His disciples, and personal contact like with Nicodemus. His preaching uses parables, metaphors, proverbs, storytelling, and references to daily life experiences but also plain language.[41]

3. The Last Supper is the culmination of God’s communication which was introduced by the baptism of Jesus and was realized in Jesus’ mission. In this intimate scene, God, in and through Jesus Christ, gives himself and reveals himself as a living God whose being is a being for the other.

In the Last Supper, Jesus uses the special ritual of Israel to communicate God’s love in a deeper and new dimension. He takes the place of the housefather in Israel, who reminds his children of the wondrous deliverance of Israel from the Slavery of Egypt; in the Last Supper, Jesus introduces his disciples to a new dimension of God’s salvation. What is more, in this deeply touching and wonderful moment Jesus gives himself as the Lamb which saves and frees human beings (Mt. 26:26 ff.; Mk. 14:22 ff.; Lk. 22:19 ff.). He acts, in this point of view, as a friend who shares the intimate life with his friends up to the point of giving himself for the life of his friends (Jn. 15:13).

4. In Jesus’ Crucifixion, God speaks his “Yes” as an answer to a “No” of human beings who refuses God’s invitation to share in communal and communicative life.

All the teachings, activities, and the whole life of Jesus, aim at the full communion between God and humans. His testament to the disciples reveals this divine will “they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn. 17:21). Jesus communicates a movement “from God to men” in all his activities; he addresses his listeners and tries to bring to them the experience of God’s love. Based on this, people, as the response, may enter into communication and communion with God. At the same time there is vice versa in his whole life also, a movement “from humans toward God”. He not only introduces people to this way; in a communicative action, he himself goes this way. Moreover, he draws people into this movement. According to Greshake, the movement “from God to men” and “from men toward God” can be seen clearly in the event of the Cross. The Cross is, considered, from God’s view, the most radical sign God keeps up his offer to communication and communion even when the world refuses it. The Cross is the kenotic Yes of God to the No of human beings. In fact, God’s “Yes” is spoken into the absurd abyss between God and the world, created by a human “No” to divine love and life. At the same time, the Cross is characterized by a movement “from humans toward God”: it is a sacrifice which Christ as the “son of man” – representing humanity – gives to the Father. So we can say the Cross is a radical gesture of God's love he communicates to human beings, a silent gesture in the power of love.

All these moments of God's communication address the whole life of human beings. In other words, all aspects of the human life are embraced by the presence of a communicating God shown in Jesus Christ: from the beginning (baptism) until the end (crucifixion), but passes over to a new life in the Spirit (resurrection) as a new communicative being, a presence in communio with the Trinitarian God.

3.2 Characteristics of Jesus’ Communication

The most essential dimension of God’s self-communication in the New Testament is the fact that the Eternal Word of God is spoken by God himself – the Son. In this way, God fully communicates his intimate being to humanity. In Jesus Christ, God speaks directly from himself (Jn. 1:1-2, 18). The word of God, once passed on, interpreted, and pronounced by the prophets, becomes now “flesh” in a person. The high point of the divine self-communication in Jesus Christ is that he gives himself in love to human beings. According to Greshake, the Incarnation does not aim at instructing human beings that they finally “know” who God is and what this God demands. It is, in fact, an ultimate foundation of communication. Moreover, in this event, God unconditionally communicates himself to human beings. In his communication, Christ reveals to humans who God is, namely “God is love” (cf. 1 Jn. 4:8, 16). At the same time, he shows what human beings are: God’s children (cf. 1 Jn. 3:1), created in God’s image and likeness.

In the interplay of communication and communion, Christ is at once the expression and the exegete of God’s heart to human beings. He is “the perfect communicator”. Jesus Christ is the central symbol of the Christian religion. Rahner sees in the Incarnation "the absolute symbol of God in the World.”[42] This absolute symbol of God is “not merely the presence and revelation of what God is in himself. But He is also the expressive Being (Da-sein) of what – or rather who – God will be, in free grace, to the world, in such a way that this divine attitude, once so expressed, can never be reversed, but is and remains ultimate and unsurpassable”.[43]

Analyzing Jesus’ communication, Eilers points out some criteria which can serve as principles for any Christian communication:

• Jesus’ prayer and relation to his Father must be considered as the basis of His communication to people.

• In His communication, Jesus always starts from the life and life experience of His people. He is recipient-audience oriented but at the same time rooted in His mission from the Father.

• Jesus’ communication is embedded in Scripture. He shows in His communication how His message and mission are prepared already in the old covenant of Israel. 

