Defense Date

3-2-2018

Graduation Date

Spring 5-11-2018

Availability

Immediate Access

Submission Type

dissertation

Degree Name

PhD

Department

Communication and Rhetorical Studies

School

McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts

Committee Chair

Ronald C. Arnett

Committee Member

Janie Harden Fritz

Committee Member

Patricia Arneson

Keywords

being vs. doing, response vs. reaction, givenness, formation, consciousness, embodiment

Abstract

This project aims to enlarge understanding of Ellul’s dilemma of the ethical Christian communicator through a hermeneutic exploration of his intentionally un-paradigmatic treatment of technology as the determining factor in the formation of contemporary structural realities, a claim central to Ellul’s theory of technological society. It attends to the question of why, over the course of more than 50 books and over 1,000 articles, Ellul has refused to expound upon this claim as an overarching theoretical construct. As a contribution to the field of communication ethics from Ellul’s Christocentric perspective, this work also explicates the importance of what has become widely recognized as Ellul’s “dialectic method” of social analysis from the standpoint of rhetorical interruption, pointing to the absence of phenomenological distance as the most significant barrier to human relations in contemporary society.

Language

English

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