Communication and Mission

1 The notion that we are in a 'post' era - post-modern, post-industrial, post-ideological, post-confessional and many more - is one way of giving a name to the profound changes that have taken place in our world. The 1960s and 1970s were permeated by optimistic expectations that were soon frustrated. One could mention, for example, how the radical changes that were glimpsed in Latin America in that epoch were aborted by successive coups d'etat. The 'Alliance for Progress', put forward by the Kennedy Administration to help underdeveloped countries, brought as a result not so much the development of those countries as increased foreign trade for the USA and its greater interference in the continent. We have also to underline that it was the time when a large number of African countries obtained their independence. Between 1958 and 1963 the number increased from nine to 28. But, as Professor Adebayo Adedeji of the UN Economic Commission on Africa recalled: 'Three decades after independence our people continue to be excluded from critical and significant contribution to the ethics of the body politic. Basic rights, including freedom and participation by the masses are increasingly absent from Africa.' In the majority of cases, the dreams of self-realisation meant in practice greater dependency and growing poverty.

2. The optimism of those decades is also evident in the churches. In the Conference on Church and Society (Geneva, 1966), considered 'the first genuinely "world" conference on social issues' because of equal representation by all the continents, there were strong demands for the churches to take a more active role in 'promoting a world-wide revolutionary opposition to the capitalist political and economic system being imposed on the new nations by the Western industrial countries which was leading to new types of colonialism and oppression' (Albrecht, DEM 1991: 936). The revolutionary aspirations of that time were not supported, as had been hoped, on the shoulders of theological reflection. However, the following Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Uppsala, 1968) made way for a program that had new directions. Reflecting on subjects like economic development, the problem of racism, the situation of the underdeveloped countries, gave rise to the implementation of proposals for change. Winds of renewal also blew in the Roman Catholic Church after Vatican 11 (1961-69). The so-called aggiornamento (bringing up to date) of the Roman Catholic Church was expressed in ecumenical openness, biblical and liturgical renewal and greater consideration of the huge social problems facing the world. Today many of those expectations appear exhausted and the structures seem even more rigid and vertical

 3. In the communication world, optimism arose from the conviction that it was necessary and possible to reclaim the right people had to develop and sustain their own cultures. For this to happen, we had unquestionably to begin by democratising communications. Communication as a human right had to be put into practice by means of national and international policies. It was this search that led to UNESCO initiating, in the 1970s, a long process to find communication that was more free and more equitable.

 It was not by chance that the development of this process was related to the search for a new economic order, in which the countries of the Third World became involved. The search was based on the conviction that growth in itself was not the solution to the problems of those countries, nor for their most appropriate development, and that the free market is not the most effective mechanism for producing a more just distribution of resources. In 1980 UNESCO adopted the famous MacBride Report, Many Voices, One World. It laid the foundation for a debate of the situation facing communications, drew up lines for its democratic development and stimulated strengthening and self-development of local cultures. Like all reports that try to do justice to varied positions, it was ambiguous, contradictory and deficient. Its history is- well known: soon its implementation began to be resisted. the -USA, then Great Britain and Singapore withdrew from UNESCO for which they still have not returned despite the fact that the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) has been watered down to the point of disappearing from its agenda.

 4. Today the disappearance of the optimism of those decades has become a constant at the global level. Utopia has turned into' disenchantment; solidarity into something unacceptable in a world in which everyone has to come to terms with them as best he or she can. The old Enlightenment ideas have been bolstered up and everything is seen as aimless, in terms of cause and effect; deeds replace values. Progress, expansion, modernisation have come to be most important. Recently, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Gulf War made clear that the changes of recent times have reaffirmed the hegemony of the West in a large part of the world. They have also revealed, in all their harshness, the new ideologies that wish to rule the world under the slogans of a 'new order' and a 'free market system', producing as a result a society in which 'its presuppositions and spin-offs include centralisation, bureaucratisation, ecological damage, manipulation and exploitation of human beings, relentless consumerism, and chronic unemployment (further aggravated, ironically, by the termination of the Cold War and the arms race!)' (Bosch, 1995: 3).