• Jesus communicates also through question and answer.

• Jesus makes people think and challenges them in different ways of communicating to be honest in their lives and before God. They are challenged to set the proper priorities in their lives. He bares the masks of human communications and encourages and demands clear decisions (Mt 8:19ff; Lc 14:26f: Mc 10:17). He curses those who do not face reality in their lives and their vocations (cf. Lc 12:56; Mc 8:17f; Mt 23:13). 

• Jesus also communicates in the dialectic way of thesis and antithesis.

• Jesus puts people into crisis and confrontation but aims at change and conversion; it is finally not only a sharing of information but of life.

• Jesus, in His communication, reminds and admonishes people of their dignity, their duties, their being loved by the Father.

• Jesus encourages and invites to unity and oneness with God and others. He restores the communication which is blocked or interrupted by sin.

• Jesus’ communication has an eschatological dimension: His communication finds its final fulfillment only at the end of time.

4.     The Holy Spirit as Person-Gift and Agent of Divine Communication

In the story of God's self-communication, the Holy Spirit is at work as dynamic communicating power and movement. He is the dynamic and vivid “out-coming movement” of the Triune God which reaches out to creation, “as an extension of the ineffable communion of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”.[44] He takes part in the act of the creation (cf. Gen 1:1). He is present in creation at the beginning of God's salvific self-communication to the things he creates. He is active throughout the salvific history of God with his chosen people Israel. He comes upon persons whom God has chosen (Ex. 35:31; Jdg. 14:6; 1 Sam. 10:6, 10; 1 Sam. 16:13; 2 Ch. 15:1). Through him, man receives the communicative power to speak the word of God (2 Sam. 23:2; Ez. 11:5). He makes humans able to hear the words of God (Ez. 11:24). He renews the faith of Israel (Ez. 37:1ff.) and makes known the will of God (Mic. 3:8). He is also the one who enables Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna to see Jesus as the Messiah (Lk. 1:39ff. and 3:25ff.). He also crucially acts in the Incarnation as Person-love. In this perspective Pope John Paul says in his document Dominum et Vivificantem:

It (the Incarnation) was ‘brought about’ by that Spirit - consubstantial with the Father and the Son - who, in the absolute mystery of the Triune God, is the Person-love, the uncreated gift, who is the eternal source of every gift that comes from God in the order of creation, the direct principle and, in a certain sense, the subject of God’s self-communication in the order of grace... For the ‘fullness of time’ is matched by a particular fullness of the self-communication of the Triune God in the Holy Spirit. ‘By the power of the Holy Spirit’ the mystery of the ‘hypostatic union’ is brought about, that is, the union of the divine nature and the human nature, of the divinity and the humanity in the one Person of the Word-Son. When, at the moment of the Annunciation, Mary utters her ‘fiat’: ‘Be it done unto me according to your word,’ she conceives in a virginal way a man, the Son of Man, who is the Son of God. By means of this ‘humanization’ of the Word-Son the self-communication of God reaches its definitive fullness in the history of creation and salvation.”[45]

The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus as the true servant, the true prophet and the Son of God by Jesus’ baptism (Mt. 3:16ff.; Lk. 3:22, 23) (cf. DeV, Nos. 15-17). He is present in Jesus’ activities for the kingdom of God (Mt. 12:28). Through the Paschal mystery and resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is given to human beings as a Person-gift from the Father and the Son. At the Last Supper, Jesus speaks to his disciples from this Spirit: “I will send him (the Advocate) to you … and he will declare to you the things that are coming… He will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason, I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you” (cf. Gn. 16:7-16). According to Pope John Paul II, “the new, definitive revelation of the Holy Spirit, as a Person who is the gift, is accomplished at this precise moment”. Pentecost is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise. This event opens the era of the Church. In fact, it is a fundamental moment of Church’s communication. Carlo Martini calls Pentecost "the Gospel of communication". At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit enables the frightened disciples to communicate and open the channels of communication which was interrupted in the event of Babel. God here does “re-establish the possibility of simple and authentic communicating in the name of Jesus”.[46] This is the hour of the Church’s birth, the beginning of Church’s communication as “sign and instrument” of God’s communion in humanity. 

