In this updated and expanded edition, the author invites professors of communication and media to reflect on each chapter in light of our current cultural challenges and technological advancements over the past two decades. The collection of voices and conversations offer a discerning introduction to communication theory that guides readers through an interesting, creative, and biblical study of communication. Thoroughly grounded in a Christian worldview, Communicating for Life explores the implications of individual human communication and the influence of communication on community.

Endorsements

“Easily the best presentation I know of a Christian perspective on communication and the media. It raises questions where most of us just take things for granted, and issues challenges where most of us just go along. Though deeply informed by both the Christian tradition and contemporary discussions on the media, it nonetheless wears its learning with extraordinary grace and vividness of rhetoric.”

—Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale Divinity School

“This high-torque book engages your mind and invigorates your spirit. The theory of symbolic action is a splendid achievement. It catches hold of Augustine, Burke, Ellul, and contemporary cultural studies but is distinctive with shalom. The problems and stories are stunning in themselves—from across history and around the globe. Quentin J. Schultze sets the standard for all work henceforth in the theology of communication.”

—Clifford Christians, University of Illinois

“Now there is a book written from an explicitly Christian perspective, and one thing is clear: Never again can religious beliefs and values be relegated to the intellectual sidelines. To study human communication is to be immersed in questions of the most profound religious significance.”

—Martin J. Medhurst, Texas A&M University

About the Contributors

Diane M. Badzinski (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Communication at Colorado Christian University. She recently co-authored two books, Family Communication and the Christian Faith: An Introduction and Exploration and An Essential Guide to Interpersonal Communication: Building Great Relationships with Skill, Faith, and Virtue in the Age of Social Media. She is also part of a team developing a parenting intervention program in Nicaragua. Diane teaches courses in communication research, interpersonal communication, cross-cultural communication, family communication, and persuasion, among others. She has received awards for her research and teaching.

Thomas J. Carmody (PhD, Regent University) is Professor of Communication Studies at Vanguard University where he has taught for more than 30 years. His research interests span the spectrum from eighteenth to nineteenth-century sermonic rhetoric, Anglican Studies, comic books, graphic novels, film criticism. When he is not in the classroom you will find him searching the stacks of used bookstores or working in his small garden. He is also an ordained Anglican priest with the Anglican Church in North America where he ministers in a variety of ways at his local church.

Terri Lynn Cornwell (PhD, University of Maryland) has more than 40 years of experience teaching in public and private institutions. She currently teaches at Virginia University of Lynchburg. She has served as Legislative Director for the Congressional Arts Caucus in Washington, D.C., Director of Communications for Cleveland State University’s urban college, and Executive Director of the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge. She is the author of Democracy and the Arts: The Role of Participation, and a variety of book chapters and articles on communication and the arts, quality of life, and Christianity and communication. She is an ordained Presbyterian (USA) pastor and recently completed Compassion Consortium’s Animal Chaplaincy training. She and her husband live in Forest, Virginia, with their rescued Ragdoll cat.

Denise Edwards-Neff (PhD, Purdue University) is Affiliate Faculty and Expatriate Recruiter at LCC International University. She has held administrative and faculty positions at Azusa Pacific University, Pepperdine University, Indiana Wesleyan University, and the University of Indianapolis. She writes about the intersection of faith and the public sphere, media, activism, and crisis communication. Her research has been published in Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Research, and Journal of Communication and Religion. She has contributed chapters and essays to several books including Evangelical Christians and Popular Culture, Handbook of Organizational Rhetoric and Communication, Handbook of Strategic Communication, Handbook of Public Relations, and Oxford Handbook of Religion and the News.

Mark Fackler (PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is Professor Emeritus of Communication at Calvin University. He is co-author of Media Ethics, Cases and Moral Reasoning, Ethics of Public Communication, Ethics and Evil in the Public Sphere, Good News: Social Ethics and the Press, and other volumes. He is co-editor of The Handbook of Global Communication and Media Ethics, and other volumes. He is a contributor to The Handbook on Communication and Religion.

