Nurturing Faith in the New Media

Nurturing Faith in the New Media Age: Challenges and Prospects
By Inaku K. Egere

1. Introduction
The nurturing and constant growth of the people of God has been the special mission of the Church over time. In the past, few indicators conveyed though not in an unequivocal manner the insatiable appetite for carrying out this special mandate by Christ meant to last till the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20), since the Gospel is for all time the source of all life for the Church. The religion and spirituality boiling up within a particular culture has often times been defined or better still redefined in terms of the milieu.



Therefore, streaming through the memory lane, there was a time in history when spiritual journey for instance is described to be  the “dark night of the soul”, a way of gaining intimacy with God through retreats in silent abodes such as monasteries, convents, or even hermitages. This practice is not extinct but is at this very moment unfashionable as oppose to what it was many years ago.  Because of the advent of the new media technology, the quest for spiritual exercises now are gradually been positioned within a public forum in a new marketplace of prolific information and communication.



Amid the over whelming images, words, and sounds trumpeted by new media technology, the Church is saddled with the challenges of a dialectical relation between the demands and menaces of a situation in which she must communicate and nurture the Gospel values. Many more young men and women are today more than ever asking pertinent questions bordering around their faith. The media houses as products of the society have also in myriads of ways written and published articles and stories with similar themes such as: Do miracles still happen? Is Jesus really God? Has God forgotten this generation? Is the Bible the word of God? Is God still alive?. These questions may
have being articulated because of the belief that some situations in our lives have brought to limelight the awareness that we have not just only a relationship with events in themselves as the unfold but also to the mystery of life which inhibits them. The mystery which points to the ultimate being where people live, move and have their being. It captures the in and through relationship with the ultimate Mystery that interprets  the presence of God as the transcendental ground and vista of everything which exists and everything which knows and takes place precisely in and through the presence of the infinite existent.  Such contemporary philosophical theology suggests that people are aware of the presence of God in privies and parks, in times of joy and despair, in communication with people in the society or even in the solitary self. The stories and meaning which the person has distilled from such encounters eventually forms the starting point for faith development. With the synchronic and asynchronic nature of the new media technology, the heterogeneous audience can easily be reached.  Indeed, with Internet for instance as the prototypical new media apparently prioritizing the element of connectivity, faith can be woven into and nurtured even within “the cross cultural fabrics of religious and spiritual life”  especially as it has the capacity to be linked to other media, distant or sometimes near, one or many simultaneously with wide consequences. This paper therefore seeks to draw paradigms from wealth of the new media technology in enhancing the development of faith in our modern day society. Therefore, an understanding of the key concepts seems inevitable.




2. Key Concepts: Faith, New Media
Faith:
In Christianity as in other religions faith in the supernatural is a positive act of dependency. As it expresses “a total attitude claiming all of man’s faculties, a profound “Amen” to God”   this attitude otherwise known as faith is defined by Richard McBrian as “the gift of God by which we freely accept God’s self-communication in Christ”   Mcbrien’s definition of faith is from the perspective of faith development as a theological virtue. A very close study of Aquinas’s Theology of faith would reveal that faith is for Thomas Aquinas, a virtue which is all time primarily an act of the intellect with its emphasis on cognitive character. In his Summa Theologica, the scholar stresses the fact that, “to believe is an act of mind asserting to divine truth by virtue of the command of the will as this is moved by God through grace; in this way the act stands under the control of the free will and is directed towards God”  John O Donnell, while commenting on Aquinas’s definition of faith says “Aquinas stresses more the intellectual character of faith than the existential surrender, although the latter is not missing…. Secondly, Aquinas notes that the motive for faith is the authority of God. This objective authority, however, becomes credible because of the interior inspiration by which God invites the believer to make the act of faith.”   Thomas Aquinas’s teaching on faith was opposed by his predecessors, one of which was St. Albert the Great who would see faith as act of affective intellect. Indeed the intellectualist approach is seriously bereft as it has very little to offer the modern man’s existential concerns, questions and doubts. The deficiency does not imply a complete divorce from Aquinas’s theology of faith in this paper since Aquinas also believed that faith is “possible within the ambience of God’s offer of himself in grace and is offered to human participation in the divine life”  and this is further epitomized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church when faith is described as “a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him” . Nevertheless, before this belief in God is possible it must be assisted by the grace of God, man “must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth” . However, even though, faith is a grace, it is also a human act. This is because, trusting in God and cleaving to the truths God has revealed is a joint cooperation of the human intellect and will with divine grace. St Thomas Aquinas succinctly puts it thus: “Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.”  Pope Benedict XVI in his Wednesday audience entitled  “Faith is a gift of God, but it is also a profoundly free and human act”  observes  that:




Faith is not simply a matter of man’s intellectual assent to truths about God; It is an act whereby I freely entrust myself to a God who is Father and who loves me; it means clinging to a “Thou” who gives me hope and confidence. To be sure, this adherence to God is not devoid of content: it enables us to know that God himself revealed himself to us in Christ. He showed us his face and he truly drew near to each one of us….Faith means believing in God’s unfailing love, which endures even in the face of man’s iniquity, of evil and of death, and which is able to transform every form of slavery by granting the possibility of salvation. To have faith, then, is to encounter the “Thou”- God who sustains me and offers me the promise of an imperishable love that not only aspires to eternity but also gives it. It means entrusting myself to God with the attitude of a child who knows very well that all of his difficulties and problems are safe in the “thou” of the mother.




Faith is a gift of God and at the same time a free and human act therefore, its growth and sustainability will depend on many factors that individually or collectively influence the human person. The environment where one lives has a lot to contribute towards the growth and maturation of ones’ faith.



Therefore, faith involves man and uplifts him “in a gamble for life that is like an exodus, that is, a coming out of ourselves, from our own certainties, from our own mental framework, to entrust ourselves to the action of God who points out to us his way to achieve true freedom, our human identity, true joy of the heart, peace with everyone.” This process can be aided by the new media technology especially in our world of today. Perhaps a brief explanation of the word ‘new media’ might be advantageous in this respect.



