This essay examines how the framework of semioethics coheres with Pope Francis’s existential dialogue and its application to ethical praxis enacted through spiritual, social, and phenomenological “networks of neighborliness.” Through an analysis of Pope Francis’s 48th and 53rd World Communications Day Messages, which emphasize his evaluation of global communication production systems, specifically, socially mediated networks, this essay explains how the mutual aims of semioethics and Pope Francis’s dialogic ethics coalesce around the interrelated, material, and metaphorical coordinates of “the net” and “neighborliness” to invitean indifferent world to dialogic conversion.

This essay examines how the framework of semioethics coheres with Pope Francis’sexistential dialogue and its application to ethical praxis enacted through spiritual, social, andphenomenological “networks of neighborliness.” Through an analysis of Pope Francis’s 48th and53rd World Communications Day Messages, which emphasize his evaluation of globalcommunication production systems, specifically, socially mediated networks, this essay explainshow the mutual aims of semioethics and Pope Francis’s dialogic ethics coalesce around theinterrelated, material, and metaphorical coordinates of “the net” and “neighborliness” to invitean indifferent world to dialogic conversion.

In this paper, I discuss and theorize the semiosis that occurs when poetizing about dynamic, addressing, and mysterious Being-physis. Such poetizing is beneficial for the grasp of the natural law and, thus, for ethical formation. The defense of the natural law and its prescribed basic goods still is hindered to some extent by the modernist milieu that persists even today in our so-called postmodern era. I confront the lingering Cartesian spirit in its various modes—viz., the reductive obsession with speculative self-evident propositions as a foundation for moral ideas well as the tendency to trace the source of all intelligible insights to the subjective consciousness—in order to develop a different approach towards the defense of the natural law. Specifically, I marshal ideas in the later Martin Heidegger and the Thomistic tradition, including ideas in John of St. Thomas’ semiotics as retrieved by John Deely, to articulate the importance of “Anwesen arche-tecture” qua the environing of Being-physis and the poetizing of the same to amplify the voice of the natural law. I analyze the process of symbolic externalization when poetizing Being and consider the metaphysical implications of the medium’s contribution to semiosis, which would include an anti-nominalist theory of relations and an account of participated intentionality, and thus, of esse-in-the-world. This paper is a Thomistic appropriation of Heideggerian themes for “semioethical” or “significal” theorizing, moving back and forth (“translating”) across different philosophical paradigms and discourses to locate the matter (die Sache) for thinking.

St. Catherine of Siena’s life and writings illustrate the ways a person’s communication can provide guidance to others. Catherine exemplifies a dialogic responsiveness and commitment to semioethics by embodying her narrative tradition with an attentiveness toward charity and love toward others. Through an exploration of Catherine’s participation in society, giving specific attention to her effort to communicate with other people, this essay tells the story of St. Catherineof Siena; discusses her semioethics responsiveness through uncovering her dialogic approach grounded in the Catholic intellectual tradition; and addresses her responsiveness to others, using her letters to demonstrate her semioethics.

Karl Jaspers was among the world’s foremost existentialist philosophers. This article introduces Jaspers’s notion of “listening to” or “reading” spiritually significant symbols in order to encounter the sacred within our natural and material environments. An attempt is made to convey Jaspers’s background, his philosophy of cypher-listening, his place within existential philosophy, his relation to religion, and the relevance of his early existential philosophizing for our own 21st-century era of “existential threat.” Expanding traditional conceptions of “communication” to include human-and-nature and human-and-divine encounters is also encouraged.

The coronavirus pandemic provided opportunity to examine resilience and struggle of people living in lockdown isolation by proposing contract and covenant worldviews as moderating factors in relational communication. A survey completed by 238 individuals indicated that higher scores on religious covenantalism and lower on non-religious contractualism predicted increased well-being and decreased relational struggle. Specifically, “covenanters” were more likely to report higher rates of general coping, perceived social support, interpersonal trust, and satisfaction with life, and lower rates of interpersonal aggression, anxiety, social phobia, and loneliness compared to their “contractor” counterparts. We discuss results in terms of models of relating, struggle and repair, and the role of religious community and communication to buffer pandemic hardships.

