Using the epideictic as a hermeneutic entrance, this paper argues that Pope Francis’ rhetoric of conciliation during his visit to the United States in September 2015 resonated with a majority of Americans because he identified and consubstantiated with American society, American values, and American people in both word and deed. Casting himself as a brother and friend with profound knowledge of American history and cultural realities, the Holy Father refrained from pontificating and criticizing; rather, he chose the path of fearless dialogue amplified with performative rhetoric.

'Philosophy of communication, culture, and mission’ traverses huge areas of human knowledge that embody the sharing of meaning and values which, at once, cement and transcend cultures. One aesthetic gateway that can tie together a reflection on the vast intellectual landscapes encapsulated in our topic, within the Catholic Intellectual tradition, rooted in the natural law and Judeo-Christian traditions, is the notion of ‘person.’ Persons are rational creatures of God, sharing meanings as communicators. They embody ideas that go into the making of cultures, and stand as subjects of mission in the communication of the liberating love of God that binds persons and promotes human progress. Other things being equal then, this paper essentially asserts that the traditional notion of ‘person’ provides a good ontological basis for an enriching understanding of philosophy of communication, culture, and mission.

Some recent cases related to free speech show that different forms of fundamentalism challenge the liberal notion of absolute tolerance. This situation can also express that liberal tolerance based on ethical skepticism is not enough to solve the moral problem of noxious speech. I briefly explore the historical context and the philosophical background where political rights like free speech were founded. During this process, the Church passes from condemning modernity to dialogue. Vatican II contains the new theoretical framework of the Church about the secular world. The magisterium of John Paul II on communication and freedom in the public sphere offers a new approach to media within the Church and a profound insight to the main dilemmas related to the exercise of freedom.

This study tested the moderating influence of the strength of social identification with religion on the relationship between similarity and dissimilarity in religious affiliations and the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships. One thousand five hundred and seventeen employed people, residing in India, responded to a survey from a subordinate perspective. The results of the survey provided support for the moderating influence of the strength of social identification with religion and further showed that at low levels of identification, the quality of the relationship was better in different-religion dyads than in samereligion ones. Hence the main implication is that studies have to consider moderators in examining the influence of demographic similarities/dissimilarities on LMX relationships as they can tease out the conditions under which the relationships hold.

This study situated in the area of media and religion in Africa investigates the emergence of Pentecostalism in Uganda and the creative use of radio and television by indigenous Pentecostal pastors. Informed by political economy and cultural studies perspectives, the research examines questions of media presence, ownership, message, and the influence of the socioeconomic and cultural environment in enabling the intersection of media and religion. Findings reveal a creative use of media by pastors for evangelism, mobilization of resources, and strategic political positioning in the country.

In 20th century Germany, theologian Paul Tillich witnessed the religious and political crises of his time, and he recognized the need for action at the appropriate time. Out of this rhetorical situation, he adopted the classical concept of kairos, which permeated his life and work. I argue that Tillich’s notion of kairos presents three new dimensions: the existential, the demonic, and the extension of the present into the future. Although he believed that his work only spoke to the “kairos of his time,” Tillich continues to address us today, urging us to seize the kairos of our own time, and challenging rhetorical theorists to rethink the notion of kairos.

“Cults” offer an opportunity to study religiously-associated actors who understand death very differently than mainstream faith communities. Here, we consider Heaven’s Gate members’ “exit statements,” recorded before the mass suicide that they believed was the next step for spiritual advancement. We pair Terror Management Theory (TMT), which investigates factors affecting anxiety toward death, with Burkean analyses of metaphor and equipment for living. We suggest that these statements’ metaphorical frames (including mass suicide as graduation and bodies as mere vehicles to be transcended) serve as strategies to decrease anxiety and fear surrounding death generally, but particularly of death by mass suicide.

During her brief life in the early nineteenth century, the Persian poet and theologian Táhirih advocated for a spiritual revolution. Authorities executed her for heresy in 1852. After death, Táhirih attracted admirers around the world; Western writers—especially women—have interpreted her history to argue for gender equality, religious renewal, and global interdependence. This Middle Eastern preacher has established a posthumous pulpit in the United States, as members of the Bahá’í Faith there have authored a dozen books about her. After introducing Táhirih’s rhetorical rebellions, this essay demonstrates her transnational influence by analyzing her afterlives in U.S. Bahá’í discourse.

