Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 252-274).

published_or_final_version / History / Master / Master of Arts

This study examines the communication habits of the pilgrim Church with focus upon Vatican documents on mass media and social communication. Attention is given to the historical context of Vatican Councils I and II. As the Church engaged modernity, it shifted ecclesial organization from closed to become open. This study documents the importance of sociology, especially communication theory and cybernetics for Catholicism today. / It is argued that the pivotal event in the Roman Catholic Church's self-exploration for self-awareness and realization was the Second Vatican Council. At that Council, the Church re-examined itself and its own identity to come to grips with the modern world. The teachings of the Council were concerned mainly with the pastoral dimension of the Church and its self-realization. Reflexivity is an important theme of this study as it speaks about understanding the very identity of the modern Church. It is explained that the process of communication within the Roman Catholic Church is itself linked to this insight of reflexivity. / The first chapter shows that behind the pilgrim Church lies an emerging vision of the threefold offices of priest, prophet, and king. The history behind the Roman Catholic Church's transition from the First to the Second Vatican Council is provided. John Henry Cardinal Newman influenced nineteenth-century Catholic theology with his own study of the threefold office. In chapter four we return to the threefold office and examine the contribution of John Paul II. It includes an analysis of how the politics of the magisterium shapes Catholic social teaching. Chapter two examines the text and context of the Second Vatican Council's pastoral decree "Inter Mirifica". Chapter three provides a documented history of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communication and its teachings. Chapter five develops major tenets of a critical analysis of the communication of the post-Vatican II Church: attention is given to the discursive aspects of religious authority, argumentation, bureaucratization, and market culture. Chapter six takes a step towards examining the pragmatics of contemporary Vatican teaching. / This study concludes that there are three basic sociological and theological aspects of the pilgrim Church. These include a ritual approach to communication, the generational experience of Catholics and their respective attitudes toward Church teaching, and the important link in the faith's praxis between reflexivity and forming habits of communication.

This study serves to evaluate the effectiveness of the Catholic Church‟s prophetic voice in the post-independence Zimbabwe. It also serves to show that being prophetic is not enough unless this prophesy engages with the other. This study proposes a dialogical prophetic voice, which engages with the one to whom it is challenging. For the prophetic voice to be dialogical it has to be empathetic and being empathetic in this case points to the ability to understand the other party‟s perspective. Understanding in this context does not mean to sympathise or compromise but to be able to see through the eyes of the other party in dialogue in a bid to constructively challenge or criticize the other. This study suggests an Empathetic Dialogical method as central and foundational to an effective dialogical process. It also proposes Bonhoeffer‟s Church-State model as a conducive ground for an Empathetic dialogue. The study ultimately wants to show that the ineffectiveness of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe to dialogue with the State is due to its predominately non-empathetic dialogical model. It (the study) specifically points to two trajectories: the first trajectory points to the Catholic Church‟s unwillingness to consult the State, while it has a tendency to prescribe for the State. The second trajectory lies in the failure of the Zimbabwean Catholic Church to speak with one voice, which consequently led it to compromise with the State. This study is informed by the suffering Zimbabwean people at the hands of a ruthless regime and a Church whose prophetic voice is ineffective. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

Thesis (doctoral)--Paris. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1993. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-158).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1941. / Bibliography: p. 122-131.

Thesis (PH. D)--Marquette University, 1941. / Bibliography: p. [136]-154.

Inaug.-Diss.--Erlangen. / Vita. Bibliography: p. iv-vi.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1932. / At head of title: The Catholic University of America. Vita. Bibliography: p. 61-62.