New Media
Over the years, many scholars have asked this pertinent question. What is in a name? In the Shakespearean literature, the Juliet wondered: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” . Interestingly, Juliet may be wrong, for “different names bring to the fore different attributes, and by prioritizing different elements; they focus attention on some aspects and overlook others. The result is that for all intents and purposes they end up ‘smelling differently’…. In other words, their outlook, attributes and uses, shift as a result of the names used to apprehend them…names do not merely describe them, but construct them as particular kinds….”   In the case of new media, the name immediately creates an intellectual divide between “new” and “old” without actually denoting the parameters where the new would differ from the old other than their age difference or year of invention. A good example of this problem of specification is the classification of Internet as a new form of media with over 40 years of history. More so, the term new media has been in use since the 1960s and its meaning incorporates an increasing varying set of applied communication technologies. Defining such a term even at its embryonic age posits some challenges.



Nevertheless, the editors of the Handbook of New Media (Lievrouw and Livingstone) also point to the difficulties of saying just what the ‘new media’ compromise. They would prefer to define them in a composite way saying: “By new media we mean information and communication technologies and their associated social contexts, incorporating: the artifacts or devices that enable and extend our abilities to communicate; the communication activities or practices we engage in to develop and use these devices; and the social arrangements or organizations that form around the devices and practices.”  The editors linked information communication technologies (ICT) with their related social frameworks, bringing together three elements: technological artefacts and devices; activities, practices and uses; and social arrangements and organizations that form around the devices and practices. In deed many technologies according to the definition are infrastructural because they combine elements of technology, practices and social organization.



 The term further signifies a shift in media logic, which demonstrates a certain level of novelty, innovation and dynamism. This signification is what may have prompted McQuail to say [the] ‘new electronic media’ can be viewed initially as an addition to the existing spectrum rather than as a replacement.”  In McQuails position, new media are products of a continuous hybridization of both existing technologies and innovations in interconnected technical and institutional networks. New media technologies are historically relative terms. As Marvin observes that, “we are not the first generation to wonder at the rapid and extraordinary shifts in the dimensions of the world and human relationships it contains as a result of new forms of communication”.  New media has features which distinguishes it from the old media. Digitalization is pivotal but interestingly, the transmission of digital bits rather than the physical atoms does not define the term adequately. Perhaps an understanding of the characteristics of the new media may suggest or create a continuum in our discourse on faith and new media. However, new media as application of microelectronics, computers and telecommunications could be identified with three specific characteristics namely, interactivity; demassification and asynchronicity.



3. Faith Nurturing with Interactive Exchange: a dialogue view
In new media spheres, the word interactivity attracts a lot of comments from communication scholars but solely because the term is so difficult to be understood. Rather its frequent usage stems from the fact that, it forms the hub of new media communication structure. Though many scholars of communications over the years have observed that, the word while frequently used in conjunction with the discussion of new media, is often either undefined or underdefined.   In deed, as a “collide oscope”  of interfaced situation between faith and the new media, its density will be better appreciated with its description or definition clearly stated. Some of the definitions that capture the logic of our enquiry in this paper is that of Ha and James, who defined Interactivity as “the extent to which the communicator and the audience respond to, or are willing to facilitate, each other’s communications’ need.  While Rafaeli, one of the most cited scholars on interactivity identified interactivity as going beyond simple one-way “action” or two-way “reaction” that may not be truly responsive. For Rafaeli, “Interactivity is an expression of the extent that in a given series of communication exchanges, any third (or later) transmission (or message) is related to the degree to which previous exchanges referred to earlier  transmissions.”  The common denominator about the two definitions above is the fact that, they both focus on communication exchange that helps in reducing the time lag between exchanges.



From the perspective of interactive exchange, we shall then look at the new media role in nurturing the Christian faith through the dialogue view approach, focusing on role exchange and mutual discourse, with emphasis on conversational-style exchanges. The interactivity of this new media will help the Church as whole and all pastors like Christ to “set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance”.  This ministry of the Church can be made feasible and even less cumbersome if through new media interactivity medium is used first of all to reappropriate “exact knowledge of the faith, so as to reinvigorate it, purify it, confirm it, and confess it”  In deed, in the field of symbolic interaction for example, Blumer had identify three premises which are of vital importance in our discourse. For him, human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that those things have for them. Second, the meanings of such things are derived from, or arise out of, the social interaction that an individual has with others. And finally, those meaning are modified through an interactive processes used by individuals in dealing with the things they encounter.  Faith is an encounter with God. This divine experience is sometimes made more concrete through the use of signs and symbols.




Church as the custodian of faith and morals at various levels makes use of these symbolic expressions/interactions in her mission. She sees the new media as “precious aid for spreading the Gospel and religious values, for promoting dialogue, ecumenical and inter-religious cooperation, and also for defending those solid principles which are indispensable for building a society which respects the dignity of the human person and is attentive to the common good” . At various instances, new media is perceived by the Church as tools which must be used to fulfill its multifaceted, God-given mission in the world. In fact, Pope Benedict XVI, says that “everything must be done” for this mission to be completed. He acknowledges that media are unique among the Church’s many tools, in that they “[stimulate] people to listen to and embrace” the gospel . The Pontiff in Caritas in Veritate asserts that communications media, and technology in general, “[express] the inner tension that impels [humanity] gradually to overcome material limitations” . He sees them as reflecting, at their core, a transcendent desire. “Technology, in this sense, is a response to God’s command to till and to keep the land (cf. Gen 2:15) that he has entrusted to humanity.”  Pope John Paul II speeaks of media as having the ability to unite Church members around the world. They can “render the bonds of communion among ecclesial communities more effective” . The Pope further contends that, “The modern technologies increase to a remarkable extent the speed, quantity and accessibility of communication” . Faith therefore, like any other human act is communicative. Its metaphysical and dynamic composition is such that calls for expression and of course interaction. Faith is not only a private act in the strict sense of the word it is also communitarian because choosing to believe in God which is a personal act of faith also demands a social responsibility. Pope Benedict XVI in his “Motu Proprio Data” Porta Fidei, declares:




