Virtual Communion: Theology of the Internet and the Catholic

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Virtual Communion: Theology of the Internet and the Catholic VIRTUAL COMMUNION: THEOLOGY OF THE INTERNET AND THE CATHOLIC IMAGINATION Dissertation Submitted to The College of Arts and Sciences of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology By Katherine G. Schmidt Dayton, Ohio December 2016 VIRTUAL COMMUNION: THEOLOGY OF THE INTERNET AND THE CATHOLIC IMAGINATION Name: Schmidt, Katherine G. APPROVED BY: _________________________________________ Vincent J. Miller, Ph.D. Faculty Advisor _________________________________________ Jana M. Bennett, Ph.D. Faculty Reader _________________________________________ Angela Ann Zukowski, MHSH, D. Min. Outside Faculty Reader, Institute for Pastoral Initiatives _________________________________________ William L. Portier, Ph.D. Faculty Reader _________________________________________ Sandra A. Yocum, Ph.D. Faculty Reader _________________________________________ Daniel S. Thompson, Ph.D. Chairperson ii © Copyright By Katherine G. Schmidt All rights reserved 2016 iii ABSTRACT VIRTUAL COMMUNION: THEOLOGY OF THE INTERNET AND THE CATHOLIC IMAGINATION Name: Schmidt, Katherine G. University of Dayton Advisor: Vincent J. Miller, Ph.D. As virtual space, the internet can be understood theologically through the doctrinal loci of the incarnation and the church. These two doctrines pervade both scholarly and ecclesial discussions of technology and the internet to date, and remain the central doctrinal categories with which theologians should assess internet culture. In its broader sacramental imagination and its ecclesiology, the church relies on virtual space insofar as it relies on the productive tension between presence and absence. Furthermore, the social possibilities of the internet afford the church great opportunity for building a social context that allows the living out of Eucharistic logic learned in properly liturgical moments. iv Dedicated to my grandmother, Mable, who paved the way for her granddaughters to achieve more than she could imagine. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the members of my committee-- Dr. Jana Bennett, Dr. Sandra Yocum, Dr. Bill Portier, Sr. Angela Ann Zukowski--for their support over the past few years. I have benefitted greatly from their expertise, generosity, and overall willingness to invest time and energy into serving on the committee for this dissertation. I would also like to thank my director and mentor, Dr. Vincent Miller. Professor Miller has given me tremendous support over the past 6 years, and his encouragement and guidance have been the driving forces behind my completing this project. I would also like to thank my colleagues and friends at the University of Dayton for their conversations and support. Special thanks to my husband, Jordan Goldmeier, for his love and support, even as he finished his own books. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................iv DEDICATION.....................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..................................................................................................vi PREFACE...........................................................................................................................ix LIST OF FIGURES...........................................................................................................xv . CHAPTER ONE: THEOLOGICAL ACCOUNTS OF INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY…………………………………………………………………………..1 I. Anonymity…………………………………………………………..…………..4 II. Vitriol ………………………………………………………………………….9 III. Authority…………………………………………………………………..…12 IV. Access……………………………………………………………………..…20 V. Disembodiment……………………………………………………………….27 VI. Conclusion: A Way Forward………………………………………………...33 CHAPTER TWO: ECCLESIAL PERSPECTIVES ON MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS......................................................................................................35 I. Pre-Conciliar Ecclesial Perspectives..................................................................38 II. Conciliar and Post-Conciliar Ecclesial Perspectives.........................................47 III. Pontifical Perspectives on Social Communications.........................................62 A. Paul VI..................................................................................................63 B. John Paul II...........................................................................................65 C. Benedict XVI........................................................................................71 D. Francis...................................................................................................75 IV. Communion ....................................................................................................78 CHAPTER THREE: THE VIRTUAL IN CATHOLIC SACRAMENTALITY...............81 I. Remediation and Third Objects..........................................................................83 II. Beyond VR: Senses of the Virtual....................................................................87 III. Incarnation, Virtuality and the Church............................................................91 IV. Representative Project: Rudy, Virtual Pilgrimages in the Convent................96 V. Pauline Ecclesial-Virtual Space......................................................................105 VI. Lourdes and Virtual Space.............................................................................119 VII. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………124 CHAPTER FOUR: SOCIAL LIFE AND THE INTERNET…….………………….….127 I. The Social Ties of Online Communities…………………………………..…130 II. Fragmentation and Diffusion………………………………………………..140 vii III. The Suburbanization of American Life…………………………………….151 IV. Conclusion: The Church, Presently………………………………………...165 CHAPTER FIVE: EUCHARISTIC ECCLESIOLOGY AND THE STANDARDS OF COMMUNION............................................................................................................…173 I. The Ecclesial Optimism of Henri de Lubac.....................................................175 II. Presence and Absence in the Eucharistic Assembly.......................................193 A. Symbol and the Sacraments................................................................195 B. Symbolic Exchange.............................................................................203 C. Criteria of Symbolic Exchange and Communion...............................206 III. Conclusion.....................................................................................................231 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION………………………………………………………233 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………236 Books and Articles……………………………………………………………...236 Church Documents……………………………………………………………...249 viii PREFACE Many in the Catholic Church will remember March 13, 2013. On that evening, Francis spoke his first words as pontiff, introducing the world to his humble style through a small wave and a slight smile. His first speech is really a prayer—for Pope Benedict XVI, for the Church of Rome and Rome itself, and for Francis himself. He paused before offering his own blessing to allow those gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray for him as he embarked on an office he never sought. Francis then gave his own blessing, his first “Urbi et Orbi,” before bidding the crowd goodnight and telling them “sleep well.” Between these two moments of prayer the Cardinal who had introduced the new pope (known in this capacity as the Protodeacon) stepped in to provide a prologue to Francis’ first blessing as pope. The official transcript includes the following to convey what happened instead of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran’s actual words: The Protodeacon announced that all those who received the blessing, either in person or by radio, television or by the new means of communication receive the plenary indulgence in the form established by the Church. He prayed that Almighty God protect and guard the Pope so that he may lead the Church for ix many years to come, and that he would grant peace to the Church throughout the world.1 As much as I will remember Francis’ first words for their beautiful simplicity, I will also remember the words of Cardinal Tauran. For in what most people might only recall as a pro forma interlude to Francis’ first papal prayer, I heard with clarity an ancient church grant an indulgence over the internet.2 In Cardinal Tauran’s announcement, we can see the church dealing with various media as they came along: radio, television, and “new means of communication,” now so various as to warrant a generalized phrase to capture them. The Protodeacon was speaking to people in St. Peter’s Square holding cell phones that transmitted pictures and sounds to their loved ones, and to people watching the announcement while huddled over laptops and iPads in offices and on buses. I have no evidence of who wrote this sentence about indulgences, and I have no evidence if he included “new means of communication” for more than what he assumed were practical reasons. I take this sentence, however, as evidence of a call for theologians to be ever attentive to the means of communication as they relate to the economy of grace. This project is a response to that need. I remember exactly where I was when I first learned about the internet. I stood in the room of a teenage girl, the daughter of a 1 Radio Vaticana, “Pope Francis: his first words,” 13 March 2013, http://en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2013/03/13/pope_francis_his_first_words_/en1-673112.
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