This essay explores human-divine communicating as though it were between beings who are already connected. Such a reframing is suggested by recent research in human-divine communication, Christian contemplative non-dualistic attending and acting, the study of spirituality and pedagogy from a communication disciplinary angle, and non-linguistic means of communicating from studies using the ethnography of communication. From the perspective of a contemplative Christian spiritual director as well as a communication scholar, the concepts of contemplation, dialogue, interbeing, and connectedness are considered toward an expanded conceptualization of human-divine communication. The essay concludes with a series of questions and reflections highlighting the possibilities of communication research with such a reframing, including suggestions for future research.

This qualitative study investigated how individuals managed their religious identity at work. Christians, non-Christians, and non-religious (n = 320) from across the United States took an online, open-ended questionnaire. Rich information emerged from the data concerning the why and how of religious disclosure, what happened after disclosure, and what strategies should be used for the most positive disclosure outcomes. The findings suggested a religiously respectful culture depends on its individual members’ communicative practices. Religious conversations in the workplace were possible so long as individuals knew how to do so appropriately and effectively. Practical implications including best religious communication practices for employees and organizations were provided.

This article reviews several converging scholarship fields—internal communication, leadership, and workplace culture—coupled with the biblical principle of the imago dei (people’s intrinsic value stemming from being made in God’s image) to offer two propositions. First, Christian public relations scholars/faculty can integrate their faith into their research, grounding their understanding and practice of “excellent” public relations in the concept of imago dei; they can also equip their students to approach their learning and future practice of public relations in the same way. Second, Christian public relations practitioners basing their work in the imago dei concept can help their organizations reap associated relational and productivity outcomes through encouraging particular leadership strategies, practicing “excellent” internal public relations, and fostering an employee-valuing workplace culture.

The elections of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 to the role of President of the United States were noted as benchmarks in our country's history. There was a strong societal belief that his historic elections reflected a shift in societal attitudes towards racial differences, primarily between Whites and people of color, specifically African Americans; however, public discourse over time revealed deep-seated hate for the country's first African American president. Despite his efforts to fight for social justice for all, he received unrelenting opposition from Congress, and the US public was subjected to horrifying racial attacks on Obama, his wife Michelle, and his daughters that went largely ignored and dismissed. The racist tenor of the US became much clearer with the election of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential run. What is more troubling is that Christian evangelicals came out in full force to elect a man whose very being is the antithesis of what it means to be a Christian. To better understand this national and global phenomenon, this critical essay will explore the various arguments that White Christian evangelicals have used to rationalize the election of a man whose policies and behaviors are in direct opposition of Christian ideologies and sensibilities. This contradiction was not lost on many others within and outside of the Christian world, including Black Christians and other evangelical communities of color who have had a range of reactions to the racism that has been revealed by their fellow White believers. Thus this essay will offer greater insight into the gulf that exists in the racism of the Christian community through the lens of this historic political election. It will also aim to offer suggestions for reformation in the Christian community that can potentially serve as a model for positive race relations in society and the larger political landscape of the US.

Over the past eight years, the rhetoric of many pundits, politicians, and preachers has shifted from pronouncements about the beginning of a “post-racial” age to proclamations about the persistence of racism in the social fabric of the West. What of the tenacity of what Willie Jennings has called the “racialized imagination” owes to its genesis in religion?1 What if race is at heart a theological construct? This paper traces the genealogical accounts of Jennings and J. Kameron Carter, two recent contributors to the field of theological race studies,2 and contrasts them with common theological ways of thinking about Christian identity as a return to traditions of Western virtue.3 The paper closes by suggesting a way forward in resisting the sociopolitical order of whiteness through a scandalous mutual participation in joined bodies politic marked by difference and inhabiting shared space.

In this essay, we examine King’s rhetoric during the last year of his life, (April 4, 1967April 3, 1968)—focusing specifically on the issues of race. In examining several texts of King, we argue that King adopts a prophetic persona of a pessimistic prophet—especially when addressing issues of race and racism. In exploring King’s rhetoric and noting King’s directness and firmness when addressing the race issue, we argue that King’s rhetoric found a home in the African American prophetic tradition in his attempt to dismantle hegemonic politics and institutional racism. Specifically, we argue that Martin Luther King was radically dismantling white hegemony; and becoming one of the most hated men in America.

