Communicating with Grace and Virtue

This is a decent basic overview of communication. I appreciate that the author has read some of the older Church Fathers, and There is something to learn and meditate more on in every chapter. Im just not sure that this is a necessary book, as there seem to be more comprehensive books on the subject already.

This is a simple, short, straightforward meditation on the art of communication. It is all too easy to spew words out of my mouth or through my thumbs onto a screen without reflecting upon what I am saying, how I am saying it, or whether it even needs to be said in the first place.

Through eight brief chapters, Quentin Schultze helps to frame communication as something that holds great possibility and yet as something that requires greater virtue and attention than we often give it. On the way he explores other aspects of communication such as the communal nature of communication, the power of story, and the pros and cons of communication technologies.

My one real quibble with the book lies in his chapter about story as an engaging way to communicate. While he is undoubtedly right that listeners tend to be able to be enraptured by story, he makes this problematic statement:

The Gospels engage partly because they are narratives. The book of Leviticus, filled with laws and commandments, is not equally engaging; much of its meaning comes from where it is located in the greater biblical story of God’s people, who needed specifics about how to live faithfully under God’s law.

Again, on the surface, this is undoubtedly correct from a merely descriptive vantage point (the old trope about how boring Leviticus is), but it strikes me as a fairly sloppy thing to say. Leviticus speaks to gender and sexuality, oppression and power, justice and righteousness, and even what to do with viral outbreaks in a community. In short, the book is talking about nearly every single hot topic in our culture today! Stating that its significance is mostly as an historical artifact of a bygone people meeting a need that is no longer needful is to misunderstand the book, how to read it, and what role it plays in the life of the Christian today.

Lest I sound like a pedant here, let me explain why this is a red flag. "Using story in communication" is a noncontroversial, popular thing to do these days. We no longer frame civic conversation in terms of right and wrong or values or even truth. We talk about "narratives." Why? Because it’s engaging to do so, just like Schultze describes. Yet to use the power of story to communicate simply because it is "effective" is to fail to catechize one another in other non-narrative forms of communication. Communicating propositions about the world as it is invites us out of our subjective stories into the much less comfortable territory of axiomatic and even dogmatic reasoning. Yes, it’s important to touch hearts and "create audience empathy and sympathy," as Schultze argues a little later. But employing pathos without logos or ethos falls far short of the art of rhetoric.

This concern aside, this book is nevertheless a decent examination of our words and how to use them well.

DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of a fair, unbiased review.

Quentin has a way with discussing servant communication which makes one want to read his works more than once.

Communications seem to be an evergreen topic for discussion. Many schools and universities continue to offer courses that specialize in both the art and science of communications. Books continue to be written about the ways and means to communicate even as we deal with cultural and technological changes. Yet, one thing is to be expected. It is only a matter of time before we encounter difficulties in communications. In other words, there is no way we can separate life from conflicts. Being people from different backgrounds essentially mean that we have to deal with differences sooner or later. Even the best types of relationships require a fair bit of knowledge about conflict management. These include marriages, relationships with office colleagues, social circles, Church communities, online correspondences, and increasingly on social media. Enters the call toward "servant communication" which author and professor Quentin Schultze defines as "a way of using God’s gift of communication to love God and our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:30–31)." It begins with a willingness to accept the challenge to practice such communications as a way to witness grace and love. At the heart of this virtue is the practice of gratitude. The more grateful we are, the more able we are to practice graciousness in our communications. Christians are called to honour God in all that they do. Schultze knows the challenges of doing that. Thus, he guides us through some barriers, to point out how sin has made us broken, which not only affects us, but also the way we communicate. Here, the author lays out bare his past brokenness to demonstrate that he knows personally what it means to be part of a broken relationship.

The author goes on to describe other areas of communications. With regard to community, we are reminded to embrace rather than avoid community. It is a terrible thing to be lonely and one way to avoid that is to learn how to connect with people and to nurture relationships that resemble shalom. That means learning to embrace diversity, differences, and to question stereotypes. Truth and trust go hand in hand. This means that we need to take care of our inner selves in cultivating good character. After all, good fruit comes from good trees. Then there is the art of storytelling and how to deal with technology in communications. Schultze shares his love for the teachings of St Augustine, especially on his treatise on rhetoric.

My Thoughts
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What would motivate anyone to read books like this? I could think of three reasons. First, it is about knowing more about ourselves and our identities. What has communications to do with us, one might ask. Well, it takes one to communicate something. That is why the author does not separate his own story from this important topic about communications. This is probably one of Schultze's most personal sharing about his own broken past. For communications is not simply about what we say but how and why we say it. How the author begins the book is telling. He starts with "accept the call" which essentially sees proper communications as a given. He shares his own story about his broken past and how he, a "reluctant communicator" was led to become a professor of communications. A key point I find helpful is the reminder about being vulnerable when we want to communicate graciously. When we hide our true selves, there is a chance of misunderstanding and miscommunication. In marriages, this is most vital that we learn honesty in communications. The more we know ourselves, the more we know how to communicate appropriately and to recognize instances when we might unwittingly hurt other people with our words.

Secondly, it is biblical. Schultze writes with the Christian in mind. Jesus has said in Matthew 15:11, that a man is not defiled by what enters his mouth but by what comes out of their mouths. Good relationships are built on good communications. Great communications are nourished via graciousness and kind virtues. We need more of that in this world. Proverbs 25:11 also teaches us that a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. If we want to honour God, one of the best ways is to honour the Word of God and the testimony we bear in the name of Christ. With servant communication as a backdrop, once we endeavour to be an ambassador for Christ, we would necessarily learn to equip ourselves to communicate like a servant of Christ.

Finally, it is most relevant in an increasingly trigger-happy social media world. All it takes is a nasty comment or rebuttal and all hell breaks loose with angry threats, sarcasm, blackmails, lawsuits, and even violence. The world is already broken and we need more love, not less. I appreciate the author taking time to explore some of the modern communications technologies we use. We are living increasingly online, and future generations would have to learn how to navigate this fast-changing medium. I find it most helpful to understand the history of communications in order to learn how humans adjust to the changing medium. Marshall McLuhan had famously said that the medium is the message. We need to spend time learning about the advantages and disadvantages of both old-school and new-school, and to use both appropriately. We would be impoverished if we ignore either of them.

Indeed, great communications will go a long way to make this world a better place to live in.

Quentin J. Schultze is the author of over a dozen books on the relationship between faith and communications. He serves as executive director of the Gainey Institute for Faith and Communication and as Arthur H. DeKruyter Chair in Faith and Communication at Calvin College.

Rating: 4.75 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Academic and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

Great introduction to the art of communication. I would recommend as a book club book to talk around the author's approach on the subject.