Church and Communication: The Church's Teaching on Social Communication and its Application in the Congolese Local Churches.
| dc.contributor.author | Nzabara-Ntuma, Paluicu | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-07-27T06:49:25Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-07-27T06:49:25Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2005 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The Church is all about communication with and of God. Vatican H, in its dogmatic constitution Del Verbum, corroborates this reality and shows that the Church's essence is about communication with God and among her members for "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company." It follows that the Church cannot do without communication since she is intimately connected with the mystery of the self-communication of God and the making known of his will. 1. Problematic The Church communicates. She communicates God to her members and at the same time she communicates with God. This communication has not been always easy for the Church. She faces many difficulties: political, social and economic. In other words, conditions of the time influence the way she communicates. 2. Hypothesis In her structure and mission the Church is communication. But sometimes, due to situations of the time she lives in, she fails to effectively communicate. Then, questions are: "How does the Church communicate?" "How does she understand communication?" "What are the problems she meets to not communicate effectively?" This essay tries to discuss these questions to evaluate some of the practical problems the concretisation of the teaching of the Church meets. 3. Structure of the Essay This essay is developed in three Chapters. Chapter one defines and develops the "reality Church" and the "notion communication" and their relationship. It also discusses the Church as essentially communication on the model of the Trinity. Chapter two goes down in history, from Jesus' communication to our days', and discusses the Church's attitude towards mass communication and brings out her present understanding of mass communication as culture creation factor. The third chapter discusses communication as approached by the National Episcopal Conference of Congo. It brings out the historical and political setups and the development of the relationship between the Congolese local Church and mass media. It stresses the fact that the Congolese Church positively uses mass communication for evangelisation. 4. Methodological Remarks and Sources To develop this essay, "Church and communication", I have used different approaches. A systematic approach helps analyze Church, communication and their nature. However, for the great part of the work, I approach the topic from a historical and pastoral/practical point of view. The main sources of my reflections are essentially the Church's documents on social communication. However, as they are many and treat various topics, I drew a lot from those concerned with the Church's attitude towards mass communication. This does not mean that I overlooked others, rather used available Church document on social communication providing doctrinal, historical and pastoral/practical elements to substantiate my reflections. In order to ensure objectivity to evaluate the application of the Church' s teaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I used some publications of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo of many relevant data and information concerning the topic, at the archive of the CENC.2 5. Limitations Though it was easy for me to get literatures related to the first and second chapters, it has not been easy for me to select data and information I needed from the National Episcopal Conference of Congo. This was so because of abundance of sources that were not necessarily helpful in my research. It took me more than two weeks, working day after the other, to get what was helpftil. Moreover, it was not possible for me to reach every and each individual diocese in order to get all information about what has been done or being done as far as communication is concerned. Thus, as a synthesis of theological and communicational reflections, this essay does not exhaust whatever could be said as regard to the theme. The empirical field research of the impact and extended application in the local Churches is still to be done. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12342/1308 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Tangaza University College | en_US |
| dc.subject | Social communication | en_US |
| dc.subject | Congo | en_US |
| dc.subject | Local churches | en_US |
| dc.title | Church and Communication: The Church's Teaching on Social Communication and its Application in the Congolese Local Churches. | en_US |
| dc.type | Long Essay | en_US |