The Word of God in Digital World
The Word of God in the Digital Word
Ta, Anh Vu
Introduction
Since modern inventions and technologies, humanity is situated in an era of enormous changes. Especially, modern media like cellphones, Internet, satellite, iPod, iPad, smartphones, etc. create a new situation of communications with far-reaching consequences. As a result, human communication experiences new situation with problems and challenges.
In 1990, Pope John Paul II called in his encyclical “the Areopagus of the modern age is the world of communications”[1]. Advances in modern technologies, especially in modern means of communication, tie people in the world closer together. We often hear from this phenomenon as “globalization” by which humanity is now living in a global village. Modern means of social communication have contributed to a great extent to the life of modern men, and have simultaneously great impact on the behavior of individuals, families as well as the society at large. The pope sees the necessity of involvement in the new possibility, created by modern media. However, he points out that “it is not enough to use the media simply to spread the Christian message and the Church's authentic teaching. It is also necessary to integrate that message into the ‘new culture’ created by modern communications”. And according to him, this new culture is composed of “new ways of communicating, new languages, new techniques, and a new psychology.”[2]
Christian communicators are facing this challenge:
· We are witnesses to the new situation of social communications. We ourselves are living within that situation. In this regard, we are also influenced by it.
· As Christian communicators we have the responsibility to integrate the Christian message into the new situation (culture). In doing so, we have to be aware of its challenging conditions: new ways of communicating, new languages, new techniques, and a new psychology.
All communicative activities of the Church aim at bringing the Word of God to human beings. From this perspective, there are two important elements coming into consideration: we should know what we communicate and at the same time we should know those to whom we communicate. This implies that the Church has to reflect God’s communication how He has communicated his Word in the history of humanity and what divine communication aims to reach. Further, the Church has to look after those with whom she communicates and the context in which those people are living. In other words, a communicative life with God and with human beings is constitutive for the Church as communicative reality.
Communication theology considers the whole of theology under the perspective of communication.[3] It studies the communicative dimension of God’s self-communication in the different theological fields in order to elaborate directions and guides for Christian communication within human society. From the perspective of communication theology, the mystery of the Trinitarian God is a life in which each divine person, - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit -, communicates himself to the other. His innermost being is “self-communication in communion and communion through self-communication.” The divine self-communication is the ground of created reality, especially of human life. From the inner Trinitarian life, God reaches out to create the world. His word, when is spoken out, calls human being into existence. Human beings are able to communicate because God has created them in his own image and likeness (Gen 1:26).[4]
Since the very beginning of the world and human existence God communicates his word and continues speaking it throughout human history. God addresses human beings in their concrete historical and cultural beings. Men response and according to men’s attitude toward his word, the Word of God takes effect in men’s life and their environment. The high point of the communicating Word of God is fulfilled in the incarnate Word Jesus Christ.
I. Some characteristics of modern communications in today’s society
At first view, modern means of social communication open up hitherto unimaginable possibilities for communicative exchanges in human society. They bring the world into home. They allow people to access quickly and easily to information. They facilitate different ways for education, advance international exchange in multidimensional perspective, e.g. political, economic, and scientific, etc. In other words, due to modern means social communications might serve to the unity and advancement of humans in society. The Church considers their contribution as “indispensable to the smooth functioning of modern society.”[5]
At this glimpse, digital media are to great extent flexible through which one can anytime and anywhere connect to the world outside. The information flow can be anytime updated and freely selectable. Furthermore, one speaks today of converging communication in which digital technology turns words, tones, and pictures into the computer language that are easily and swiftly to be transmitted. This leads to the change of language and symbols used by “digital citizens”. New and always highly sophisticated gadgets like iPhone, smartphone, iPad, intelligent notebooks, etc. contribute to the spread of this converging communication. This condition influences and forms the attitude of people in modern communication. Under the code word ‘Internet’, Pope John Paul II pointed out the phenomenon of modern social communication as he compared the Internet with the ‘Forum Romanum’: “where (Internet) politics and business were transacted, where religious duties were fulfilled, where much of the social life of the city took place, and where the best and the worst of human nature was on display. It was a crowded and bustling urban space, which both reflected the surrounding culture and created a culture of its own.”[6]
Internet, electronic mail, blogs, Facebook, You Tube, and the like lead to the emergence of vast number of online- or virtual communities in which people interact and share their interests, ideas, hobbies, and information. Based on this phenomenon, we are facing a change of social interaction and structure that need to be reflected further in details with specific studies.