5.     The Church as Image of the Trinity - a Communicative Reality

God's self-communication in the history of Israel aims at making himself known to his Chosen People. His communication enables Israel to enter into the relationship with God in the covenant. Israel lives from the event on Sinai as communication partner of God which must follow the Decalogue. Living the faith, this people will be saved and witnesses with God's presence in their nation. Moreover, Israel should communicate the presence of God to other nations. This communicative happening is seen as the preparation of the Church that is to come about through the inauguration of the Kingdom of God by Jesus Christ.[47]

However, the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is the fullness of God's communication. God really communicates himself in a very personal way to human beings. In the words, in the works and in the presence of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God is brought about. Living in the Kingdom of God is living with the Son whom the Father has sent. Who comes in touch with Jesus, follows him, and lives in personal relationship with him, he will personally encounter God (Jn. 14: 9). When Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God and communicated God’s message to human beings, he chose first several disciples. He gave them a share in his life, through this a communal life with the Father. Jesus does not only incorporate the disciples into the life with the Trinitarian God, moreover, he demands them to share this life with other people. The foundation of the Church is based on this Trinitarian communion. At the same time, the Church is established by Christ with the goal that she should communicate God’s truth and grace to all people.[48] Therefore, she is in this mission “sign and instrument” of God’s self-communication.[49] The document Ad Gentes states that the Church is “a universal sacrament of salvation” for humanity. In this perspective, she is “missionary by her very nature.” Because of this, the Church is, by her very essence, communication. This mission is grounded in the love and self-communication of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.[50] Living in communicative communion with Christ and through the Holy Spirit, the Church communicates the Trinitarian reality to humanity. In this perspective, Dulles asserts that “the Church is communication.”[51] She realizes herself “a vast communication network designed to bring people out of their isolation and estrangement and to bring them individually and corporately into communion with God in Christ.”[52] In this way, the Church is, by her nature, the continuation of God's communication in every time and place. There are some fundamental aspects of this Church's communication dimension.

In a fundamental theological point of view, Jürgen Werbick considers Church's communication as standard category. According to him, revelation, faith, tradition, and ecclesiastical practices may be considered as basic communicative realities.[53] The Church’s communication to humanity happens in a dynamic communicative process in which the content of the faith is preserved and shared with the next generation. In this ongoing communication, the church shapes and keeps her identity, and develops her own institution in the midst of human society. All these are based on God's communication. In this way, the Church realizes herself as new communicative reality in the here and now of every time and space.

The new communicative reality is expressed through communio/koinonia. The Church should mirror the communicative essence of God in the midst of the world. Based on this, the Church realizes herself as the continuation of God’s communication to humanity. Through a life communion with God and among the faithful, the Church testifies to a “new communicative culture.”[54] The communio/koinonia concept follows the paradigm of the Early Christians (cf. Acts. 2:42; 4:34ff.) which is grounded in the communion with Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 1:4,5), and showed deeply in the Eucharist ((cf. 1 Cor. 10:16-21). All these build up the mystical body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. Chap. 12). This spiritual dimension of the Church’s communication can be seen in the theology of love by the evangelist John. God is love and one can be part of this love when s/he believes in God and in the Son whom God sends to communicate his love. One participates in this love if s/he remains in it (Jn. 15:9-10). From there, the Church gains her communio and the church as communio testifies to the unity of the Triune God (cf. 1 Jn 3:24; 4:15-17; Jn. 17:21-24). For this reason, the Church is also called “communio sanctorum” in which the faithful think of the gift of God’s self-communication and communicate this gift that guarantees their communion.

Based on the communion/communication with Christ and in the Holy Spirit and the communion/communication among the Church’s members, the Church is considered as a community which remembers, proclaims, interprets, and celebrates the communicating Word of God, but at the same time also as a community which communicates this message to the world. Here, the kerygmatic dimension of the Church comes to light. The Church performs this in the three basic ways of communicating: Martyria, Leiturgia, and Diakonia.[55] When we accept the five communication models of the Church, developed by Dulles[56], as communication structure, the concept of communio/koinonia, realized in kerygmatic form and in the three basic ways Martyria, Leiturgia, and Diakonia, should permeate the entire structure of the Church. In this way the Church is more a communicative reality than institution. She lives in view of communication and communion for the sake of human's communion with God. 

The reciprocal self-communication of God in his innermost mysterious life, his self-communication in human history, presented in the history of Israel, the divine self-communication in the Incarnation, and the continuation of God's self-communication in and through the Church has set up the frame for communication theology. Such a theology is the basis for the Church as communication. Therefore, communication theology primarily concerns itself with the essence of the Church as communication. It less focuses on the use of communication instruments. For this reason, the whole of theology must be considered under the perspective of communication. As a consequence, all fundamental aspects of communication, driven from the self-communication of God, must be pervasive in all theological disciplines. Based on the essence of the Church as communication, the Christian communicator may shape the inner disposition for communication and deals with the communicative reality of human beings with its potentials of communication, and with the respective situation.