 Confessing with the lips indicates in turn that faith implies public testimony and commitment. A Christian may never think of belief as a private acct. faith is  chossing to stand with Lord so as to live with him. This “standing with him” points towards an understanding of the reasons for believing. Faith, precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for what one believes. The Church on the day of Pentecost demonstrates with utter clarity this public dimension of believing and proclaiming one’s faith fearlessly to every person. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes us fit for mission ad strengthens our witness, making it frank and courageous. Profession of faith is an act both personal and communitarian. It is the Church that is the primary subject of faith. In the faith of the Christian community, each individual receives baptism, an effective sign of entry into the people of believers in order to obtain salvation.




In the bible, St Paul gives us clues on how faith developed and also how it can be nurtured when he said faith comes through hearing the word of God (Romans 10: 17. The process of ‘hearing’ makes it imperative that between the source and receiver, they must be a channel of communication. Channels as pathways through which the sender transmits all features of the messages (faith), whether they involves sound, smell, sight, or touch  in other to make interactive exchange in communication possible. Nevertheless, because of our dialogue view approach of interactivity which of course may have evolved both before and after the advent of new media, we will identify three traditions of interactivity: the user-to-user, user-to-documents and user-to-system traditions as portal for nurturing faith in a new media age.




4. User-to-user Faith Interaction in New Media
In recent times communication has changed rapidly the way people live and relate with each  other in the society. According to Inaku K. Egere, these “[c]hanges in the communication media have always had mammoth consequences on the Church understanding of its own nature and mission. Church structures and theology were and are radically transformed by the tide of change.”  Apparently, these changes profoundly influence the communication of the Gospel, the essential mission of the church and what constitutes the very source of its existence.  The faith of Christians began it seminal process when the community heard and believe that “the word became flesh”, and that God had taking the initiative of beginning a new form of communication with humanity in the person of Jesus Christ and his encounter with people in the world. It is therefore obvious that the Church came into existence through revelation which in itself is an act of communication. The Church’s mission therefore hinges on sharing the faith generated from the good news of our salvation to the entire humanity and to perpetuate the communication of God in Christ throughout time.




For more than two thousand years, while carrying out this mission she has encountered myriads of difficulties in communicating the message in different times and cultures. These barriers and challenges may not be unconnected with media used at various times. Each epoch has its technology that is not alien to it but rather identifiable and acceptable by the users as an effective means of communication. The church therefore has to adapt the logic of the new “market place” (new methods) in carrying out her mission. Scholars like Angela Zukowski shares in this view when she observes that:




Today we have stepped onto a new landscape filled with new technologies and mass media attractions only to find people speaking a new language of having different cultural experiences. They may no longer hear voices of religious tradition, or they may simply refuse to even listen…If communication is the heart of the church’s life, then the evangelization must enter in a decisive way into this new age. The Catholic Church has a long tradition of using media and the arts in its communication and evangelization efforts. It is up to the evangelizers, therefore, to identify the new language and artistic expressions which can stimulate a public dialogue of faith.



Undoubtedly, user-to-user model of interaction in the new media has brought significant changes to human communication. The user-to-user interaction also known as computer-mediated-communication (CMC) has added a layer of technology between communicating partners. CMC as a form of human communication through computer emphasizes on “interaction between humans using computers to connect with one another. The computers may be central repositories for human messages, or they may comprise a network of links and nodes facilitating the transfer of human messages” . Apparently, this new layer gives the evangelizers a medium in which to test, modify, and expand generally the understanding of Christian faith in the changing world. Because of the ‘interactive profiles’ of these new media and more so, as product of our present day world, the CMC means of communication is quite effective and affordable. The church therefore “sees these media as “gifts of God” which, in accordance with his providential design, unite men in brotherhood and so help them to cooperate with his plan of salvation”




Presently there are numerous incarnations of text-based CMC, but under this model (user-to-user interaction) we will like to first of all identify computer conferencing (CC). Therefore, church representatives can make use of those systems that reside on large central computers to which several users can link directly via inhouse terminals or indirectly via home computers, modems, and telephone lines in nurturing the faith of the people.  Through CC, messages containing catechesis, homilies, and sermons, religious instructions on both doctrinal and dogmatic issues are composed and saved to files that are designed to permit multi-user access. Spiritual directors and other pastoral workers can reach the people especially the youth through mediated retreats, spiritual excises and counseling. For instance, special interest groups (SIG) can be established in other to share individual faith encounter with God among members of the group. This kind computer conferencing could be made to be an ongoing discussion, sharing, interaction that does not require physical presence of the participants in one place. In fact, a member of this group may be residing in Canada while the other in Abuja. Very peculiar to this computer conferencing is the fact that, contributions from members on a particular theme may not be synchronized with the attendance of other members of the special interest group. Individual members are only connected to the group discussion when they log in anywhere and at any time of their convenience via the use of inhouse terminals (computers), modems and telephony.





Another user-to-user interactive device is the use of electronic mail popularly known as Email. Obviously, Email is another form of CMC that is text-based and very recently, advertisers and other business organizations have found out that the application is not only cost effective but also value oriented. Unlike the asynchronous computer conferencing, email does not need any group-accessible central repository of messages. Instead, “Messages are sent to individual addresses just as conventional mail is sent to individual addresses. Of course, bulk mailings by individuals or by automated message handling software are becoming as common as their counterparts in the conventional mail systems.”  Very important about this type of user-to-user interactivity is the use of LISTSERVER as a tool for nurturing faith. With this application, messages in form of bible sharing, experiential stories bordering any spiritual encounter, sermons, homilies, etc. can be received from individuals and then distributed to others according to the mailing lists. Interestingly, “members of these mailing lists, then, constitute a group of communicants who can carry on asynchronous discussions much the same way as users of computer conferencing systems do.”