However, there is certain ambivalence of the phenomenon of modern social communication created by modern means of communications. Within the limit of this paper, some ambivalent aspects given in modern social communication as concomitants will be only listed below, almost in form of questions while they are not thoroughly analyzed and reflected.
Due to modern means of social communication information, - nearly on any issue of life -, is at disposal of every one and the flow of information is plentiful and yet hardly to be reviewed and verified. Journalists are no longer ‘gate keepers’ who decide what should be published to general people. Nowadays, everybody can and must know what s/he should select from the large information source, placed at free disposal to all. How can one find the right information and which criteria should be used in order to make decision on this matter? In addition, one has to look at the reliability of the information given. This can be a message or a picture or a video clip uploaded on the web. With the digitalization pictures, tones, and speaks can be recorded, transformed into digital bits and finally made to single stream for certain purpose.[7] The question is raised here for example: Is that what we see (or read) real or true? Does this virtuality resemble reality? We also know some people in chat room or in other virtual room use a so called avatar. Beyond this there may be different imaginations or associations, not necessarily the true person that it represents. Despite common possibility for information choice at any will, the comfort to accomplish many daily life business (online-shopping, online-banking, entertainment, etc.) there is also a risk of loss of the privacy and intimacy of the person within this digital world.[8]
Similarly, one can experience problems and challenges in certain virtual communities in the vast social network. These communities come into existence when people meet together in the Internet and form different groups due to different interests: “self-help active groups, fan clubs, friendship networks, political discussions, religious prayer groups. They attract people from different backgrounds and with different agendas.”[9] Is the person one meets online the same in reality? How will or can one see the relationship with virtual people? How could the virtual connection end up? Only on the net or it does go further? To what extent does an online relationship influence the relationship in the real circumstance of the interlocutors? Moreover, the languages and symbols people use in the web are different to those one in daily life (e.g. shortage of the languages and emoticons). However, there is a new social structure, created through online communities, supported by computer network. Time difference and geographical distance play no more the crucial role in this virtual interaction.[10] In social network people join virtual communities, interact with the other, and exchange ideas and interest. Thereby, they create language and new forms or ways of communicating. They take part in shaping the community they are joining. New ‘life style’ comes out. Franz-Josef Eilers, when analyzing the phenomena of social communication in human history, he points out a factor which he calls Pro-sumer. This means that all the virtual members contribute to the shaping of the new life style, new world view, and at the same time they are consuming the ‘products’ they have created. All these aspects have to do with people’s behavior and psychology.[11]
In this context, Pope Benedict also states: “In the digital world, transmitting information increasingly means making it known within a social network where knowledge is shared in the context of personal exchanges.”[12] This should be seen as “dialogue, exchange, solidarity and the creation of positive relations”. Digital forum helps to build up new forms of interpersonal relations. At the same time, it has impact on the self-awareness and the way people look for their self-realization. Therefore, it is important to how to use this instrument properly, and moreover, how the authenticity is lived by people using this new possibility.
At this juncture, it is evidently clear that Christian communication has to come in due to the two reasons: as Christians we are sharing in the same world with other people, and within this world we have to communicate Christ to our fellow human beings. Primarily, Christian communication has its root in the divine communication, further in a communicative life with the Christian God. However, it is performed in historical and cultural context of human society. Yet God does go the same way when communicating his Word to the world, but with his inconceivable power and love that transforms human life. Looking at divine communication proffers critical perspectives which shape a vision of Christian communication. In the next session there are some essential aspects of the Word of God highlighted how it is communicated to and affects human beings in the process of divine communication.
II. A God who communicates his Word
“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.”[13]
The God of Christians is a God who speaks. He communicates his word to human beings and this happens concretely in the encounter between God and the people of Israel. God speaks; human beings listen and answer by faith and obedience. Israel perceives the word of God in this encounter. It experiences the power of God’s word through many different moments of its history. The encounter of Israel with God can be seen as a story of communication.[14]
1. The creative power of God’s word
God’s self-communication realizes itself in the communicated word of God that creates the visible reality and calls human being into existence. “All things came into being through him and without him nothing came to be” (Jn. 1:3). At the very beginning of the world and of human existence, God communicates his word. After this, the world emerges and human beings come into life. His word creates an order as life condition in which human being can live (Gen. 1; 2:1-7). Moreover, He creates human beings in his image and likeness so that human beings themselves can communicate. The creation story reports the first act of human being is that he speaks his word to name the creatures given to him by God (Gen. 1:27 and Gen. 2:19-20). God endows upon human being his creative power.[15]
2. The word of God communicated to human beings makes them to his communication partner.[16]
First of all, Abraham and Moses are the paradigmatic figures in the communication story of God with Israel. From biblical perspective, the communication story of God with human beings begins when God calls Abraham to leave his family and country in order to enter into a journey to a promised land (Gen. 12). It is actually a journey of faith, of an adventurous entering into a communicative process with God. Here, he becomes a father of faith, a blessing of the nations. As God’s partner he can communicate with God for the sake of other people (Gen. 18:16-33).