At its 2017 meeting, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) encountered controversy when it initially declined to debate a resolution condemning the “Alt-Right”—a movement representing ideologies that promote white nationalism in America. Given the SBC’s recent efforts to embrace diversity, many of the denomination’s members thought such a resolution would be supported. A version of the resolution was ultimately approved but only after the SBC faced accusations of bigotry. In this article, we argue that the controversy, although jarring, is instructive. Without open disagreement, expressions of suffering, and public redress, religious individuals and groups cannot heal wounds inflicted by racism.

Whereas biblical texts were used to justify the practice of discrimination and prejudice, Christian principles have also been the motivation for social activism. However, today it is arguable that the Christian church has lost sight of this mission in light of other goals such as expansion and profit. Rapper Lecrae Moore has been the topic of controversy as his music aims to carry out the mission of social justice by intentionally challenging the assumptions of whiteness rooted in the institution of the American Christian Church. Using Stewart’s (1980) functional approach to the rhetoric of social movements, this study examines the extent to which Lecrae uses his music to transform perceptions of history, transform perceptions of society, and prescribe a course of action. The mission of this research and arguably of Lecrae’s work is to hold people of the Christian faith across all races accountable to the mission and biblical commands of unity and social justice often overlooked or dismissed in the American church.

This article explores how Internet memes about religion present a distinct range of frames that offer distinct understandings of how religion is viewed in American culture. Through a critical overview of four research studies conducted on different meme strategies, genres, and forms of humor used to represent religious cultures in memetic discourse, we discover a tendency towards primarily negative messages about religious traditions and their believers online. The results are that meme messages can be seen as promoting religious stereotypes and serve as microaggressions objectifying the religious other. Based on my 2017 RCA Scholar of the Year lecture, this article suggests Martin Buber’s I-Thou relation can be used as a framework for reading Internet memes about religion in ways that lead to dialogue over distancing of religious traditions.

This paper analyzes two poems written by Sir Mohammed Iqbal, a 20th century philosopher-poet, who played a significant role in the Indian struggle for independence from the British Raj. I argue that in the Complaint and the Answer to the Complaint, Iqbal utilizes a Muslim jeremiad to construct an Indian-Muslim identity that is steeped in history yet looks towards new possibilities for people struggling under an oppressive colonial regime. The paper concludes that Iqbal combines elements of Biblical, conservative, and progressive jeremiads to dissolve the contradictions of tradition/progress and spirituality/political agitation that had immobilized his community.

The globalizing potential of digital communication technology evokes frequent comparisons, both hopeful and foreboding, to the Judeo-Christian story of the tower of Babel. Under the guiding metaphor of Babel, this paper integrates the sociological and theological dimensions of Jacques Ellul’s scholarship in an attempt to better understand the profound implications of la technique. To Ellul, the Tower of Babel represents the alienation and sacralization characteristic of the technological society. Yet the metaphor also provides a ray of hope for human flourishing, leveraging media ecology in the service of interpersonal communication while responding to the totalizing demands of the digital age.

This article discusses the rhetorical and pluralistic underpinnings of the 2010 novel The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta. It examines how the novel’s characters manage their lives after the “Sudden Departure,” a mysterious eschatological rapture event. By emphasizing the role of cooperative communication, the novel provides “pluralistic theater” wherein ideological rearrangement and pragmatic reasoning unfolds. By evaluating The Leftover’s “pluralistic theater,” the article establishes the novel as literary equipment that can help readers contemplate the fabric of democratic living and sustainable communicative relations. Moreover, it unpacks the value of eschatology and spirituality in driving such didactic aims.