Faith can be nurtured through the use of electronic bulletin board systems (EBBSs). The genesis of these EBBSs could be traced back to conventional community bulletin board located at strategic positions such as public squares, town halls, cross roads where public information could be posted and read. In the 1980s, computer user groups used it for the purpose of online distribution of software and related information. This system became popular when the postings of the bulletins eventually resulted to interactive discussions. Very recently, EBBSs became local fora for educational activities, writers’ collectives, academic discussions and special interest groups. EBBSs can as well be used in parishes and religious institutions to propagate the Christian faith.




Very significant about these EBBSs is the “CHAT” mode interaction which is conceptually based on a more traditional public communication system. Most computers used today have this feature installed in them. Though they may differ from each other depending on the manner the exchange is presented on the screen, and in the number of simultaneous users who can interact in any one group exercise. Arun Bahtia while corroborating this argument says: “The exchange can be character by character, line by line, or in multiple-line blocks. In character by character mode, the recipients see each character as it is typed by the sender. In line by line mode, the message is not sent until the sender presses the key (or), and in the multi-line blocks mode, several lines are composed before the message is sent. In all cases, however, the transaction occurs immediately and is not held in a mail system or conferencing space for future retrieval.”  Nevertheless, the transcript of the discussion can be logged for future review or use of the interaction even though the exchange is intended to be in real time. This application if effectively managed and utilized especially by counselors, pious association and religious groups in strengthening the faith of others, those involved may gain more spiritual insights since numerous simultaneous users can interact in real time and all communicants can observe the contributions of the others as they interact.


A common design for two simultaneous users involving the splitting of the screen horizontally with the top half used for receiving messages, and the bottom half for composing and sending messages can be attractive for the participants whose may spend more time sharing the faith because of the convenience of the technology.


5. User-to-documents Faith Interactivity.
In our previous sections, we dwelt extensively on how people interact with each other via the use of computer-mediated communication device. Here comes also another form of interactivity where people interact with documents and creator of those documents. This concept of the new media is as a result of the level of audience participation. In the old media, the audience is perceived to be passive thereby only relying on what message/information the media has for dissemination but with new media technology the audience is active. They invariably interpret and use the media. This model centers on what I will call ‘content on demand’. The users can involve in content exchange. That means all participants can either be senders or receivers of the content. “Bulletin boards are an example of this type of information exchange that often occurs asynchronously.”



With the rise of Web 2.0 linked to the development of a new technological infrastructure, the Blogs, Word press, interactive fiction, etc. can provide platforms in which multiple active participants create the content that forms the foundation blocks for an interactive environment. Parishes or individuals can create Blogs for example with religious contents that will uplift and nourish the faith of others who might read and sometimes contribute their spiritual experiences or reflections.




6. User-to-system Faith Interactivity
The models explained above prove that individuals interact with each other and also they interact with documents and the documents creators as well. The last but not the least form of interactivity is very akin to new media. It involves the interaction between individuals and the computer or any other form of new media itself. The human technology interfaces has connection with the early exploration of the mid 1900s when computer scientist began using the word interactivity to explain a new type of interface that was distinct from, and more user-friendly than, the batch processing.   User-to-system interaction is a situation where the computer will ‘present’ information to users who will respond to that information. Computers can be programmed in such a way that they can provide information concerning issues of faith to users. Take for instance, with adaptive communication, the computer is not just still in command of the interaction, but also more responsive to individual needs. This could happen when “the state of flow is generally assumed to be characterized by a state of high user activity in which the computer becomes virtually transparent as individuals ‘lose themselves’ in the computer environment” .  Such interface no doubt if properly configured can be more useful to individuals than sometimes their colleagues would be in matters of faith.



7. Challenges of nurturing faith in the New Media
The wave of the future in human communication is like the characterization of “flextime” which often betrays the process as a simple matter of convenience that alters the state of communication with apparent social implications. These alterations are significantly noticed in the areas of time and place, text-based interaction, and socioemotional content. CMC used for emotional interaction may have limitations because the text-based translation may be very limited because of the absence of the nonverbal cues.



Another major challenge is the reality of the widening gap in the digital capacity. Many religious bodies, pious associations/organization especially in developing countries (mission land) may not be able to overcome the financial and technical demands associated with the new media technology in nurturing the Christian faith. The limited access to the digital technologies may lead to inequitable sharing of communication infrastructure “(the electronic highways systems created by carries such as satellites, cables, fixed lines and mobile transmissions), computing capacity (computers, peripherals, networks),  information resources (databases, libraries), and ITC-Literacy (intellectual and social capabilities to deploy ITC in beneficial ways) will require an enormous effort from the international community” .



The adoption and deployment of digital technologies is no longer a territorial issue. Global negotiations, such as “the recent General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, heavily affect national technology plans, while the processes of globalization” . The configuration of some of the CMC interfaces by and for developing nations may suffer net losses.


Web technology has a heterogeneous environment where a wide variety of people make available tumultuous access to contents for web visitors with a variety of capabilities. However, disabilities that may require speech synthesizers and other devices are often times not considered in the technology. This deprivation as a matter of fact, does not make faith a commodity for all.



8. Prospects and Conclusion
Paradoxically, most people who were critical at the emergence of this new media technology are gradually using it for various reasons despite the fact that, the values and images associated with the concepts of leisure, information and evangelization are still sharply differentiated.

New media technology because of its asynchronic and synchronic capabilities, many users can benefit from it; in fact, it has a wider spectrum in terms of coverage. Pieces of information can instantaneously disseminated to a large and disperse audience who are connected to the technology. The CMC interface especially the computer conferencing can increase emotional and spiritual connections among users by creating more active participation in exchanging messages and establishing collaborations in electronic discussion groups on faith matters.