While Abraham is a symbol of response to the communicated word of God and of a great blessing for others due to his faithful attitude, Moses embodies the experience of liberation which is brought about through the divine word. It begins with his own story as he was saved on the Nil (Ex. 2:1-10), later on by the encounter with God in the land of Midian (chaps. 3&4)), then in communicating the message of God to the mighty Pharaoh (chaps. 5-14). Moses’ experience becomes then the experience of the whole Israel. As mediator between God and the people, Moses seeks for hearing the word of God and communicating it again to the people. At the same time, he listens to the cry of the people and brings it again before God (chap. 16; 17:1-7; 19, etc.).
3. The word of God constitutes new community, guides it and maintains it.
Israel came to know God when it experiences his power which delivers it from Egypt. Through the journey in the desert, it deepens step by step the faith in JHWH through many events which are accompanied and fulfilled by the word of God. However, the fundamental event of divine communication is the theophany on Sinai. At this event, God communicates his word (Decalogue: Ten Words) which ground the new existence of this people (Ex. 20:1-17; Deut. 5:6-21). Gratuitously, Israel receives the liberation by the hand of God: “I, the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery” (Ex. 20:2 & Deut. 5:6). On Sinai God makes a covenant with this people; it becomes God partner. God gives his people the commandments as guides for living in this relationship. Israel has to observe the commandments and this secures also the community life. For this reason, 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.
4. The word of God interprets human history and gives it a new meaning.
In the time of exile, God sends his prophets to speak his word in the midst of Israel’s religious and existential crisis. His word gives hope to the scattered people (Ezek. 33:1ff). In the situation of exile, God again communicates his word that interprets history and gives to it a new meaning. From the beginning of Israel’s history, God always sends his word and reveals his plan for Israel (Is. 45:18-20; 48:16-17). He holds the poles of history (Is. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12). In the midst of a national and religious crisis, Israel now hears the divine word which exercises a dynamic power upon all created reality (Is. 40:26; 45:12; 48:13). God’s word creates and interprets historical moment for Israel.
5. The incarnate Word of God – Jesus Christ
God’s self-communication reaches its climax in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The “Word becomes flesh” (Jn. 1:14). Jesus communicates the divine word in a particular and unsurpassable way: The eternal Word of God, the Son, is now expressed from the heart of the Father, becomes “flesh”, a Jew flesh. God seeks a common ground for communicating so that his word becomes intelligible to the hearers. Jesus’ life, thought, language, and teaching were totally rooted in the Jewish culture. From this perspective, the Word of God is both communicative and relational.
In the Incarnation of the Son, God does not aim at instructing human beings who he is and what he demands from them. In fact, the Incarnation is an ultimate communication foundation. Here, God shows human beings his unconditional love. Only in the relationship with God, human beings will finally know who he really is: He is love (1 Jn. 4:8, 16). And just in this relation, human beings will see who they are. This gives them eternal life here and now.
6. The Word of God in the Church
The Church is as “sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race”.[17] This indicates a two-dimensional communication character of the Church: (1) communion with God the Father, - in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit -, and living in union/solidarity with humanity. Like Jesus Christ has lived in close relationship with the Father when he communicates the Gospel to human beings, the Church is incorporated in Christ and entrusted by him to bring the experience of God to all people. Only when the Church lives by the Word of God and is inspired by that Word, can she efficaciously communicate the Word to others.[18] Only in celebrating and living the Word of God, the Church can effectively build up the community.
III. Some Considerations
The theological points above lead to some basic elements which are important for pastoral communication.