John B. Hatch (PhD, Regent University) recently retired as Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at Eastern University. He currently serves as Senior Fellow with the Christianity and Communication Studies Network. He has published extensively on race relations, public apology, reconciliation, religious discourse, and popular music. His articles appear in Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Journal of Communication and Religion, and other scholarly journals and books. His book Race and Reconciliation: Redressing Wounds of Injustice received the Top Single-Author Book Award from the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association. He is also the author/editor of an anthology of speeches titled Speaking to Reconciliation: Voices of Faith Addressing Racial and Cultural Divides.

Elizabeth B. Jones (PhD, The Ohio State University) is Associate Professor at Asbury University in the School of Communication Arts. Her research occurs at the intersection of digital media, interpersonal communication, and lifespan communication. She examines how media narratives and interpersonal messages support or thwart human flourishing and spiritual well-being. Elizabeth is particularly interested in how persons in the later portions of the lifespan can be supported communicatively as they embrace aging and resist ageism. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and four children where she enjoys fitness activities and good coffee along with her academic pursuits.

G. Brandon Knight (PhD, University of Southern Mississippi) is Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication and Leadership and Director of Forensics at William Carey University. His research appears in the Journal of Communication and Religion, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Christian Teaching Practice (in Communication Studies), and Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. He writes a monthly column for the Christianity and Communication Studies Network on St. Augustine and preaching.

Elizabeth W. McLaughlin (PhD, Regent University) is Chair and Associate Professor of Communication at Bethel University, Indiana, where she teaches writing, interpersonal communication, speech, mass media, and public relations. She completed her dissertation on how Mennonite quilt making rhetorically expresses the image of God. She is active in the United Methodist Church.

A. Chase Mitchell (PhD, Texas Tech University) is Assistant Professor of Media and Communication at East Tennessee State University where he teaches courses in strategic communication, media ecology, and technical communication. Chase also directs ETSU’s Technical and Professional Writing program. He contributes a monthly online column, “Image to Image,” to the Christianity and Communication Studies Network, and has published in scholarly and popular outlets such as Christian Scholar’s Review and FaithTech. Chase lives in Bristol, Tennessee, with his wife Mott and their two dogs, Bigfoot and Fuzzle. He enjoys baseball, books, and British comedy. When it’s nice outside, he and Mott love traipsin’ around the hills and rivers of southern Appalachia.

Kevin Schut (PhD, University of Iowa) is a Game Studies scholar. He is a graduate of Calvin College and the University of Iowa. He wrote the book Of Games & God: A Christian Exploration of Video Games. He writes about the intersection of communication, culture, media, technology and faith, primarily by talking about computer and video games. He has published articles or chapters on fantasy-role-playing computer games and masculinity, on computer games and myth, on the presentation of history in computer games, and on evangelicals and games. He is currently researching moral and ethical decisions in video games. Kevin served as the Chair of the Department of Media + Communication, and he is the Lead for the Game Development program he founded in June 2019. He has also served as Associate Dean of the School of the Arts, Media + Culture. He teaches a range of courses on media and culture. Kevin grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, and still cheers for the Oilers. After graduating from Calvin College, he married and taught overseas in schools for missionary kids in the Cote d’Ivoire and Hungary for three and a half years. He has three daughters who love playing board games, adventure games, Mario Kart, and Vive Virtual Reality with him. His favorite game series is Sid Meier’s Civilization.

Bill Strom (PhD, University of Iowa) serves as Professor of Media and Communication at Trinity Western University in British Columbia, Canada. His experiences at Wheaton College created a love for thinking creatively about God’s big message for the world. Workshops led by Quentin Schultze with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities led him to consider shalom as a governing ideal and sparked the idea that covenantal communication nurtures shalom. Strom is author of More Than Talk: Covenantal Communication in Everyday Life and The Relationship Project on five virtues that motivate redeeming interaction.