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Currently about forms of direct communication are transformed into mediated communications: conversations, piece of work, art, believe and fifty-fifty liturgy are forced to invent new forms of mediation. Do these radical changes call for a theological reflection? František Štěch writes about the theological significant of mediation.

The British practical theologian, Pete Ward, writes: "Through the utilise of metaphor and analogy (…) theology tries to capture the subtle play of (divine) light on the texture of life," and argues that Christian "theology is theology considering it is a participation in the Trinitarian life of God. This participation is mediated in the expression of the Christian community. This means that rather than simply being a form of static definition, theology should possibly exist seen as advice. This communication is both lived in as a culture and at the same time information technology is indwelt past God. In advice theology is animated within the customs."[ane] According to his expertise, theology should be understood and developed in terms of arbitration. Ward sees arbitration as an ongoing procedure grounded in social relationships and providing a possibility to construct identity in cultural as well as spiritual ways. One of the many social mediations is participation in liturgy every bit a communal exercise mirroring the cultural and spiritual bases of the particular community. Advice of faith is a series of mediations operating as culture (human being chemical element), even so at the aforementioned time it is a participation in the life of the Trinity (Begetter is mediated in the Son through the Holy Spirit).

Starting to recall theology as mediation, we cannot escape the traditional tension between transcendence and immanence.[2] Ward thinks that the theology of cosmos besides as emphasizing God´due south omnipresence leads us to the impasse which needs to exist surmounted. Theology of creation (as well as the notion of omnipresence) stand for important aspects of theology. Yet theology as mediation could not be located in whatever of them, because they both "downplay the relational and personal presence of God in arbitration."[3] They both accentuate universality over particularity (God is everywhere in his creation). Only theology equally mediation needs to include both every bit, because information technology is an oscillation (speaking with Hansen) betwixt universality and particularity. It is a particularization of universality and a universalization of particularity. Therefore, Pete Ward suggests locating theology as mediation into the area of revelation (in his words: epiphany).[iv] Revelation focuses our attending to the space in between the human and the divine. Information technology includes God´s omnipresence, happens inside a creation, but at the same time gives space for personal see and relationship. It reveals God as creator and also the nature of human being beingness as God's dear creature.

In this respect we may perceive God as being the first theologian, who pronounces a word of truth about himself and all his creation. Through his only son Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life (the medium), God invites people to have a share in the process of mediation, the eternal motion of the Truth and Love. In Christian religion it is Jesus Christ who links the medium with the message (remember Marshal McLuhan, here) because he is both fully at the same fourth dimension. Information technology is a divine human relationship to humanity that is emphasized here and thus we may see Jesus Christ as the embodied transduction of the medium and the message. Jesus Christ is incarnated and resurrected Theo-logy – the discussion of God. As such God can be experienced as the surround for the whole of life. Through him, in him and with him all creative creatures may participate in the process of (symbolic) mediation inside Jesus Christ, the medium of life. In other words, Jesus Christ is the way to the full communion with the Begetter, because he is truth and life himself (John xiv: half-dozen), because he is the medium and the bulletin at the same time; because he is the incarnated Give-and-take of God (John 1:14). If Christ becomes medium for Christian life, we may perceive such "life in the medium" every bit a process of arbitration—the concrete appearing of living via exteriorization in an environment of medium. If theology should respond to the calls of life, it must go life itself. Theologians must recognize that they are not neutral observers within the mediated realities they study and interpret. But when they unlearn what they think they already know, and open themselves up to new ways of agreement, presenting, and interpreting theology, will they exist able to respond to challenges of contemporary mediatized being in specific theological terms.[5]

František Štěch, Th.D. currently works at the Protestant Theological Faculty at Charles University within the framework of the Theology and Contemporary Culture enquiry group. His professional person interests include central theology, ecclesiology, youth theology, religious and Christian identity, intercultural theology, public theology, and theology of religions.

[ane] WARD, Pete. (2008). Participation and Mediation: A Applied Theology for the Liquid Church. London: SCM Press: 106.

[2] Cf. BLONDHEIM, Menahem and ROSENBERG, Hananel. 'Media Theology: New Communication Technologies as Religious Constructs, Metaphors, and Experiences.' New Media and Gild nineteen (ane), 2017: 45.

[three] WARD. (2008). Participation and Arbitration: 112.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Cf. ŠTĚCH, František. 'Narrative Theology, Revelation, and the Road towards a Theological Media Theory,' Theology Today 75:4 (2019), 433.

Rat-Blog Nr. 9/2020