1. Communication as expression of divine Logos
In this perspective, communication means sharing the Word of God. Indeed, when we communicate with others, as human beings we are supposed to use the human language. Logos in human language, - in philosophical terms -, is the mold that casts and shapes what human beings express in their hearts, minds, and will. It carries and brings into existence their visions and creations, related to each other in joy, sorrow, and aspirations. Our human words should be inspired by the divine Logos. Our communication should reflect properly the image of divine Logos. With the words of Pope Benedict XVI “It (the Gospel) must become daily nourishment and not a fleeting attraction. The truth of the Gospel is not something to be consumed or used superficially; rather it is a gift that calls for a free response. Even when it is proclaimed in the virtual space of the web, the Gospel demands to be incarnated in the real world and linked to the real faces of our brothers and sisters, those with whom we share our daily lives.”[19]
From the biblical view, the divine Logos (or in Hebrew: dabbar) is the manifestation of the all-embracing and almighty divine will and plan. It is highly significant that, to reveal His identity and interact with the human being He had created, the God of Israel and of Jesus Christ chose this logos as the medium of creative activity and relational partnership. Moreover, the divine Logos Jesus Christ is the very personal expression which comes from the heart of the Father, visible and tangible through the Holy Spirit. Our words are not words of pure message; rather, they are words of concrete persons who live in relationship with the divine Logos and are thereby able to build up relationship: our words, therefore, are personal and relational.
2. Christian communication as sharing life or making life possible
The word of God word brings all things into existence and creates beneficent life conditions for human beings. This gives rise to consider that all our communications have to bear elements that enable human beings to live humanely. In other words, Christian communication shares in the dignity of the divine word and has responsibility for human life. It should bear in itself a spirit of life-promoting and life-encouraging. It should open human eyes to that dignity and show ways that lead human beings go beyond its humanness. It transcends their horizon. It opens perspectives for life (Jn. 6:68).
3. Christian communication has prophetic character: it construes human history and directs it to God.
Christian communication has to take seriously historical reality of human beings. This indicates that Christian communicators should be sensible and communicative persons. “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterance. Test everything; retain what is good” (1 Thess. 5:19-21). In this context, it is imperative that Christian communicators should conduct a life of complete docility to the Spirit, in the one hand, and should be open to others in a respectful and loving manner, in the other hand. “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear” (1 Pet. 3:15-16). “The proclamation of the Gospel requires a communication which is at once respectful and sensitive, which stimulates the heart and moves the conscience,”[20] that leads people to reflect on their self, their history and their society.
4. Christian communication is building up community, leading to communion with God.
“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life - for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us - what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 Jn 1:1-3). Communicating faith create relations. It is sharing experience of God’s presence in the world, especially in the life of human beings. It leads to communion among people themselves and with God.
Further, communication maintains the life of the community. The incarnate Word in the Midst of it should be the source of strength and of inspiration for the community life. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:16-17). “Encourage one another and build one another up… admonish the idle, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with all” (1 Thess. 5:14).
“To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes. As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ” (1 Cor. 12:7-12). Living this way is contributing to the establishing the Christian community, and growing in faith to God. What may a virtual community look like, if this attitude is shown?
IV. Jesus Christ – the master of communication[21]
Through Jesus Christ, the Word and Image of the invisible God are communicated to human beings. This happens in human words, and in a concrete cultural and social context.
“While He was on earth Christ revealed Himself as the Perfect Communicator. Through His «Incarnation», He utterly identified with those who were to receive His communication and He gave His message not only in words but in the whole manner of His life. He spoke from within, that is to say, from out of the press of His people. He preached the Divine message without fear or compromise. He adjusted to His people’s way of talking and to their pattern of thought. And He spoke out of the predicament of their time.”[22]
Jesus was belonging to the common folk, which were disdainfully called by the Scribes the ‘Am ha’aretz, the people of land, and which were neglected by the government’s administration. He was born and raised in this circumstance. His language is true to man; he was not a man of abstract, but exactly that one of the common folk. This is shown in his choice of the disciples, his audience, the style of his language, and the use of symbols in proclaiming and explaining the Kingdom of God. [23]
Jesus did not speak about God: His words, deeds, and his life reflect a deep filial relationship to God, his Father. His words were powerful precisely because they came from a deep authentic experience of this relationship. Coming from the heart of God, the Father, Jesus’ communication, therefore, is not theo-logy, but theo-phany.
