New Technology Teaches Pluralism

Francis J. Buckley, S.J.

The computer age has developed a new language, which cuts across existing linguistic and ethnic barriers to communicate religious insights. Graphics, from hieroglyphics to wall paintings to cartoons, have appeared in many cultures. Dramas and pageants have been used to portray events or to explore life's mysteries through stories. But never before have animated, interactive graphics been available to convey insights apart from words. A whole new form of religious communication is opening up.

Animated graphics catch the eye, emphasize details, clarify insights, highlight values, and show interconnections and interactions. They have been brilliantly used in motion pictures and television and videos to illustrate stories. They have been used in classroom teaching and sales presentations to complement lectures.

Words usually serve linear, logical thinking, developing the left side of the brain. By appealing to the right side of the brain, animation fosters interest, emotion, creativity, and community. Students of any age with different learning styles can explore a theme in a non-linear way, using graphics, animation, VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), sounds, and video. They can go on simulated field trips with their teachers. VRML generates "maps", 3-4 dimensional pictures, to represent different aspects of reality. These can be discussed and shared, face-to-face or on-line.

More than getting information, students comprehend, critique, apply, and communicate it. All of this enriches the learning process, making deeper and more lasting impressions and connecting theory to practice. Cf. Bloom's Taxonomy.

Animated graphics need not be used exclusively for children. They also appeal to adults, even skilled theologians. A website, http://www.usfca.edu/GOODNEWS, invites professional and non-professional theologians from around the world to contribute animated graphics to illustrate different dimensions of theological reflection on change within Christian and other traditions.

This moves beyond animation to interactivity.

Interdependence between theological systems and among thinking, praying, and acting can be compared to interactions among cardiovascular, nervous, respiratory, and digestive systems. A change in any one brings changes to the rest. Graphics can demonstrate how loss of sight, hearing, breath, mobility, and touch affects the quality of life, as removing one brick at a time eventually collapses a building. Graphics can also show how moral development leads to integration and integrity according to developmental psychologists Piaget and Kohlberg, or in various Hindu and Buddhist schools.

Animated graphics can even lead to the development of theology games. Individually or in groups, students might reflect on the journey of life, with its dangers and demons, opportunities and triumphs. Doors in a cave arouse curiosity to explore, but also suggest prudently weighing risks and rewards. "What if?" is balanced with "What then?"

Combining animated graphics with e-mail, chat-rooms, and links on the Internet adds a new dynamic of interaction--spontaneous, free, encouraging deeper exploration of themes and inviting response from fellow learners. This kind of interaction creates a virtual community. People search and find together. Active participation pulls the participants into the joint action, as we know from religious liturgies and secular celebrations.

Surely changes in doctrinal understandings about the Trinity, Incarnation, Redemption, and Church have changed patterns of personal and liturgical prayer as well as relationships with other people. A paradigm shift from polytheism to monotheism will affect the way people think about God, themselves, and the problem of evil, and all of this will be expressed prayerfully. A change in economic behavior, such as capitalism, will lead to discovery of how the scriptures emphasize the importance of risk-taking. Moving from Latin to English in the liturgy changes people's attitude in prayer from passive to active, and this carries over into a sense of responsibility in the whole of life. Sunday services move from something people attend or watch to something which they do together, aware of the meaning and fully engaged.

Charting and connecting these shifts graphically and discussing them on the Internet will engage theologians in a more fruitful interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and cross-credal interaction and dialogue. It adds a new dimension to theology, a dimension which will become more prominent as more people become adept at the Internet.

The purpose of creation and redemption is not a frozen stability, but change, an ever-deepening union with God in Christ. The universe is expanding. The stars and their solar systems are in motion. Quarks are constantly moving. This movement of the universe is not utterly fixed and stable, but evolutionary. God created all things in and for Christ, to be drawn into unity with the community of the Trinity. Cf. Colossians 1 and Ephesians 2.

This is even more profoundly true of the order of grace, as is seen from the history of Israel and Christianity. Christians are commissioned to proclaim the gospel to all nations until the end of the world. The Acts of the Apostles make clear that the attempt to freeze God's plan into any stage of history is to fight against the work of the Holy Spirit. Gentile Christians did not have to become Jewish. After Church councils, laws had to be changed, to reflect changed understandings of God's plans and the Church.

Church law must promote flexibility in non-essentials precisely to promote stability in essentials. Both unity and catholicity (diversity, pluralism) are marks of the Church and must be kept in creative harmony with the past and the future (apostolicity) to foster union with God (holiness). The true purpose of law is not to divide but to unite, to set free from chaos and disorder so that God's plan can be fulfilled through human cooperation.

This will demand new structures in the next century, structures which promote understanding and free cooperation with the work of the Holy Spirit. For example, the Internet should not be seen as a threat, a vehicle of communication to be restricted and controlled, but as an innovative advance in the mission of God's Word. The Internet can advance communication with others across barriers of time and place, addressing through graphics the right side of the brain, which has been largely neglected by theologians since the Enlightenment. This fuller communication facilitates a fuller human response, broader and deeper, involving more of the human person.

Stage One of a web project to depict change in theology would display graphically the interplay of doctrine, behavior, prayer, and liturgy, using different lines and shapes; different colors, height, depth, width, and texture; different figures and icons. Arrows of different sizes (representing the varying impact of various factors) can converge on a person or group.

For example, a central figure can be struck by a doctrinal arrow (black on white, with a tiny picture of a dawn), then react through arrows flowing outward: blue, with praying hands, for prayer; yellow, with singing choir, for liturgy; red, with fire, for morality.