 5. This way of 'administrating' the world, because that's what it seems to be about, has left behind the old dreams of progress. The countries of the North offer themselves as an example to those following on behind. They show them how to be developed if they work harder, and they remind them that Paradise is always a bit further off, that it takes an enormous effort to get there. At the present time the make up of the earthly paradises is changing rapidly. The progress taking place in the major countries is being concentrated in certain strata of society. Those who benefit from paradise have been restricted to the chosen few. The most obvious result is that poverty is overflowing geographical frontiers and gradually finding a place in the bosom of affluent societies. We have reached, they announce as if it's good news, the end of the 'Welfare State'. Now, everyone must look to their own well-being and each will be responsible for their own success or failure. Paradise is no longer free, it now has a price. Salvation through work is the rule being imposed. Of course, the impoverishment of vast sectors is accelerating day by day in those same countries, even approaching those who a long time ago were very much below the tragic line of poverty. Everything indicates that, even though there is still- a long way to go, times are rapidly shortening. Eduardo Galeano said at the Mexico Congress: 'In the soulless world which we are forced to accept as the only one possible, there are no citizens, just consumers; there are no nations, just companies; there are no cities, just agglomerations; there are no human relationships, just commercial competitions' (Media Development, 1/1996: 22).

6. In this 'new' world, we know, communication plays a very important role. One of the most obvious facts is the growing concentration of media ownership. The already legendary merger of the Gannet chain of newspapers and a television company in 1979, for a little more than 350 million dollars, seems today a very modest transaction compared with what took place a few months ago when an unprecedented US 19 billion dollar merger between Disney Company and the ABC Network was quickly overtaken by an even more massive Times Warner-CNN link-up worth, all told, in excess of US 25 billion dollars. Even the finance minister of many of our countries would find the figures unimaginable' (Hopeton Dunn, Media Development 1/1 996: 1 0).

Today, as never before, in this unipolar world communications are an important unifying force in the dominant political and social system. Information, a vital element in the development of a society, is noticeably influenced on a daily basis by those who have the power to provide it. Ben H. Bagdikian has skillfully shown that this concentration of power receives special treatment from governments. The media giants enjoy two enormous advantages. One, they control the public image of national leaders who, as a result, fear them and, at the same time, smile on the media magnates. Two, they control information and entertainment which are the foundations for the establishment of the social, political and cultural conduct of a large part of the population (Bagdikian, 1989: 81 0).

7. Unceasing technological advances are bringing great potential to this development. Cees Hamelink pointed out that 'Globalisation of markets requires the kind of extended telecommunication infrastructures that the Information Superhighway is expected to provide. Globalisation also needs a vehicle through which the world can be "McDonaldised". McDonaldisation represents the global proliferation of the neo-liberal belief that the market should be the key regulator of all social relations. The Information Superhighway is expected to provide the means of transport for this international monetary fundamentalism' (Media The accelerated process of digitalisation and the provision of enormous possibilities for access, multiplying the potential of reception of television channels and much more besides. This is already a reality in many places and it will rapidly multiply. Paradoxically, these possibilities of access will be subject to greater control and the economic cost of their services will rapidly increase.

8. What I have tried to show up to this point is, of course, a fragmentary, partial and limited description of our present world. I have deliberately not mentioned the various positive signs that continue' to light the way for many. I have underlined only the most obvious political, economic and social trends, those that are having global repercussions, determining the life and future of millions, threatening nature and placing our planet at risk. This is the framework in which it is imperative to reflect and to ask, like the communicators in Mexico: 'How can people of faith promote human dignity for all in a world where power structures, including the media, so often undermine it?' To answer this question we have to think about the importance of considering the relationship between communication and mission. This task presupposes that a close relationship exists whose qualities need to be stressed.

9. But before doing so, it is important to recall that there are certain theological presuppositions that set bounds on our thinking and practice, both in communication and mission, which should be made explicit. We must highlight at least two.