Jesus’ words have authenticity and vitality. His disciples testified to this “You have the words of eternal life” (Jn. 6:68; cf. 1 Jn. 1:1). The authenticity of Jesus’ words is proved in his ultimate communicative gesture, viz. he gives himself in love. Thus, “Christ’s communication is, in fact, spirit and life.”[24] In his communication Jesus is a true man and at the same time he is true to God. From the very beginning of his life on earth until the end: annunciation of his birth, his baptism on the bank of Jordan, his public activities, his proclaiming of the Kingdom of God, his passion, death and resurrection, all these moments show a movement from God to men and a movement from men toward God. This is seen clearly in his crucifixion.
The Cross
Divine self-communication must also be considered from the perspective of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. As humans refuse the love of God, Jesus himself radically runs into the outermost suffering which sin has caused: not only violence, betrayal, torture and death, but also the experience of abandonment of God.
On the Cross the love of God seems to come at its limit because of humans’ No. The Cross is a sign of powerlessness of the almighty God who becomes weak because of love: he becomes silent. The Trinitarian God is in this perspective also the suffering God. However, just this suffering God, as he accepts the Cross through Jesus Christ, embraces also the “No” of human beings in his endless love. In this sense, the Cross is the very concrete sign of God’s revelation, as a sign from “above”. In the dramatic scene of the Cross, God sparsely speaks, but rather he ‘acts’ in the powerlessness of love. Symbolically, he shows human beings an ultimate gesture of his infinite love, a final act of God’s self-communication. In this way, God paradoxically presents his divine power of love.[25]
Lucien Legrand points out: “The most eloquent sermon of Jesus, the ultimate logos he bequeaths to humanity, is given in silence. Jesus communicates the Word not only through words and deeds but also through silence. Ultimately it is from the silence of the Cross and in the silence of the tomb that the message of Gods’ triumphant love is most forcefully proclaimed. On the Cross and through the Resurrection, the jubilant paschal message is proffered to the world without sound of word in its most radical form.”[26] The silence of the Cross is the perplexing and surprising form of God’s communication. The God who speaks is now the silent God. The Bible often gives account on silence of God (Ps. 22:2; 28:1; 83:2; Hab. 1:13) as if God wanted to be encountered in silence (Ps. 4:5; 94:17; 121:2; Is. 41:1).
From this perspective, Jesus’ communication should be the model for Christian communication. The authenticity and vitality of our communication are rooted in the relationship with Jesus Christ. “Remain in me, as I remain in you… Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:4-5). This is a dwelling in the presence of the Trinitarian God in which his voice is to be heard in the heart of each Christian, and the echo of his language is also to be listened to in and beyond the tumultuous expression of human expectations and anguish, joys and frustrations, triumph and agony. In order to communicate effectively the Word of God, Christian communicators need to use this creative silence, a silence in which the Holy Spirit teaches us the Word of God, explains to us its meaning and enables us to communicate it properly.
V. Summing up
The whole salvation history of God with human beings can be considered as a communication story. The word dabar is that what comes from the innermost of God’s heart. It contains a will, a plan for his people. That we can respond to God lies in the fact that God first communicates his word to human beings. Because dabar expresses that what is within the heart of God, it establishes a deep relation to the one who receives and answers to this call. In other words, God’s word is relational and calls for relationship.
The word of God brought all things into existence, especially created human being. It endows human person with the dignity of freedom, of reason and of the capability of language. Human cannot not communicate. From the perspective of a creation theology, Christian communication is life-giving and life-promoting.
Further, the word of God has a liberating power which delivers human beings from the slavery of idolatry, created by human beings themselves. It calls humans into living the relationship with God. Thereby, it safeguards and maintains that relationship.
The culmination of divine self-communication happens in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In this event God communication takes a very personal way. God’s communication seeks for commonness in order to make his word tangible and intelligible to human beings. In Jesus death and resurrection, God went to the radical end in order to prove the seriousness of his word.
The Church is a communicative reality within humanity which communicates the Word of God to the world. Like the divine Logos, Jesus Christ living in the deep relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Church can only perform this mission if she remains in Jesus. In this way, the Church is the continuation of God’s communication in the here and now of human society. Her communication bears in itself the characteristics of divine communication.
All communicative activities of the Church must be guided by the word of God, especially by the incarnate Word, whether within the mystical body of Christ or in other contexts of human communications. Christian communication must go beyond all human communication and lead to the encounter with the God who has come so that human being may have life and may have it in abundance (cf. Jn. 10:10).