New Media technology creates easier access to people so much so that spiritual directions, sermons, homilies, catechesis and more can be shared among those connected together by the technology. , Indeed, it provides vehicles for users to address their spiritual concerns to each other in the hope of resolving their faith crisis.

INCULTURATION IN CYBERSPACE: A NEW PORTAL FOR THE "GOOD NEWS"

Inculturation in Cyberspace: A new portal for the “Good News” Inaku K. Egere Catholic Institute of West Africa Port Harcourt, Nigeria. 1. Introduction Changes in the communication media have always had mammoth consequences on the Churches understanding of its own nature and mission. Church structures and theology were and are radically transformed by the tide of change. Perhaps this enigma explains the reality that human beings are products of their environment. The Church, which is the people of God, exists within a context and a social setting. Therefore, societal influence forms part of its structure. In fact, the pontifical commission on social communication in 1992 aptly declares, “The People of God walk in history. As they…advance with their times, they look forward with confidence and even enthusiasm to whatever the development of the communications age may offer.” This goes on to prove that, the divine nature of the Church does not in any way give it immunity form environmental stimulus. Technological innovation and the swift transition to a global digital village have created a new media culture for the society. Communication therefore has become more dynamic, interactive, accessible and affordable. Digitalization which Denis McQuail, appositely remarks, as “the process by which all texts (symbolic meaning in all encoded and recorded forms) can be reduced to a binary code and can share the same process of production, distribution and storage” has noted potential consequences for the media industry. With the advent of the new media technology, the mode and channels of communication have changed. Today we are in a digital age of media convergence “between all existing media forms in terms of their organization, distribution, reception and regulation”. We live in an era of trinity of technology characterised with the integration of mass media, computer and telecommunications, thereby creating a new media landscape-cyberspace. This work therefore further advances our conversation on the challenges and perspectives of inculturation in cyberspace as a portico for new evangelization in Nigeria. It brings to focus the need for Church representatives to identify new perspectives and possibilities for retelling the stories of God and man relationship in the Scripture within the human stories of today in a topography represented by a variety of graphic interfaces that help orient those who make use of the services. 2. Polemics of inculturation in cyberspace The religious landscape in Nigeria characterized by Pentecostalism, ‘spiritism’, fanaticism, ‘gospelization’ and secularization demonstrates the complex challenge facing Catholic theologians especially in the area of inculturation and contextualization. Intellectual search for better ways of communicating the Gospel of Christ in a changing culture forms the root paradigm of this paper. As a compass, towards an argument that, Christianity could enter into a marriage with the new media culture without destroying its fabrics (nonetheless helping to give Christian meaning to human life), some definitions on inculturation and cyberspace are of essence. Recently with theological reflections especially after the publication of the Post-Synodal Exhortation: Ecclesia in Africa (The Church in Africa) by Pope John Paul II , African theologians have unequivocally made inculturation a focal point in their theological discussions. A term that was traced to 1962 in an article by a French author who spoke of une Christianisime inculturé (Christianity inculturated), though very recently, some scholars have attributed an article published in 1959 in which inculturation appeared in a missiological sense as the origin of the term. Conversely, from a theological perspective, inculturation according to Roest A. Crollius, et al., refers to “the honest and serious attempt to make Christ and his message of salvation evermore understood by peoples of every culture, locality and time, that is, the reformation of Christian life and doctrine into the very thought-patterns of each people. It is the continuous attempt to endeavour to make Christianity truly feel at home in the cultures of each people.” In Redemptoris Missio (Mission of the Redeemer) we read that through inculturation, “the Church makes the Gospel incarnate in different cultures and at the same time introduces peoples, together with their cultures, into her own community. She transmits to them her own values, at the same time taking the good elements that already exist in them and renewing them from within” . However, contextually, the definition of inculturation given by William Reiser, as “the process of a deep, sympathetic adaptation to and appropriation of a local cultural setting in which the Church finds itself in a way that does not compromise its basic faith in Christ.” This definition will indeed form the foundation of our enquiry. It is all embracing as it is more than a simple adaptation to cultural modes of expression; or limited to inclusion of drums and dances in the liturgy. Inculturation goes beyond the confines of liturgy and thus embraces the totality of life not excluding the cyberspace culture where individual cultures are coming to a new and enriched appreciation of their peculiar traditions and customs. Cyberspace one of the group of cyber words was originally coined by William Gibson in his science fiction when he tries to describe a his vision of a global network of computers linking people, machines, and sources of information in the world, and through which one could move or "navigate" as through a virtual space. However, the word "cyber", is a component of the science of cybernetics, it was a plagiaristic from the Greek verb "Kubernao", which means "to steer" and is the root of our present word "to govern." It signifies both the inkling of navigation through a space of automated data, and of control which is achieved by manipulating those data. “Gibson describes how someone, by entering cyberspace, could steer computer-controlled helicopters to a different target. Gibson's cyberspace is thus not a space of passive data, such as a library: its communication channels connect to the real world, and allow cyberspace navigators to interact with that world.” Nonetheless, the term "space", presages several aspects. It could mean a virtual infinite extension, including so many things that they can never be clenched all in a single file. This is a good description of the already existing assemblages of electronic data found on the Internet for instance. Secondly, the word ‘space’ indicates the idea of free movement, of being able to visit a multiplicity of states or places. Lastly, the word ‘space’ has some kind of geometry, implying perceptions such as distance, direction and dimension. Cyberspace therefore refers to the joint network of all existing communication outlets and information stores connecting people and machines together. It passed into use generally in the 1990s after the invention of the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989 by Tim Berner Lee. With the aforementioned description of cyberspace, it is obvious that the term cyberspace is a metaphor that signifies the expanse where digital communication occurs as being a kind of space. It is a kind of virtual presence that is not exactly ‘real’ but however, a genuine space where activities take place that have visible consequences. Apparently, in cyberspace, “careers are made… thieves prowl… complete records of our lives are stored… {they} is a rapidly growing new cultural space with diverse creeds, codes, and cults. Cyberspace record is not passive but interactive.” 