Throughout the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century, Charles Grandison Finney distinguished himself as the most successful evangelical preacher in the United States. Trained as a lawyer before converting to Christianity and its ministry, Finney came to the pulpit with a fiercely rational and accusatory style that placed demands upon his listeners. In formulating his appeal, Finney also fashioned an innovative Protestant theology that challenged New England Calvinism. After establishing that each sinner has the power to self-reform, he spread the message to audiences across the Northeast, sparking a series of revivals that made his reputation. In the 1830s, Finney was asked to explain his method from his New York City pulpit, and did so across twenty-two lectures that detailed his revival strategy. This essay employs Finney’s theory of individual conversion to examine his theory of mass revival, noting the essentially deliberative character of each and recognizing the lasting influence of both on evangelical life in the United States.

The purpose of this study was to conceptualize the role of prayer and relationship with God for parents who experienced the death of a child. In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 parents. A thematic analysis was conducted. Results of this study expand on the Relational Prayer Theory by Baesler (1999) and the direct divine communication model suggested by Sigler (2014), including a discussion of receptive prayer as defined by Baesler (1999) in the Relational Prayer Theory and of direct divine communication as defined by Sigler (2014).

Pope Francis has been misunderstood by liberals and conservatives alike, confusing an emphasized pastoral tone and approach for theological departure. This confusion is exacerbated in the United States where the faithful are tempted to understand and evaluate pastoral figures in terms of secular political ideologies. This study extends Blaney’s (2017) media framing study of news coverage of cardinalate appointments by examining commentary about the papal encyclical Laudato Si’ found among readers of the National Catholic Register, the National Catholic Reporter, and The New York Times. Thematic analyses affirm that the faithful of the U.S. church succumb to the same secular parsing as the press.

Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home represents a sweeping call for action on climate change. In this essay, I use hermeneutical rhetoric to explore the rhetorical strategies Pope Francis employed. In particular, I critically analyze each of the six chapters in the encyclical, focusing on the use of the phrase “our common home.” I argue that Pope Francis’s reinterpretation of the relationship among humans, God, and the environment positions efforts to address climate change as a moral imperative.

In his 2015 encyclical, Pope Francis advanced five edicts on global climate change. Drawing on the work of Judith Butler and Kathryn Yusoff, I seek to contribute to our understanding of contemporary religious and environmental communication by examining the complex racial dynamics of the Anthropocene and the use of universals for political claims to action and justice. Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’, I argue, advances a Catholic rhetoric of the Anthropocene. While his intimate letter incites change and action, Pope Francis’s failure to address the specificity of racism in the global climate crisis reinforces criticisms that scholars such as Yusoff and Butler have advanced against universalism and the Anthropocene.

In 2015, while many Americans acknowledged climate change as a threat, a majority did not view climate change as a religious or moral issue and were unaware of the impacts on the world’s poor. Pope Francis delivered his encyclical in this context and, by using familial metaphors, altered climate change perceptions. Evoking Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis used the metaphors of sister, brother, and mother to shift the audience’s perception of threat: Climate change is not an impersonal, distant risk but one that threatens family. Yet the familial metaphor’s limitation has been an inability to encourage sustained climate change action.

Recently, Pope Francis dedicated a Vatican property—the Palazzo Migliori—as a homeless shelter. Pope Francis’s decision marks the culmination of many papal pronouncements, especially his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’, which provides a set of principles focused on taking care of both the environment and “the least of our brethren.” In this article, I engage in a rhetorical analysis of the pope’s theological and political framework based on what Endres and Senda-Cook (2011) call the “rhetoric of place” to explore how Pope Francis alters the symbolic meaning of Vatican property to advance social justice.

Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home has struck a deep chord with a broad audience. We explore the synergy between the ethical vision of sustainability in the Earth Charter and the encyclical. We position the document within the ecology and media landscapes. Laudato Si’ is remarkable among international statements in its explicit attention to education. We draw out the pivotal importance of education in order for its critical message not to be lost. We argue that education for Laudato Si’ can be advanced in traditional education—formal and non-formal, secular and religious—and in education through the media.

The social entrepreneur has gained prominence as a cultural figure whose inspirational storytelling promotes a working life good for the self and good for the world. Recent examples of allegedly aspirational but actually malfeasant entrepreneurs, however, have raised public questions about this figure’s promise to unite personal, professional, and public aspirations within a single identity. By critically examining the communication patterns of social entrepreneurs narrating personal and organizational spirituality, this article argues for a shift from inspirational identity narratives that assume an individualist and instrumentalist model of communication to fellowship narratives that assume a collective and participatory model.