“Among the new forms of mass communication, nowadays we need to recognize the increased role of the internet, which represents a new forum for making the Gospel heard. Yet we also need to be aware that the virtual world will never be able to replace the real world, and that evangelization will be able to make use of the virtual world offered by the new media in order to create meaningful relationships only if it is able to offer the personal contact which remains indispensable. In the world of the internet, which enables billions of images to appear on millions of screens throughout the world, the face of Christ needs to be seen and his voice heard, for .”[27]
References:
“Dei Verbum”: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Vatican II, November 1965.
“Lumen Gentium”: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Vatican II, November 1964.
“Redemptoris Missio”: John Paul’s Encyclical on the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Mandate, December 1990.
“Verbum Domini”: Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Benedict XVI, September 2010.
“Communio et Progressio”: On the Means of Social Communication, Pastoral Instruction of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, May 1971.
John Paul II, Internet: A New Forum for Proclaiming the Gospel, Message on the 36th World Communications Day, May 12th, 2002.
Pope Benedict XVI, Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age: Message for the 45th World Communications Day, Jun 5, 2011.
Franz-Josef Eilers, Communicating in Ministry and Mission: An Introduction to Pastoral and Evangelizing Communication, Manila: Logos Publications, Inc, 3rd ed. 2009.
Heidi Campbell, Exploring Religious Community Online: We are One in the Network, New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2005.
Robert S. Fortner, Communication, Media, and Identity, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007.
Anh Vu Ta, Communication Theology for Pastoral Communication as a New Approach, in Asian Horizons (Dharmaram Journal of Theology), Vol. 5, No. 3, September 2011.
Lucien Legrand, Jesus Christ as Communicator: Presentation at the 17th Meeting of Asian bishops for Social Communication, from Nov. 12-17, 21012 (17th Bishops Meet of Asian bishops for Social Communication).
[1] RM No. 37c.
[2] Ibd.
[3] Cf. Franz-Josef Eilers, Communicating in Ministry and Mission: An Introduction to Pastoral and Evangelizing Communication (Manila: Logos Publications, Inc, 3rd ed. 2009), 21-23.
[4] Anh Vu Ta, Communication Theology for Pastoral Communication as a New Approach, in: Asian Horizons (Dharmaram Journal of Theology), Vol. 5, No. 3, September 2011, 441.
[5] CeP No. 6.
[6] Pope John Paul II, Internet: A New Forum for Proclaiming the Gospel, Message on the 36th World Communications Day, May 12th, 2002, No. 2.
[7] Cf. Robert S. Fortner, Communication, Media, and Identity (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007), 211-213.
[8] Robert S. Fortner, Communication, Media, and Identity, 213-218.
[9] Heidi Campell, Exploring Religious Community Online: We are One in the Network (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2005), xiv.
[10] Id., 36-39.
[11] We have talked about this in our personal conversation. As Eilers showed me his presentation that should be given to the teachers of de La Salle University in Manila, he mentioned the term and explained his idea. There is not yet any publication of this paper.
[12] Pope Benedict XVI, Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age: Message for the 45th World Communications Day, Jun 5, 2011.
[13] DV No. 6.
[14] For more details see: Anh Vu Ta, Communication Theology for Pastoral Communication as a New Approach, 442-447.
[15] Cf. VD Nos. 7&9.
[16] Cf. VD No. 11.
[17] LG No. 1.
[18] Cf. VD Nos. 50, 51.
[19] Pope Benedict XVI, Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age: Message for the 45th World Communications Day, Jun 5, 2011.
[20] Pope Benedict XVI, Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age: Message for the 45th World Communications Day, Jun 5, 2011.
[21] Cf. CeP No. 11. The English translation: Jesus Christ, the Perfect Communicator. I used the German translation of this document: Jesus Christus, der Meister der Kommunikation.
[22] Ibd.
[23] Lucien Legrand, Jesus Christ as Communicator: Presentation at the 17th Meeting of Asian bishops for Social Communication, from Nov. 12-17, 21012 (17th Bishops Meet of Asian bishops for Social Communication).
[24] Cf. CeP No. 11.
[25] Anh Vu Ta, Communication Theology for Pastoral Communication as a New Approach, 450-451.
[26] Lucien Legrand, Jesus Christ as Communicator: Presentation at the 17th Meeting of the Asian Bishops for Social Communication, from Nov. 12-17, 21012 (17th Bishops Meet of Asian bishops for Social Communication).
[27] VD No. 113.