This paper grounds the popular discussions of mindfulness in the U.S. that frame it as a self-help technique in the primary discourses of the Buddha, and cautions against an appropriation of mindfulness as an individualistic and a pragmatic tool. Specifically, I focus on the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (The Foundations of Mindfulness) that is part of the “long collection,” Digha Nikaya (DN), which includes a detailed discussion of the four noble truths and the noble eightfold path that explore the problem of suffering and liberation from suffering in human experience. The noble eightfold path offers a framework for the systematic training of mental faculties through three groups that are interrelated: virtue, concentration, and discernment. Mindfulness is part of the concentration group, which is part of a training that equally emphasizes virtue (moral discipline) and wisdom (discernment). Finally, I discuss communicative and epistemological implications of mindfulness discourses that present ways of knowing and beingin-the-world beyond self-centeredness.

This article examines liturgy through a responsiveness-oriented rhetorical analysis. Responsiveness is an emerging conception of rhetoric that brings focus to how people change their own habits. For Christians, this article finds that liturgical call-and-response can develop people’s rhetorical responsiveness because the scriptedness of responding simplifies what people should do/say, putting more emphasis on people’s participation and their willingness to be drawn in. These findings are then extended through examining two moments in a larger project, which show that liturgy can be adapted for antiracist rhetorical work outside of worship services, in that liturgy allows people to listen, participate without dominating, and subordinate themselves to a common spiritual goal. Overall, this article contributes to work on religious rhetoric, race, and rhetorical theory.

Recent research has revealed a prominent ‘political parallelism’ phenomenon in the coverage of Islam and Muslims. The studies have evidenced that the coverage of Islam and Muslims is widely influenced by the ideological leanings of the newspapers. This paper is set to explore whether the ideological differences of the Australian newspapers are reflected in the coverage of Islam and Muslims during January 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017. Employing Van Dijk’s (1998) ideological square and lexicalization approaches within the CDA paradigm, this study examined editorials from two leading Australian newspapers. The findings have validated the existence of the ‘political parallelism’ discourse in the editorial contents of the selected newspapers representing Islam and Muslims.

When a mission ends, missionaries must make sense of their experiences, themselves, and their lives going forward. This process of sensemaking and its implications for religious organizations’ communication with members who occupy terminal roles is the focus of this study. Based on ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews with former missionaries in one organization, two distinct and divergent patterns of missionaries’ sensemaking and role exit emerged. Finisher sensemaking involved deidentification with vocational ministry, leaving the sending organization, and (re)constructing multiple identities through an arduous process of identity work. Conversely, bypasser sensemaking drew upon the sending organization as a resource to sustain a deep identification with vocational ministry. Thus bypassers positioned themselves as essential members and reidentified with new roles in the organization. The ongoing study of communication in/about terminal roles in religious and other totalistic organizations is discussed as well as practical implications for organizations and their members.

Andrew Peterson’s contemporary worship song “Is He Worthy?” quickly gained popularity through its call-and-response format, praise of a worthy Redeemer, and celebration of a Church made up of members from every culture. However, his video was criticized for lacking any people of color, and subsequent videos by Chris Tomlin and Shane & Shane displayed the same lack of diversity. Applying Walter Brueggemann’s conceptual framework to “Is He Worthy,” we find that the lyrics and musical composition powerfully express prophetic imagination, while the recorded performances reveal the persistence of royal consciousness (in the form of whiteness) in Contemporary Worship Music. We conclude that overcoming this inertia will require collaboration with worship leaders of color.

This study is a conceptual analysis of the role that online jihadist magazines play in the process of Islamic terrorist radicalization. This topic is essential because it demonstrates how successful jihad propagandists have been at finding new ways to radicalize new and potential recruits—often a young target audience—into the Salafist-jihadist doctrine. The four specific magazines examined are Al-Qaeda’s Inspire, ISIS’s Dabiq and Rumiyah, and Al-Shabaab’s Gaidi Mtaani. These units of analysis were selected because they remain the most influential online magazines in the jihadist world today. An important conclusion is that, although Islamic terrorist radicalization still happens offline (through face-to-face meetings, group communication, or various rituals), internet content that promotes jihadism can yield equally damaging consequences in the real-world environment, as demonstrated by a myriad of terrorist attacks (in Europe and the United States) that were inspired by those online magazines.