Religion as communication

Edmund Arens

pp. 249-265

in: Derek Hook, Bradley Franks, Martin W. Bauer (eds), The social psychology of communication, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Abstract

The practice of religion and communication are profoundly connected with one another. Religion makes use of different forms of communication, aimed at disclosing reality and creating community: prayer and preaching, worship and witnessing, reading and listening to sacred texts, singing and sharing, prophetic discourse, ritual practice, and theological reflection. This chapter seeks to sidestep this apparent variety of forms of communication, to ask if there are qualities of communication distinctive to religion. For example, is religious communication essentially strategic or a means of advancing understanding and community (i.e. a case of either strategic or communicative action, as discussed in Chapter 6)? Is the core of religious communication expressive or effective — to reiterate the distinction dealt with in Chapter 3 — and, furthermore, reiterating the concerns of Chapter 4, is religious communication ultimately qualified predominantly by its contents or its processes? This then is the central question of this chapter: Does religious practice primarily aim at maintaining and legitimating existing structures of communication or is it more directed at transformation (see Chapter 2 on power and empowerment)?