Communication Theology Status Report, June 2000

Prepared by Frances Forde Plude

Communication Theology at the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA)

There were five sessions at the CTSA San Jose convention of import for CT: Frances Forde Plude spoke on the topic to the Feminist Theologians’ group; links were forged with the Practical Theology group; Kathryn Tanner and Mary Hess looked at cultural studies in the CT Seminar; and two special sessions focused on computers due to the Silicon Valley locale. Several small-group meetings brought new ideas (and new people) into the project so there is a commitment from several to ongoing input. Younger theologians are among this group (including Tom Beaudoin, the author of Virtual Faith).

Next year the Communication Theology seminar within CTSA will focus upon music as a communication modality within today’s culture. We brainstormed this with younger theologians. We proposed to Peter Phan, the Vietnamese Vice President of CTSA, that his convention planning incorporate music throughout the program and he hopes, with our help, to do this. This was somewhat inspired by the UK’s Cambridge University “Theology Through the Arts” program explained last summer by Jeremy Begbie at a Media, Religion and Culture conference in Scotland.

Publication Plans

Jeremy Langford, Editor-in-Chief at Sheed and Ward Publishers, attended several CT discussions and is strongly committed to publishing CT materials.

  1. He has asked Paul Soukup and Fran Plude to be official co-editors of the Sheed and Ward Communication, Theology, and Culture series.

  2. He has agreed to energetically seek and publish new titles in the series.

  3. He agrees that these materials (and the existing 8 volumes in the series) need to have Web-based materials, etc., to enable users to unfold the books’ contents for teaching and pastoral ministry use.

  4. He hopes (through Paul Soukup’s American Bible Society Media Project involvement) to widen the distribution within Christian Booksellers.

Funding Efforts

Several discussions focused on components of a funding proposal which will be written this summer – to seek funds to support systematic discussions, for other project components and to allow theologians some subsidized time for writing.

Resource Materials

Communication Theology: Resource Sheet #1

History and Analytical Frameworks

  1. History to date

    a.     Seminars on Communication & Theology, Gregorian University, Rome

    b.     Eight Sheed & Ward books in series: Communication, Culture & Theology

    c.     CTSA annual seminars for almost a decade

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

    e.     Communication Theology courses taught at several institutions

    f.      Formation programs, Rome, Manila, Dayton for ministerial leaders

    g.     30 theology doctoral students globally are exploring communication

     

  2. Genres of Communication Studies

    a.      Structural/Functional theories: language, social systems

    b.     Cognitive/Behavioral theories: psychology, the individual

    c.     Interpretive theories: phenomenology, hermeneutics

    d.     Critical theories: society, social practice (Marxism, feminism)

    e.     Interactional theories: social life as a process of interactions

     

  3. Five possible Interfaces Between Theology & Communication

Developed by Daniel Felton

  1. Theology and Communication

    (borrowing communication uses, constructs: linguistics, culture, texts) 

  2. Communicative Theology

    (communication-centered, communication-oriented theology)

  3. Systematic Theology of Communication

    (communication as a specific discipline within systematic theology)

  4. Pastoral Theology of Communication

    (cultural studies, ministries, catechesis, preaching, formation) 

  5. Christian Moral Vision of Communication

    (practice and policy making; participatory communication)

Communication Theology: Resource Sheet #2

  1. Sample CTSA Communication Theology Seminars at CTSA

    a.     Communication Theology Dialogue: Soukup, Plude, Philibert

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

    c.     Narrative Within Communication Theology: Terrence W. Tilley

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

    e.     Nothing Sacred as Communication Theology: Bill Cain, Kevin Bradt

    f.      Reception Within Communication Theology: Richard Gaillardetz

    g.     Cultural Contest for Communication Theology: Kathryn Tanner

  2. Sheed & Ward/Communication, Culture & Theology books (available now at Rowman & Littlefield)

    a.     Fidelity & Translation: Communicating the Bible in New Media

    b.     From One Medium to Another: The Bible and Multimedia

    c.     New Image of Religious Film

    d.     Imaging the Divine: Jesus and Christ Figures in Film

    e.     Media, Culture and Catholicism

    f.      Communication and Lonergan

    g.     Mass Media and the Moral Imagination

    h.     The Church and Communication

  3. Other 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

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

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

Felton, Daniel, Five Interfaces Between Theology and Communication, Gregorian University

Gaillardetz, Richard (1999) Transforming Our Days, Crossroad

Goethals, Gregor (1990) The Electronic Golden Calf: Images,

Cowley, Religion and the Making of Meaning

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pottmeyer, Hermann, “Dialogue as a Model for Communication in the Church,” 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,” Communication and Lonergan

Sullivan, Francis, “Ecumenism as Communication,” in Granfield volume (above)

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)