3. Landscape topology of cyberspace inculturation Digitalization as a new culture has expanded its infrastructures so much so that a new world of opportunities and challenges are created especially for those who would be part of the cyber culture which is ‘neither a fad nor science fiction’. The topology of this landscape includes the preaching of the Gospel through the use of variety of digital audio and or graphic interfaces that will nourish those who explore it. The landscape in the strict sense of the word is without geographical topographies. It is rather a communication space – a virtual galaxy in which “people will spend even more of their lives teaching, learning, meeting colleagues, organizing their work, home, and leisure lives, carrying on idle or serious conversations, and searching for religious meaning and experiences.” Within the circumference are the electronic archives and libraries store documents including transactions and conversations of both group and or individual participants. This virtual communication community obviously forms a culture that appears in most cases very complex especially as more and more people are daily involved in the online communication. Like every human community whether physical or virtual, human beings have always strive to devise ways to better their immediate environment. At some times, while striving to fulfil identities that constitute a vital part of their societal obligations, choices are made that could be inimical to their relationship with God. This then calls for a special interest in the human activities that go on within the cyberspace not so much on the prodigies of technology but on the channel and content. Pope John Paul II in the 24th World Communication Message observes: “today, one no longer thinks or speaks of social communications as mere instruments or technologies. Rather they are now seen as part of a still unfolding culture whose full implications are as yet imperfectly understood and whose potentialities remain for the moment only partially exploited.” Again the Pontiff in Redemptoris Missio (Mission of the Redeemer) writes: “There is a deeper reality involved here: since the very evangelization of modern culture depends to a great extent on the influence of the media, it is not enough to use the media simply to spread the Christian message and the Church’s authentic teaching. It is also necessary to integrate that message into the new ‘new culture’ created by modern communications.” About three decades ago when the John Paul II identifies this paradigm shift, the reality of this unfolding culture is growing at a quantum speed with different shapes and sizes therefore calling on the Church to maintain a consistent attentive effort. According to Babin and Zukowski, this “effort is not to be considered a luxury but an essential ingredient for mission-based marketing in the twenty-first century.” New Age religious groups such as Evangelical and Protestants to mention but a few have created territories in the cyberspace and thus promoting religious realities and on-going interest in various disciplines. Expansion of religious reality into some sacred aspects of religion is quarried by some traditionalists especially in the orthopraxis of televising religious worship such as the Holy Mass. Opinions such as that may be held tenaciously by their proponents because religious expansion into cyberspace run the risk of losing some elements that are associated with physical presence and more so, for the Catholics, the actual celebration of the mass cannot be replaced with the techno-mediated mass. For the Yogic branch of Hinduism, worshipping online for different reasons is not allowed; for computers according to this religious group is found to be draining in varied negative perspectives. In fact, “the energy or vibration around a computer is not very good for [people].” Sarah Johnson further argues: But there is no direct connection from person to person in this sense, and a person's soul or energy is generally not see as transmitted over the wires by most religions. As Rabbi Kazen, who is involved with the Orthodox Jewish site for Chabad-Lubavitch explains to Zaleski (1997:18) during an interview, "Each individual person has a spark of godliness within them, which is the soul." According to Rabbi Kazen, many Jewish religious acts cannot be held on the web, partly because of the absence of the soul, but also partly because some religious acts are physical. They cannot be separated from the actual physical connection to the spiritual meaning. Acts, such as the Sabbath cannot be done in front of a computer-the entire act of being online during a Sabbath is contrary to how the time should be spent. In as much as this is true, the pertinent question is “what happens when participants gather synchronously on a regular basis for cyber rituals, cyber prayers meetings, or cyber paraliturgies? Can we say it is not an authentic religious experience or prayer?” Nevertheless, inculturation in cyberspace is not limited to religious worship where some of the cultural values of a particular culture are Christianized. Within the context of our enquiry, it should be understood as the totality of the communication of the Good News in and through the “Net Culture.” Synchronous and asynchronous online communication via Email, directories, chat rooms, live video conversations, discussion boards and classes have noticeably changed not only our perception of reality and the Church’s mission but also our society. Therefore the landscape of this cyberspace inculturation proposed in this paper is not only devoid of geographical stratification but also does not limit itself to a particular religious expression. This of course does not suggest in any way that, the content of this communication network will be without having target audiences in mind. For an authentic cyberspace inculturation strategy should be designed to communicate a specific message that will provide some particular information, to assist somebody in a particular manner, to say something of particular importance in connection to ones relationship with God and the society. 4. Religious relevance of cyberspace The fundament of all religions is the search for the ‘ultimate concern’ for that which is or should be the ultimate concern of all those who hold to the tenets of a particular religion. Therefore, all religions set out to propagate in a more profound way their beliefs and values to both potential members and actual members in order to sustain their faith and satisfy their ultimate concern. Various religious leaders and proponents at various instances and places have put up claims upon claims about their religion being supreme, more authentic and reliable in the search for this ultimate reality. For example, “Christianity claims that the God manifest in Jesus Christ is the true subject of our ultimate and unconditional concern. Making this claim—which we call the Gospel—and living according to it is what the Christian church is all about.” Christianity as a religion cannot be put in a box or suffocated. It has an intrinsic value which can only be realized through expression. This perhaps explains why it engages in worships, education, hospitality, and evangelization as various forms of communicating or interacting with the culture which it finds itself. Every religious act is indeed culturally formed. Christianity is expressed in culture’s language. It “uses culture’s history and its art forms, relies on those common understandings which are supplied by culture’s current mythology, and refers to current cultural experiences. There is no other way it can communicate except through culture and its forms.” If William F. Ford’s viewpoint quoted above is anything to hold onto, inculturation in cyberspace is only but an essential expression of today’s culture. Apparently, the Good News is communicated through the culture of the people within a milieu. In the infant Church, the spreading of this