6.     Conclusion

God's self-communication is the source of human life and human communication. The divine self-communication shows itself in the Trinity, the revelation, the Incarnation, and embodied in the Church is the grammar of communication theology. Such a theology should be a formation program in Church's theological institutes, especially in its priestly formation. Further, communication theology leads to deepening the dimensions of communication in all its different theological disciplines in order to fecundate the respective fields of those disciplines. It helps Christian communicators to form disposition in communicating with other people from different social backgrounds, cultures, and religions. Based on God's communication, Christians can develop a proper attitude in the process of social communication to contribute to the improvement and unity of human society.[57] It gives enlightening insights to those who concern themselves with human social communication. In turn, studying communication theology, one will be led to a communicative exchange with other sciences like anthropology, culturology, psychology, sociology, etc... In this way the Church can effectively face the challenges and problems of social communication in the modern world of today, especially when she will give orientation and direction to young people who are the most affected persons in living under the influence of modern communication. 

In Christian understanding one can say: we may miscommunicate, but we cannot not communicate because human beings are created by a communicating God, in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). Communication must happen for the sake of unity among humans themselves and with God, their constantly communicating God.

References

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“Aetatis Novae”: Pastoral Instruction on Social Communications on the 20th Anniversary of “Communio et Progressio”, published by the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, February 22, 1992. In: Eilers, Franz-Josef. Church and Social Communication. Manila: Logos 2nd Ed. 1997.

“Communio et Progressio”: Pastoral Instruction for the Application of the Degree of the Second Vatican Council on the Means of Social Communication, published by the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, May 23, 1971. In: Eilers, Franz-Josef. Church and Social Communication. Manila: Logos 2nd Ed. 1997.

“Dei Verbum”: The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation of the Vatican Council II. November 18, 1965. In: Flannery, Austin (Ed.). Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents. North Port NY: Costello Publishing 1996.

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Latourelle, René. Theology of Revelation. New York: Alba House 1967.
______________. The Miracles of Jesus and the Theology of Miracles. New York: Paulis Press 1988. 

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O'Collins, Gerald, and Kroeger, James. Jesus: A Portrait. Philippine Edition, Manila: Claretian Publications and Jesuit Communications 2010.

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Pearson, Judy C. & Nelson, Paul E. An Introduction to Human Communication: Understanding and Sharing. McGraw-Hill 8th Ed. 2000. 

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______________. Grundfragen der Ekklesiologie. Freiburg: Herder 2009.

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Greshake, Gisberts. Der Ursprung der Kommunikationsidee. In: Communicatio Socialis. International Zeitschift für Kommunikation in Religion, Kirche und Gesellschaft. 35. Jahrgang 2002/1.

Häring, Bernhard. Theologie der Kommunikation und theologische Meinungsbildung. In: Kirche und Publizistik. Eilers, Franz-Josef; Höller, Karl; Hosse, Josef; Schmolke, Michael (ed.). München - Paderborn - Wien: Ferdinand Schöningh 1972.

Henrici, Peter. Überlegung zu einer Theologie der Kommunkation. In: Seminarium. No. 4.. Rome: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. October-December 1986.

Hemmerle, Klaus. Kommunikation der Kirche - Kirche der Kommunikation. In: "Communicatio Socialis", 1977, Vol. 10, No.4.

Dictionaries

A Concise Dictionary of Theology: Revised and expanded edition. O'Collins Gerald S.J. and Farrugia Edward G. S.J. (Eds.). Quezon City: Claretian Publication 2001.

Lexikon der Katholischen Dogmatik. Wolfgang Beinert (ed.). Freiburg-Basel-Wien: Herder 1987.

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Footnotes

[1] Gisbert Greshake, Eine Trinitarische Theologie, Freiburg: Herder 1997 (3rd edition), 15.

[2] “Dei Verbum”, nos 1-4.

[3] Gerald O’Collins and Edward G. Farrugia (ed.), A Concise Dictionary of Theology: Revised and Expanded Edition, Quezon City: Claretian Publication, 2001, 239.

[4] Karl Rahner, Grundkurs des Glaubens: Einführung in den Begriff des Christentums, Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder 1984, 126.

[5] Avery Dulles, The Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System, Dublin: Crossroad, 1992, 21.

[6] Gisbert Greshake, Eine Trinitarische Theologie, Freiburg: Herder, 1997 (3rd edition), 51-55.

