A Communication Perspective on Interfaith Dialogue

Communication theory provides a compelling way to understand how people of faith can and should work together in today's tumultuous world. In A Communication Perspective on Interfaith Dialogue, fifteen authors present their experiences and analyses of interfaith dialogue, and contextualize interfaith work within the frame of rhetorical and communication studies. While the focus is on the Abrahamic faiths, these essays also include discussion of Hinduism and interracial faith efforts. Each chapter incorporates communication theories that bring clarity to the practices and problems of interfaith communication. Where other interfaith books provide theological, political, or sociological insights, this volume is committed to the perspectives contained in communication scholarship. Interfaith dialogue is best imagined as an organic process, and it does not require theological heavyweights gathered for academic banter. As such, this volume focuses on the processes and means by which interfaith meaning is produced.

Auteur
Daniel S. Brown, Jr. is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Pennsylvania's Grove City College. His book, Interfaith Dialogue in Practice: Christian, Muslim, Jew, set the stage for the release of Interfaith Dialogue: Listening to Communication Theory which is the first book about communication theory that is focused on interfaith dialogue. A former Fellow at Northwestern University's Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization, Brown specializes in communication theory and rhetorical criticism, especially as they intersect with organizational communication. He serves on the Executive Council of the Religious Communication Association. Brown's essays have appeared in the Journal of Communication and Religion, Review of Communication, Communication Teacher, Communication Education and Christian Library Journal.

Greg G. Armfield is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at New Mexico State University. He specializes in the study of organizational culture and the intersection of sports fan identity on mass media use. His research has appeared in the Journal of Communication, the Journal of Media and Religion, and the Journal of Communication and Religion. Armfield has also edited two volumes of Human Communication in Action (Kendall Hunt, 2011).

Diana I. Bowen is an assistant professor of communication studies in the Department of Arts and Humanities at the University of Houston-Downtown in Houston, Texas. Her research interests include archival research, rhetorical theory and criticism, social movements, visual and popular culture, and Latina/o studies. She examined the Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers located at the Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin and the role of the archive and repertoire in the creation of theories of social change from below. She teaches rhetoric and public address, communication law and ethics, argumentation and debate, visual rhetoric, and public memory and rhetorical criticism courses. Bowen is currently involved with the Center for Public Deliberation and teaches a course with a summer study abroad program in Paris and Venice.

Adrienne E. Hacker Daniels is a professor in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois. She teaches courses in Public Speaking, Freedom of Expression, Mass Communication, Communication Ethics, Rhetorical Theory, and electives including The Rhetoric of Comedy. Her research includes the study of the relationship between rhetorical and poetic theory, studying the rhetorical dimensions of more aesthetically grounded artifacts. Hacker Daniels has published essays on Thornton Wilder, Gertrude Stein, W.H. Auden and Hallie Flanagan. She has also presented convocations for Yom Hashoah, and has lectured widely about interfaith dialogue.

Kenneth Danielson is an assistant professor of communication studies at Kutztown University, a state university in Pennsylvania. In addition to a PhD from Kent State University, he holds an MA in Pastoral Counseling and Psychology and MDiv in Christian Thought and Theology from Ashland Theological Seminary. His prior pastoral experience and psychology interests influence his teaching in interpersonal communication and rhetorical studies. Danielson has authored and presented papers on rhetorical studies, religious communication, and popular culture. His long involvement in the Religious Communication Association was recently recognized with a special award honoring his many years of service to the organization including five years as Executive Secretary.

Maria Dixon is currently an associate professor of organizational communication at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas. Her articles appear in top journals including Management Communication Quarterly, Southern Journal of Communication, Liturgy, and the Journal of Communication and Religion. Dixon focuses her research and professional consulting on donor and fundraising communication, strate...

Contenu

Part 1: Fundamentals Chapter 1: Communication Theory Meets Interfaith Dialogue Daniel S. Brown, Jr. Chapter 2: Managing the Anxiety and Uncertainty of Religious Otherness: Interfaith Dialogue as a Problem of Intercultural Communication Mark Ward, Sr. Chapter 3: Humanizing and Dehumanizing Responses Across Four Orientations to Religious Otherness Charles Soukup and James Keaten Chapter 4: Rhetorology and Interfaith Dialogue Adrienne E. Hacker Daniels Part 2: Applications Chapter 5: A Narrative Approach to Interfaith Dialogue: Explanations & Recommendations Kenneth Danielson Chapter 6: St. Francis and the Sultan: Adaptive Structuration Theory Barbara S. Spies, OFS Chapter 7: Hope Analysis: Pathways, Agency, and Interfaith Dialogue Daniel S. Brown, Jr. Chapter 8: The Power of Living Parables for Transformative Interfaith Encounters Elizabeth W. McLaughlin Chapter 9: Memory and Interfaith Dialogue in the Context of Globalization Diana I. Bowen and Paul Fortunato Chapter 10: Speech and Silence as Rhetorical Space: Lessons from an Inter-Racial Church Rose M. Metts Part 3: Challenges Chapter 11: Not in my Sandbox: Organizational Culture, Identity, and Interfaith Collaboration Maria Dixon and Greg G. Armfield Chapter 12: Hindu Interfaith Discourse: Spiral of Silence as a Theological Inevitability Ramesh N. Rao and Padma Kuppa Chapter 13: The "God Problem" In Interfaith Dialogue: Situating Divine Speech in the Seven Traditions of Communication Theory Mark Ward, Sr.