Good News was done amidst other things through stories, paintings and other art forms of communication that formed part of the culture of the early Church. Every generation has its own means of communication that forms part of its heritage. “Everything is subject to, and in the process of change. Life never remains the same for successive generations.” The effectiveness of a particular means of communication within a culture depends among other synergy of factors on how culturally friendly that media is to the society. “Every religious tradition, such as the Gospel, has genuine meaning only when we recognize that it comes out of a particular cultural setting and is transformed as it comes out of a particular new culture of those who hear it.” The images of Jesus were presented to the people based on their cultural symbolism. Jaroslav Pelikan, a religious historian affirms thus “… the presentation of Jesus in the New Testament is in fact itself a representation: it resembles a set of paintings more closely than it does a photograph.” Inculturation in cyberspace is therefore a response not different from the onus of the early Christians searching for better ways of communicating the Gospel values to the world around them. Pope Paul VI epitomizes this when he says “evangelization loses much of its force and effectiveness if it does not take into consideration the actual people to whom it is addressed, if it does not use their language, their signs, their symbols, if does not answer the questions they ask, and if it does not have an impact on their concrete life” The stories of Jesus for example have to be retold to a people living in today’s culture of digitalization and convergence. For God’s dynamic revelation necessitates religious communication in today’s culture. Richard Niebuhr’s concept of revelation affirms the religious relevance of cyberspace thus: “… no universal knowledge of things as they are in themselves is possible … all the knowledge is conditioned by the standpoint of the knower… To speak of revelation now is not to retreat to modes of thought established in earlier generations but to endeavour to deal faithfully with the problems set for Christians in our time by the knowledge of our historical relativity.” God’s revelation and its meaning in our lives are not unconnected with our culture since it is through the culture that such is communicated. “Christianity exists when people believe; and it becomes deeply rooted when it touches people and their lives where and as they are… faith can only find its expression and life within cultures.” Culture plays a very prominent role in the salvation economy. The word culture when looked from its Latin word ‘colere’, which means -to grow, to take care of, to cultivate- brings to perspective the fact that, today more than ever, cyberspace culture has gradually become the great cultivator of our society, “the great mythmaker of our time”, the mouth piece of complicated set of values. Communication experts over the years have not underscored the effects of the modern means of communication especially on the society. In William Fore’s view: “They [the media] tell us what has meaning – for example, the meaning of social roles in the society: who has the power, who is the aggressor, who is the victim. They tell us who can do what, to whom, with what consequences. By telling us ‘the way things are’, they convince us this is the way it ought to be.” Cyberspace is truly forming a culture and from the study carried out by experts, it is obvious that more and more people are spending time online making use of the cyberspace for various reasons. It only behoves evangelization and Church representatives to bring the Good News in and through this virtual reality so that many more people can be communicated with. Inculturation process in this respect not only informs but also helps in monitoring what stuff geos in the cyberspace. The Good News in the cyberspace helps either in affirming, reshaping or correcting all that contradicts the Gospel values. Indeed, the primary objective of inculturation is not to destroy native customs or cultures as such. For Pope Pius XII in his Encyclical Evangelii Praecones (On Promotion of Catholic Missions) advices, ‘let not the Gospel on being introduced into any new land destroy or extinguish whatever its people possess, that is naturally good, just or beautiful.’ 5. Some conditions for authentic inculturation in cyberspace As it is obvious that inculturation whether in virtual or physical realities presupposes the creation of new human relations with God and a positive attitude to the (cyberspace) culture. Its effectiveness also depends on synergy of factors necessary for the sprouting of inculturated cyberspace. Among many other factors, the following are not just essential but crucial in the search for authentic inculturation in cyberspace. 1. It is a truism that inculturation in cyberspace is one of the controversial concepts to introduce into most religious circles today. In our expose above we stated clearly the arguments for and against posited by some religious leaders and the led regarding the use of cyberspace for evangelization. As a requirement for genuine inculturation in cyberspace, the perception or awareness of the need for it is inevitable. It is only when a genuine awareness of the use of cyberspace technology for evangelization is created that much can be achieved. The awareness or perception is indeed the driving force for authentic evangelization in cyberspace. Many people are aware of the use of Internet for evangelization but most times this perception is still at a theoretical level, I mean its relevance is only at the level of discourse and not on pastoral rendezvous. The absence of its adequate application no doubt has slowed down the progress of evangelization in Africa for example. Joesephat Oguejiofor sharing his views on the perception or awareness of the need for inculturation as a prerequisite for genuine evangelization observes: “It is the deep realization that serious and profound evangelization has no option but to take the question very seriously. Many missionaries in Africa erred very grievously in this matter due to the general disdain for the African culture which they shared with their colonial brothers. Thanks to a better understanding of evangelization and the mystery of redemption, the present generation of theologians and pastors in Africa seems to have become more aware of the necessity of inculturation.” Cyberspace creates a new culture were most young people and adult literate live in, ignorance of the value of this virtual reality will not open new doors for new media evangelization strategy. 2. Cyberspace is a virtual reality whose communication structures are mainly online through Internet and the Web. Therefore at the base of inculturation is the onus of (inculturation via cyberspace) strategic planners to design an appropriate outlet for the “market place” where inculturation can be conveyed in and through without which wrong signals could be sent. If the clear purpose for which the Web site is created is not spelt out, the site might communicate stillness and confusion to all users. As the number of Net users are on the increase, logging into the cyberspace will immediately expose one to millions of many fine specimens of lousy Web pages and sites. No doubt, some are quite communicative while others are not as they portend to create directories of the “worst” sites on the Web. Visitors to these sites are often times misguided by the design and content. Nevertheless, should a virtual reality be created for liturgical inculturation, right from the domain name, design and content, it must reflect the purpose for which the cyberspace is created. 