The central figure changes color under the impact of arrows, one at a time, or in pairs: blue + yellow > green; red + yellow > orange; blue + red > violet. The head throbs, the heart pounds, the hands flex.

The size of the central figure can vary. If the figure is large and the arrows small, their impact is minimal. A figure dwarfed by one or more arrows is overwhelmed.

The single figure can be replaced by a group, with the same dynamics.

In Stage Two the graphics can represent shapes typical of some historical period, say the first, fifth, tenth, fifteenth, or twentieth century, with links to the time line in Encarta Encyclopedia. Hyperlinks can build in music and sounds of an era as well as the visual arts: architecture, painting, sculpture, theater, and dance.

In Stage Three additional graphics can show the mutual impact of theology and culture (science, literature, philosophy, economics, politics, psychology, communication, arts, and entertainment). These interactions have been noted by many scholars in books and articles regarding:

. Literature-whether composed by a Biblical author, biographer, or

playwright.

. Science-Stars and ecosystems, quarks and gases all interact.

. Art--Theater, dance, painting, sculpture, music, architecture work

together.

. Social science-Psychology and sociology, politics and economics draw

data from many fields: medicine, mathematics, education, and law.

The impact of those insights can be deepened by pictures which speak for themselves, a dance (like the ballet of fountains in Disney's Fantasia) or a symphony, addressing a melodic line, harmony, and various movements through many instruments.

Stage Four is a kind of mining operation or a pumping oil well. It moves behind the initial simple interaction of doctrine, morality, prayer, and liturgy, rooting everything in religious experience. Experiences give rise to interpretations and responses. Pop-up frames can be used to move from one dimension to another. Similarities among experiences in various religious traditions can be displayed, as well as the results of attempted inculturation.

For example, the cloud of unknowing gives way to the sunrise of enlightenment; prayer flows from contemplation of a flower unfolding or a fish swimming; swinging censers or pilgrims walking add other dimensions to liturgy; feeding the hungry or welcoming strangers puts many forms of faith into action.

Experience is interpreted through:

. mind-sets (personality types, moods, needs, interests, prejudices,

assumptions)

. and doctrine (theory).

Response to experienced revelation is expressed in various structures:

. relationships (love of God and neighbor)

. doctrines

. prayer, liturgy, popular religiosity

. morality (behavior, practice).

. religious organizations reaching out to others.

. support in the face of indifference, ignorance, and opposition.

Stage 5 is a metastage, in which participants step back from the details to see not simply chaotic complexity but relationships between the various smaller elements of change. Like doctors armed with microscopes or astronomers with telescopes, they begin to recognize and connect similar patterns of doctrines and images (God as mother, father, lover, healer, shepherd, rock, storm), personal and group prayer, moral and holy behavior in many religious traditions. This traces the work of the Holy Spirit in history and society.

Stage 6 is an evaluation process, assessing the success of the project in terms of the quantity and quality of graphics submitted, the use of the project in religion and other courses at all levels of formal and informal education, and emulation of the project in other fields.

Prizes will be given for the best animated graphics submitted during the month or year. A DVD or a CD-ROM will be produced annually, containing all the graphics submitted along with their critiques, and with an invitation to combine them creatively. The major reward, of course, will be the joy of discovery and of sharing discoveries with others.

The first five stages will be developed more fully, one per year, with new consultants added as new fields are integrated. However, graphics for any stage may be submitted at any time. Each stage will have its own home page, linked to all the rest. Visitors may access any or all of the stages.

This project can lead to an ever-deeper understanding of all that the Word of God says and does today-and to living religious life more fully. Animated graphics involve the whole person, head, heart, and hands. After all, theology is faith seeking understanding in order to deepen faith. And faith is the commitment of the entire person in the entire believing community to the community of persons in the mystery of God. Promoting this union is the task of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. Working together on this project draws people closer together to one another and to God. They build a virtual cathedral for today and tomorrow.

1) Student maintains site, adding, revising via Powerpoint, VRML, etc.;

setting up auto-responder, tracking hits by visitors & search engines, posting to site graphics submitted by visitors

2) Team of consultants improve site, designing new graphics, coordinating arts, humanities, sciences; adding links to existing art, videos, music, movies

Year 1-10,000 (2 consultants, Communications, computer science)

Year 2-- 20,000 (add 2 consultants in history)

Year 3-45,000 (add 5 consultants in literature, fine arts, biology, politics)

Year 4-55,000 (add 4 consultants in soc, psych, education, economics)

Year 5­-80,000 (add 5 consultants in physics, chem., law, phil., medicine)

2) New & Upgraded Communications & Graphics Software & hardware

3) Publicity-- Get domain name registered--and listed in the top ten by relevant search engines. Use pop-up ads. Get as many links as possible

4) My own work-overseeing the project

a) Screening graphics submitted + selecting graphics to be posted

b) Choosing and orienting initial consultants

c) Selecting (with consultants) best graphics of month and year

d) Producing an annual DVD disk containing all graphics submitted plus a critical commentary on similarities and differences and quality.

e) Expanding the team of consultants as relations expand with other fields. Soliciting the submission of new graphics in neglected areas of the project.

f) Evaluating the success of the project, using these criteria:

1) Quantity and quality of submitted graphics

2) Frequency of hits by visitors and search engines and links

3) Use of the project in connection with religion courses in elementary, secondary, higher education, undergraduate and graduate levels.

4) Use of the project in other courses.

5) Use of the project in the broader community of the Church: homilies, adult education, liturgy, prayer, popular devotions, social action

6) Emulation of the project in other interdisciplinary cooperation sites