God Talk and the Covid-19 Pandemic: Hobby Lobby and Faithfulness to God’s Word? Brandon Knight, Ph.D. Asst. Professor of Communication William Carey University In the past few weeks, Americans have found themselves at a unique moment in history. In recent years we have experienced a span of political, social, and religious divide; now, the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) has beckoned …
Liminality
Liminality Annalee R. Ward, Ph.D. Guest Columnist Annalee Ward, Professor of Communication, currently serves as the Director of the Wendt Character Initiative at the University of Dubuque. This Initiative promotes excellent moral character and lives of purpose. Passionate about interweaving faith, life, and learning, Annalee is grateful for the work of the Christianity and Communication Studies Network whose work illustrates …
Good Friday in a Time of Pandemic, a Poem
Good Friday in a Time of Pandemic By Dennis Smith Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Regional Liaison, South America Former Director, World Association for Christian Communication Good Friday in a Time of Pandemic Today God dies. Sunday – they say – something else might happen but today? Today what is, is confusion, affliction, death. That’s the way it’s always …
Fruit of the Spirit – Joy, Episode 12, with Dr. Paul Patton
In this podcast, Paul talks about the second “Fruit of the Spirit,” joy. He asserts that biblically informed joy is not to be confused with just “putting on a happy face” or easier for the up-beat personality to experience. Paul offers that the “joy of the Lord” is associated with re-asserting an over-arching truth that even informs times of difficulty …
Reclaiming Reverence
Reclaiming Reverence Gregory Spencer, Ph.D. Professor of Communication Studies, Westmont College Author, Awakening the Quieter Virtues The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom . . . (Proverbs 9:10). At a recent worship service the pastor told the congregation, “you’re about to enter into the presence of deity.” They audibly gasped. The glorious expressions on worshipers’ faces revealed …
Inspiring Consensus in Community: The Faith and Hope in Proximate Speech
Inspiring Consensus in Community: The Faith and Hope in Proximate Speech Joel S. Ward, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Communication Geneva College Abstract: The outlook for our current age seems bleak. We respond by conjuring up thin hopes since this appears to stabilize and sustain human communities. Genuine hope comes from its companion faith, the inner assurance of good things promised. …
Fraudulent Communication Studies?
Fraudulent Communication Studies? Paul A. Creasman, Ph.D. Professor of Communication, Chair of the Department of Communication Studies Arizona Christian University With thousands of colleges and universities migrating their teaching online in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, Tucker Carlson—television news pundit—mused last week about how that would affect education in this country: “An entire nation has just been shown that …
A Note to My Soul
A Note to My Soul with Mark Williams, Ph.D. Professor of Rhetoric California State University, Sacramento Here is the first rule of predicting the future in this moment, by my lights: Almost always we tend to forget or to discount the darkness we carry inside. That means that many of our predictions are likely to assume that we possess that …
Devotional: Getting to the Heart of the Matter
Devotionals on Communication Getting to the Heart of the Matter* Tim Muehlhoff, Ph.D., Biola University There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 16:25) Headline: “British doctors perform heart transplant against wishes of girl.” The Associated Press article tells of a fifteen-year-old girl in England who refused a life-saving …
Education in a time of Plague: Reflections from one Epicenter
Meaning-full Faith: Words, The Word, and a Life of Substance with Mark Williams, Ph.D. Professor of Rhetoric California State University, Sacramento I live in northern California, near one west coast epicenter of the 2020 pandemic—a once-in-every hundred-year-plague that we are all suffering through at the current moment. It knows no political, religious, or economic boundaries. The present moment is like …