[7] Gisbert Greshake, Eine Trinitarische Theologie, 179.

[8] Gisbert Greshake, Eine Trinitarische Theologie, 184-188.

[9] Gisbert Greshake, Eine Trinitarische Theologie, 196-199.

[10] Carlo M. Martini, Effata “Apriti”; Il Lembo del Mantello, Milano: Centro Ambrosiano di Documentazione e Studi Religiosi, 1990, no. 25.

[11] Carlo M. Martini, Effata “Apriti”, no. 26.

[12] Häring, Bernhard, Free and Faithful in Christ: Moral Theology for Priests and Laity, Vol. 2., London: St. Paul Publications 1979, 155.

[13] Avery Dulles, The Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System, 38.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Karl Rahner, Schriften zur Theologie, Einsiedeln-Zürich-Köln: Benzinger, 1967, 293.

[16] Karl Rahner, Schriften zur Theologie, 278.

[17] Ibid., 290.

[18] Bernhard Häring, „Theologie der Kommunikation und theologische Meinungsbildung“, in Kirche und Publizistik, Eilers, Franz-Josef; Höller, Karl; Hosse, Josef; Schmolke, Michael (ed.). München - Paderborn - Wien: Ferdinand Schöningh 1972, 39.

[19] Karl Rahner, The Trinity, New York: Herder and Herder, 1970, 34-35.

[20] Karl Rahner, Grundkurs des Glaubens, 122.

[21] Gisbert Greshake, Eine Trinitarische Theologie, 75, cf. 255-257.

[22] GS, No. 12.

[23] DV, no. 6.

[24] René Latourelle, Theology of Revelation, New York: Alba House, 1967, 21.

[25] Cf. René Latourelle, Theology of Revelation, 22.

[26] Franz-Josef Eilers, Communicating in Ministry and Mission: An Introduction to Pastoral and Evangelizing Communication, Manila: Logos, 2009, (3rd ed.), 27.

[27] Erich Zenger, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2008, 70.

[28] Franz-Josef Eilers, Communicating in Ministry and Mission, 27.

[29] Carlo M. Martini, Effata “apriti”, no. 20.

[30] Erich Zenger, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 71.

[31] Erich Zenger, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 15.

[32] Erich Zenger, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 157-169.

[33] René Latourelle, Theology of Revelation, 33.

[34] René Latourelle, Theology of Revelation, 34.

[35] René Latourelle, Theology of Revelation, 35.

[36] Erich Zenger, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 400-403.

[37] René Latourelle, Theology of Revelation, 30.

[38] Eiler, Communicating in Ministry and Mission: An Introduction to Pastoral and Evangelizing Communication, 28.

[39] Carlo M. Martini, Effata “apriti”, no. 30ff.

[40] René Latourelle, The Miracles of Jesus and the Theology of Miracles, New York: Paulis Press, 1988, 294.

[41] Franz-Josef Eilers, Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication, Manila: Logos, 2009, (4th ed.), 55.

[42] Karl Rahner, Schriften zur Theologie, 293.

[43] Karl Rahner, Schriften zur Theologie, 294.

[44] Dominum et Vivificantem, No. 11.

[45] Dominum et Vivificantem, no. 12.

[46] Carlo M. Martini, Effata “apriti”, no. 19.

[47] Lumen Gentium, no. 2.

[48] Lumen Gentium, no. 8.

[49] Lumen Gentium, no. 1.

[50] Ad Gentes, nos. 2-4.

[51] Avery Dulles, The Church is Communications, Multimedia International, 1972, 6.

[52] Avery Dulles, The Church and Communication, in Dulles Avery, The Reshaping of Catholicism: Current Challenges in the Theology of Church. San Francisco. Harper and Row 1988, 110.

[53] Jürgen Werbick, Kommunikation, in Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (LThK): Dictionary for Theology and Church. Walter Kaspers (ed.), Freiburg: Herder, 1997, 214.

[54] Cf. Jürgen Werbick, Grundfragen der Ekklesiologie, Freiburg Herder, 2009, 121-214.

[55] Jürgen Werbick, Den Glauben verantworten: Eine Fundamentaltheologie, Freiburg, Basel, Wien: Herder, 2005, (3rd ed.), 810.

[56] Avery Dulles, The Church and Communication, in: Dulles Avery, The Reshaping of Catholicism: Current Challenges in the Theology of Church, San Francisco, Harper and Row 1988, 112-122.

[57] Communio et Progressio, no. 1.