Communicative Theology: An Introduction

February 2008

Dear Colleague:

Re: Communicative Theology

As many folks know, I have spent more than fifteen years working with colleagues on the new field of thought we have called Communication Theology (CT). My interest began at a Seminar in Rome on ‘Ecclesiology and Communication.’ It has grown with a decade of CT seminars Bob Bonnot and I have organized at the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) conventions – with strong support from CTSA leadership. These meetings have brought theologians and communication specialists together for dialogue.

You may also have heard of a movement called Communicative Theology, developed in Europe. This has been conceptualized and practiced by Matthias Scharer, professor of practical theology in the fields of catechetics and religion, University of Innsbruck, and Bernd Jochen Hilberath, professor of dogmatic theology and the history of dogma, University of Tübingen.

Two U.S. theologians have linked with this work: Bradford Hinze at Fordham and Mary Ann Hinsdale, IHM, at Boston College. From February 28 to March 1, at Fordham, a small group has been invited to meet Scharer and Hilberath and participate in a Symposium on Communicative Theology around the theme: “The Gift and Challenge of Intercultural Communication.” I have been invited and will attend. 

This symposium will consist largely of small groups, with a leader, and will utilize the process of Theme-Centered Interaction (TCI) developed by the psychoanalyst and social-education theorist, Ruth C. Cohn. The integration of the TCI hermeneutic into Theology is explained in a soon-to-be-published translation of The Practice of Communicative Theology: Introduction to a New Theological Culture (Crossroad).

After studying the Scharer/Hilberath book I must say I respect greatly the work they have done. I especially admire how their work has practical application “on the ground.” What we have been doing I would consider (in their words) ‘theology at the desk’. 

I feel both CT tracks can complement and enrich each other.

I have provided below some key ideas from the Scharer/Hilberath book. 

Scharer, Matthias and Hilberath, Bernd Jochen, The Practice of Communicative Theology: Introduction to a New Theological Culture, NY: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2008.

Selected Ideas (Organized by Frances Forde Plude)

The theological work of Scharer and Hilberath represents pedagogy, group process and adult faith formation influenced by Theme-Centered Interaction (TCI), developed by Ruth C. Cohn. The authors have developed a series of five-day seminars for persons working in ecclesial communities and in schools. They have also organized two large meetings at the University of Innsbruck and in Stuttgart. The US theologian Bradford Hinze has been present at the European conferences and has written the Introduction to this book.

Hinze notes in his Introduction there have been four influential approaches to modes of communication in North American theology (p. 3ff):

  • dialogical personalism in the life of faith

  • a hermeneutic of discourse in the church, academy, and society

  • communication in the construction of local theologies; and

  • the ‘new Areopagus’ established by modern communication technologies.

Hinze states: 

(These authors) are experimenting with, and reflecting on, group processes that promote personal and collective discernment and decision making in the church. Their main achievement is that they have developed a theologically integrated approach to group communicative practices… that speaks out of the word and the spirit of the Second Vatican Council… (and) embodies some of the most important insights into the practices of Base Christian Communities and Small Christian Communities… (p. 9)

See Model below:

Vocabulary and Models of Communicative Theology and Theme Centered Interaction

(Ruth Cohn’s Model)           (Scharer/Hilberath Communicative Theology)

I                                               = Individuals with their life and faith history

We                                          = People in groups, communities, with their inter-communication

It (content)                              = The faith tradition

Globe (environment)              = The global reality of society and church

[The model is pictured with the first three in a triangle, enclosed in a circle Globe.]

Some Basic Principles of Communicative Theology

  • The practice of faith is a point of departure; this is a communicative process.

  • Communication between God and human beings reveals truth in relationship (p. 20).

  • The search for ‘truth in relationship’ characterizes theological inquiry as a communicative theology event (p. 20). 

  • In the relationship between theologians doing scholarly work and pastoral ministers working in parishes the former is ‘theology done in official quarters and imparted from the top down’… this may be correct, but it will not alter practice (p. 22).

  • Communicative Theology sees ‘conflict-rich confrontation at the border’ (from Habermas’s theory of communicative action); the ‘globe’ in which Communicative Theology takes place (God, the world) involves ‘confrontation and difference’ (p. 38). 

  • Communicative Theology remains open to issues of prayer, liturgy and mystical experiences (p. 39).

  • The fundamentalist refuses to go to the roots of communicative processes (p. 44).

  • Churches and theology cannot escape the globalization of communication nor the trend toward more effective communication. 

  • With Vatican II “the accent shifted from strictly unilateral communicative action on God’s part to differentiated and mutual action involving the human respondent, making the communicative event clearly recognizable as the defining feature” (p. 72). 

  • Today, “it is difficult to experience a church structured on hierarchical communication as being a credible witness to the participatory self-revelation of God” (p. 77).

Selective areas for further research/development noted by Scharer/Hilberath (p. 169ff):

  • Tools needed for analysis of the theology implicit in communication processes;

  • Identifying communicative theologies in diocesan synods, pastoral conferences, etc.

  • How can the TCI ‘communicative’ and the ‘systematic’ be reconciled with each other?

  • .How can input be structured so as not to distort the communication process?

[Other areas are also listed by the authors.]