Communication Theology: Resource Sheet

By Frances Forde Plude

[History, analytical frameworks, and resources (partial bibliography below).] 

History to Date

  • Seminars on Communication & Theology, Gregorian, Rome

  • Sheed & Ward books: Communication, Culture & Theology series

  • CTSA annual seminars for almost a decade

  • Media, Religion and Culture seminars in U.S., Scotland, Sweden, others

  • Communication Theology courses taught at several institutions

  • Formation programs, Rome, Manila, Dayton (for ministerial leaders)

  • 30 theology doctoral students, globally, exploring communication

  • Support of the International Study Commission on Media, Religion and Culture (with linkages on several continents) 

Genres of Communication Studies

  • Structural/Functional theories: language, social systems

  • Cognitive/Behavioral theories: psychology, the individual

  • Interpretive theories: phenomenology, hermeneutics

  • Critical theories: society, social practice (Marxism, feminism)

  • Interactional theories: social life as a process of interactions

Five Possible Interfaces Between Theology & Communication

  • Theology and Communication
    (borrowing communication uses, constructs: linguistics, culture, texts)

  • Communicative Theology
    (communication-centered, communication-oriented theology)

  • Systematic Theology of Communication
    (communication as a specific discipline within systematic theology)

  • Pastoral Theology of Communication
    (cultural studies, ministries, catechesis, preaching, formation)

  • Christian Moral Vision of Communication
    (practice and policymaking; participatory communication) 

Selected Resources

Sample CTSA Communication Theology Seminars:

  • Communication Theology Dialogue: Soukup, Plude, Philibert

  • Trinity as Self-Communication: John R. Sachs, S.J.

  • Narrative Within Communication Theology: Terrence W. Tilley

  • Preaching as Communication Theology: Mary Catherine Hilkert, O.P.

  • Nothing Sacred as Communication Theology: Bill Cain, Kevin Bradt

  • Reception Within Communication Theology: Richard Gaillardetz

  • Cultural Contest for Communication Theology: Kathryn Tanner

Sheed & Ward Communication, Culture & Theology books (Sheed & Ward is now Rowman & Littlefield): 

  • Fidelity & Translation: Communicating the Bible in New Media

  • From One Medium to Another: The Bible and Multimedia

  • New Image of Religious Film

  • Imaging the Divine: Jesus and Christ Figures in Film

  • Media, Culture and Catholicism

  • Communication and Lonergan

  • Mass Media and the Moral Imagination

  • The Church and Communication

Additional References

Bonnot, B., “Basics in Communication Theology,” UNDA Newsletter 

Bonnot, B., “Communication and Excommunication,” New Theology Review, February 1996

Boomershine, Thomas, “Christian Community and Technologies of the Word,” unpublished paper

Bradt, Kevin, Story Theology, Sheed & Ward

Carey, James (1989), Communication as Culture, Unwin Hyman 

Cormier, Jay (1990) New Bells for New Steeples: Communication Strategies for Building Parish Community, Sheed & Ward

Dulles, Avery (1988) “The Church and Communications,” in The Reshaping of Catholicism, Harper & Row

Eilers, F. J. (1994) Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication, and Church and Social Communication: Basic Documents, Manila: Logos 

Felton, Daniel J., Five Interfaces Between Theology and Communication, Gregorian University dissertation

Gaillardetz, Richard (1999) Transforming Our Days, Crossroad 

Goethals, Gregor (1990) The Electronic Golden Calf: Images, Religion and the Making of Meaning, Cowley 

Greeley, A., God in Popular Culture and The Catholic Imagination 

Hἃring, Bernard (1979) “Ethics of Communication,” in Free and Faithful in Christ, Crossroad 

Hoover, Stewart, Lundry, Knut (1997) Rethinking Media, Religion and Culture, Sage 

Lonergan, Bernard (1971) “Communications,” in Method in Theology

Martín-Barbero, J. (1993) Communication, Culture and Hegemony: From the Media to Mediations, Sage

Martini, Carlo Maria (1994) Communicating Christ to the World

McDonnell, J and Trampiets, F. (1989) Communicating Faith in a Technological Age, St. Paul Press

Morgan, David (1998) Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images, University of California Press

Ong, Walter, “Communications Media and the State of Theology,” in Media, Culture and Catholicism, Paul Soukup, Ed.

Patrick, Anne, “Mass Media and the Enlargement of Moral Sensibility,” in Mass Media and the Moral Imagination

Plude, Frances (1995) “How Communication Studies Can Help Us to Bridge the Gap in Our Theology Metaphors,” New Theology Review, November 1995 

Plude, Frances (1999) “Communication Theology: Report on a Construction Project” 

Pottmeyer, Hermann, “Dialogue as a Model for Communication in the Church,” in The Church and Communication, Patrick Granfield, Ed.

Schreiter, R., The New Catholicity and Constructing Local Theologies

Soukup, P., Communication and Theology: Review of the Literature

Streeter, Carla Mae, “Preaching as a Form of Theological Communication,” in Communication and Lonergan 

Sullivan, Francis, “Ecumenism as Communication,” in The Church and Communication, Patrick Granfield, Ed.

Tanner, Katherine (1997) Theories of Culture: A New Agenda For Theology, Fortress Press

Tilley, Terrence (1985) Story Theology, Liturgical Press 

Vatican documents…

Inter Mirifica, Vatican II decree (1963)

Communio et Progressio: Pastoral Instruction on the Media, Public

Opinion and Human Progress (1971)

Aetatis Novae: Pastoral Instruction on Social Communication (1992)