Despite the steep decline in organized religious affiliation in the United States, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, has continued to see consistent growth and stability in the organization. One way this Church maintains its organizational and cultural structure is through its mission program. This program institutionalizes and standardizes a large-scale rite of passage so as to foster structural understanding and commitment. Using a structurational model of identification, this study examined the missionary experience of 38 prospective, active, and recently returned missionaries and how the missionary experience influences the rules and resources that make up an individual’s identity. Constant comparative analysis revealed that missionaries experienced a rite of passage through three identity-shaping processes: divestiture, individualizing the missionary identity, and mastering the missionary identity. Further, this study demonstrated that missionaries and returned missionaries use rules and resources developed through missionary service to influence the production and reproduction of the Mormon structure through individual development, family construction, and organizational service.

This study presents an intertextual narrative analysis of 524 news stories on 11 high profile faith healing cases involving death or life-threatening illness of a child. Analysis traced growth of the public narrative of faith healing through elements of news production, distribution, and consumption. Findings suggest, first, an epic narrative form that allowed growth of a conceptual narrative. Second, results suggest that framing of news is influenced more by proximity of related historical events than proximity of the current action to the audience. Lastly, results suggest that where religion and law clash, media narrative resigns religion to antenarrative.

Today, increasingly more Indonesian young women wear the hijab. This trend continues in Indonesia with the booming of pop culture – including fashion, film, and music – featuring Islamic themes. This article analyzes how the hijab shapes identity. In-depth interviews with 10 hijab-wearing university students were conducted, and results were analyzed using the perspectives of Social Identity and Identity Negotiation theories. The hijab is an important cultural symbol of social identity. The social categorization is evident in the respondents’ perception of non-hijab-wearing Muslim women; and their social identification is reinforced by the media’s portrayal of women in hijab. Fashion also plays a crucial part in identity negotiation.

This essay explores the apologetic value of arguments for faith that are built upon premises accepted by the skeptic—the kind of argument originally denoted by the term ad hominem. I illustrate the apologetic efficacy of ad hominem argument by working with the premise of ‘factuality.’ The skeptic supposes that facts may lead to scientific inferences but not to metaphysical ones compatible with religious faith. But, by examining the meaning of factual knowledge more closely, I undertake to show that it necessarily leads to conclusions about moral truth and freewill that lie outside the limits presupposed by skeptics. I conclude by considering how this argument type enables apologists to circumvent what Eric Voegelin has called modernity’s “prohibition of questions,” its tendency to rule out arguments for faith on procedural grounds.

The Catholic Church in Nigeria is vibrant. The presence of two emeriti Cardinals and a serving one in Abuja plus its array of human capital in terms of priests, religious and laity, as well as rich cultural dynamics, tells the story more. Despite this seeming flamboyance, the Church in the West African country has not reached its potentials. This qualitative paper, “Communication and Culture as Catalysts for Rewriting the African Narrative in the Nigerian Church” used the Cross-Culture theory as theoretical framework to ascertain the matter. It argued that lack of a unified theology of inculturation and implementing same, reliance on handouts from Europe and America, ethnicity and mediocrity are responsible for the backwardness. The study suggested developing an inculturated language of faith through creating a nexus between African communication and culture as ways of rewriting the African narrative in the Nigerian pastoral context. It concluded that effective communication and culture can create a new template not only in telling the Nigerian version of the narrative but in enabling the Church in Nigeria reach its full potentials.

This study claims the Mormon ideograph of <intelligence> limited church members’ capacity to conceptualize mental illness as a disease process and encouraged members to perceive prolonged mental illness as a failure of personal agency. I examine how two church insiders used culturetypal rhetoric to create a new emancipatory discourse that sanctioned medical intervention without requiring Mormons to surrender ideological commitments. Scholars have shown that altering ideographic control over a society is usually accomplished by those outside the power structure using counter-cultural rhetoric. Mormonism’s mental illness discourse demonstrates that insiders can introduce ideological reform without deconstructing a religious organization’s fundamental principles.

Communication played a central role in the development of the early Christian Church. This paper will examine public relations practices in the ministry of the Apostle Paul, examining the accuracy of describing his communication activities as a form of public relations. Furthermore, we will examine claims by public historians about Paul’s missionary work as a “public relations campaign.” This paper will argue that although the modern practice of public relations navigates an increasingly complex environment, there are manifestations of what can be considered early forms of public relations in Paul’s campaign to spread the gospel.