First, the fact that, for many years, the churches and societies of the West understood mission as the work they had to carry out overseas. Bosch says that the word mission, in its modern sense, was first used in the sixteenth century by Jesuits in Northern Germany to refer to their work of reconverting Protestants to Catholicism.' (Bosch, 1995: 29). The idea of living in Christendom in many Western countries led to the conviction that it was a matter of nations in which church and society lived in full symbiosis. This concept is one that set limits on the understanding of mission and its place in the society in which that mission had to be carded out.

Second, to speak theologically about communication - and much more, if one intends to relate it to the concept of mission - comes up against a strict theoretical framework.

 The study of theology in the West is planned, in many places, according to the system introduced in his time by F. D. E. Schleiermacher. He established the fourfold pattern in theological education: Bible, church history, systematic theology and practical or pastoral theology. This scheme can be found in many seminaries and faculties of theology, in which the first three disciplines represent theory and the fourth practice. It is interesting to point out how this fourth discipline was reduced to providing tools for what Karl Rahner called 'the normative discipline of the self-realisation of the church in all its dimensions' (Bosch, 1995: 28-29). Here it could easily be thought that the Interest of 'practice' is concentrated exclusively on its instrumental character at the service of the church. In preparation for a missionary conference in Willingen (1 952), the Dutch missiologist J. C. Hoekendijk criticised the church-centred orientation of missionary groups which led them to define 'the whole surrounding world in ecclesiological categories... The world has almost ceased to be the world and is now conceived as a sort of ecclesiastical training-ground' (Stransky, DEM 1991:688).The understanding that there exists a 'practical theology' at the service of church activities has coloured what the church and theological education understands by communication. Practical theology has come to contain a good dose of theory of practice with very few theological ingredients. All this has provoked two very characteristic attitudes towards communication, especially following the' rapid development of mass media technology.

 In the first place, communication has come to be considered only from the point of view of its instrumental character. In the 1950s the development of communication centres had as its aim the use of the new technology that at that time became more accessible, like the tape recorder and slides. As Paulo Friere continually reminds us, it was limited to replace blackboard and chalk with a projector, but no thought was given to the meaning, value and place of communication. The press, radio and television offered multiple possibilities. The mass media were presented as the alternative to reach more people in less time. An opportunity that some think the Apostle Paul would not have turned down, nor of course John R. Mott.

This practical attraction stimulated the efforts of many and was present in many missionary enterprises. The churches themselves embarked on the organisation of communication commissions, the preparation of radio programmes, the installation of printing presses, trying to gain access to the media. Great initiatives that awoke little theological thinking.

In the second place, many churches took up paternalistic, critical and authoritarian positions. The Second Vatican Council produced the document Inter Mirifica (1 965) which tended to follow this line. It was not very well received and the Vatican tried to amend it with the pastoral instruction Communio et Progressio (1 97 1). The World Council of Churches (WCC) produced its best document at the World Assembly in Uppsala (1 968), where thinking turned on the social function of the media and where the centre of gravity ceased to be the church. 'The church has neither the first nor the last word, but speaks as one voice among many' (Goodall, 1968: 393). At the following Assembly (Vancouver, 1983), communication was one of the eight 'questions' around which reflection turned. The document that resulted, Communicating credibly, touches on the crucial communication problems in today's world, but the main concern was for communication in and among the churches and for them to benefit from effective use of the media.

 Reducing communication to being an instrument at the service of the advancement of the churches has blurred the very meaning of communication and its relationship with mission, and has allowed the development of a mistaken theological concept about its place in the life of the church and the world. Thus, many theologians have systematically refused to speak about communication, arguing that for them this is not just unknown but alien territory. At most, some have mentioned that it is a question of a world of potential dangers, especially in regard to everything associated with the mass media.

