Posted: September 26

Theology and communication

It always happens. Once I get back from a trip, I get swamped by a blizzard of little details and bigger problems that urgently need attention, and my blog slides to the side. I barely cleared off my desk after the Brazil trip before taking an hour-long bus ride to a retreat house in the hills outside Rome for a conference on communication and theology, sponsored by the Gregorian University’s communication department. The setting was a retreat house high on the brow of a hill overlooking Lago di Albano and the coastal plane of Rome beyond it. The conversation was equally elevated. I knew I was with a different bunch than my normal partners in crime when a debate arose whether the theological grounding for communications should come from the communication within the Trinity or should begin from the Spirit’s action among people. Actually, the week-long conference was very interesting and invigorating. All 27 participants wrote a paper and we spent most of the time discussing them and following the ideas they sparked.

My paper titled “A Double Dialogue” argued that images have long been part of the Church’s way of explaining God’s presence and action; the current preference for abstract theological language and disinterest in a visual approach feeds into the isolation of the Church from modern culture which is shaped so much by visual means of communication. I compared St. Ignatius visual approach to prayer in the Spiritual Exercises with the Dutch artist Rembrandt’s method of painting and drawing. One of my better lines was, “If Ignatius is famous for finding God in all things, Rembrandt could be known for drawing God in all things.” The American theologian, David Tracy, has a concept of “classics” that illumines what Ignatius and Rembrandt continue to offer us as permanent possibilities for the human spirit. Tracy says that we need to be in dialogue with the classics to continually reinterpret them for our new times and cultures. I argued that a similar spirit of dialogue ought to happen between theology and contemporary culture.

We hope to publish a book with the papers written for the conference, so I hope my ideas get a further hearing. I must admit that it felt strange to be writing a theology paper so many years after finishing my theology studies before ordination (31 years ago). It is a bit like riding a bicycle: you don’t forget. And the fun part for me was learning much more about Rembrandt. Now that I am a painter I find him much more understandable than I once did. It is amazing how so many different influences come together. I enjoyed being with an academic group, even if that is not my normal environment. Now, if I can only get my normal environment to behave.