 For example, theologians, especially reformed theologians, place strong emphasis on the importance of the Word and, therefore, they are suspicious of the place of the image - the opposite of orthodox theologians for whom, in the words of Gennadios Limouris, '(they) are instruments of prayer and, as such, as important as the preaching of the Word of God' (Limouris, 1990: ix). Speaking on this subject, the reformed theologian Alain Blancy says that the world offers a revolution in communication, that '(it) tends to replace the privileged language of the word, i.e. of discourse, by the image, the picture, that is, of representation.' He is convinced that 'the power of the image is so totalitarian. It subjects and subjugates the subject." (Limouris, 1990: 44).This one example shows that dialogue between theology and communication is essential. Because there are some questions which, inevitably, must be formulated. Does theology only identify the Word with rationality, with the intellect? How can theological reflection on communication be done without wondering if communication has something to ask of theology? What authority does theology have to decide what communicates and what does not? Why is theology so dominated by reason and so fearful of the feelings, the emotions, of the real world? I do not intend to answer these questions, but only to draw attention to the importance of considering them in the search for more adequate understanding of communication and mission.

10. Now, reductionist aims are also to be seen in the understanding of what mission itself means. What is understood by mission is intimately related to the geographical expansion of the church. Its aim is to reach those parts where the 'non-church' is. This is the territory over which the church wants to extend its 'influence: to reach the 'pagan world'. Philip Potter, in an important article on mission and its ecumenical dimension, tries to show that the value of the universal 'unto all the nations' characterised, from the beginning of this century, the various international conferences on this theme. At the same time, it must be said that this ecumenical (to all the inhabited world) sense of the missionary aim was given new impetus by what John R. Mott (Edinburgh, 1910) defined as 'the decisive hour of Christian Mission' which called for' the evangelisation of the world in this generation'. This urgent call meant, basically, taking mission beyond Europe and North America, that is to say into non-Christian countries (DEM 1991: 690-696). One suspects, with some degree of certainty, that the dream of Christendom was present in that project.

 This spirit is clearly reflected in the history of the missionary movements, although it must be recognised that continual changes can be seen with regard to understanding what mission is but these did not always become changes in missionary work. Even today, for many churches, it is customary to call 'missionaries' only those who go overseas. 'This meant that they continue to perceive mission in terms of its addresses, not of its very nature, and suggested that mission was accomplished once the gospel had been (re)introduced to a group of people' (Bosch, 1995: 31).This is clearly seen in the most important documents that have come out this century, beginning with the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh (1 91 0) right up to the most recent conference organised by the WCC (San Antonio, 1989). From the 1960s onwards, when the churches in the Third World played a more active role in this kind of conference, changes in understanding mission began to be evidenced, and their documents came to be more inclusive. Thus, the document 'Mission and Evangelism - An Ecumenical Affirmation' (WCC, 1982) contains a section called 'Mission in and to Six Continents' in which it is recognised that 'everywhere the churches are in missionary situations'. The sphere of missionary action has moved from geographical parameters to social parameters (e.g. migrants, political refugees) although the structure of society itself is never brought into question. Here, as in other documents, distinct trends can be discerned. It can be supposed that a particular way has been chosen to define the contents of those documents: to maintain a certain balance, to give room to different positions, not to close off the options. It is obvious that this runs the risk of making them eclectic and, as has happened, of omitting very basic questions. For example, the word 'church' dominates many of the documents. The church appears as the executor of missionary work, the centre from which all else radiates. But the ecclesiology that supports it largely remains a question to be clarified. In a discussion process that seeks rapprochement, perhaps such vagueness can be justified. It avoids reaching affirmations that cannot be shared and definitions are left a little bit on one side until a better opportunity arises. Maybe we have to ask ourselves if it is not more convenient, especially in relation to mission, to begin by making clear the disparities. Accepting that one is faced with an unfinished task, not interrupting the dialogue and being open to new questions posed by that very dialogue. In this line of thought it is worth pointing out that Discussion about mission has raised a question about the very nature of the church.

 12. Having reached this point, we must come back to the question of what is the New Testament concept of mission in order, starting there, to work out its close relationship with communication. ,