3. Another important issue is that, inculturation in cyberspace must set out to communicate something specific. Cyberspace is a new frontier, a portal where something new and different is sweeping around the world. It is influencing both adults and the youths at all levels and places of their lives. This enormous impact on our society today is not unconnected to the fact that, Net users are gradually accepting the commercialization of the Net. Historically, the Internet was not developed as a media for commercial communications for the sales of products or Net access. “It was highly non-commercial, largely educational environment dedicated to research and collegiality. Although the dedication to research is not nearly so strong on the Net today, and the users are more representative of the population than the academic community, the “free” mentality still pervades the Net.” Crucial to the commercialization on the Net is the fact that, the “contents or products” must be rich enough to be sought for by people. This then makes it imperative that, for more traffic to be drawn towards any site, the content must be rich and attractive. An empty Web page or Site may discourage Internet users from either visiting or recommending the site to potential users. Web pages and sites for cyberspace inculturation should have an inherent quality of the ability to give something out to Internet visitors. In addition to the content and the Web architecture, some excellent but simple graphics/animated objects composed or designed with precision, high aesthetic values and great creativity like music, sound effects, etc. could be considered as a sine qua non in cyberspace inculturation. I quite agree with Quentin J Schultze when he says: “As a general rule, Web sites should be designed with the purpose of giving something to the people who surf the pages… if you are selling church clip art, you ought to be able to give some superb samples of church clip art. Similarly, if your site is meant to encourage people to buy a book that will help improve their marriage, then you ought to be able to give them something that will help their marriage, such as a sample chapter form the book.” 4. Inculturation in cyberspace has to be made interactive as possible. Because of the peculiar nature of Internet technology, users are given more option of been interactive as opposed to other traditional mass media outlets. With the upgrading of the Web to 2.0, Internet facilities have become like a remote control television where the users have the option of selecting their channels and stations respectively. Interestingly, with the Web, instead of selecting from a few channels and stations, the Web rather offers millions of pages with multiple options including audio, video, text and image. “With most browsers, users can decide in advance if they want any images; they can surf around the Net, looking only at text until they decide to request information in any other form. If all of that were not enough interactivity, they can also send messages to people, enter online contests, order products, search the Web for key subjects and persons, and so forth. By its very nature, the Web is highly interactive for the individual user. Web-site designers need to take this into account for successful pages. The use of cyberspace for inculturation must take this into consideration especially when Web-sites are being designed. Web-site designers as advised above should make such sites interactive as possible. Genuine inculturation in cyberspace should be done within the limits of what I will call Web Communication Structure. Communication structure in the Web is largely nonlinear as opposed to the linear structure fund in textbooks. In textbooks information is sequentially organized by chapters and subchapters. Traditionally, the content builds on itself beginning from the introduction of the book to its conclusion. The Web has relatively a different format. Its horizontal dimension makes it also possible for a certain hypertext link directing one into an in-depth exploration of a related theme that is not essentially the same with the initial theme. By this I mean, a Net user might find at a page on the topic of “inculturation” a link for words such as: culture, acculturation, enculturation, transculturation, adaptation, indigenization, etc. If out of curiosity the individual goes on clicking on those new links, he/she may or may not likely find materials directly related to the initial page. Good inculturation Web sites should be built with different kinds of links that will help the users to find what he or she is searching for. Creation of internal links cross the pages even to anticipate some of the needs of the users is imperative. If the site intends to teach something about prayers, references to the Bible should hyperlinked to designated pages of the Bible, with multiple options for the user to select from. 5. Inculturation in cyberspace has to be personalized. This might sound contradictory to Net users because of global nature of the Web. Obviously, the Web in spite of its instantaneous and digital way of transmitting information, it can be a personal medium because it is inherently person-to-person communication. Sites on inculturation should create a kind of personal communication between users and Web masters/owners. Personal communication talked about should not be viewed in terms of telephone dialogue where with the help of wires and electronics people thousands of miles away could engaged in a personal conversation. The Web in this sense should be considered as a medium that thrives on personalized communication. It involves the interaction between the individual computer user and the person(s) represented on the Web pages. Still on personalization, inculturation Web sites should let people know who they are, what they believe and why they are in the cyberspace. Personalization of presence in the Net will add credibility to the content of inculturation. 6. Challenges of inculturation in cyberspace As a matter of fact, the process of incarnating the divine message in the minds, hearts and lives of the people in the virtual community is not without some challenges. The entire process indeed is a complex issue, according to John Paul II in Redemptoris Missio, the conundrum stem from the fact that, “the ‘new culture’ originates not just from whatever content is eventually expressed, but from the very fact there exists new ways of communicating, with new languages, new technologies and a new psychology.” Top on the list of these challenges is the mentality syndrome. Many people are yet to accept the cyberspace as an authentic media for evangelization. This belief stems from the fact that, it is mediated and thus bereft of physical presence. More so, some see the media as a fear-provoking threat. Occupants of this ideological perspective, fear that the Good News will be comprehended as just another product put on sale in the present day’s intellectual and spiritual marketplace. According to Babin and Zukowski, “This perspective could be interpreted as meaning that there is no redemptive value in the media. The media by its very nature is distracting, manipulative, and oppressive both to being human and for proclaiming the Gospel. With such perception, the mission of the Church which is to bring “the Good News into all strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new...” may not be realized through the cyberspace. Another challenging effect of inculturation in cyberspace is that, it helps in widening the gap between the poor and the rich communities. Communities that are info rich could easily have access to the Good News via Internet as oppose to rural and poor communities that may not have seen a computer or even heard about the word Internet. Cyberspace inculturation in such places will absolutely be considered as a fiction rather than a reality. In Nigeria for instance, as it is the case in other emerging countries of Africa, they still exist many villages that are yet to have access to electricity and telephones. This challenge automatically makes them to be what I will refer to as Internet Isolated Communities from the rest of the world. The “Global Village” (a world in which communications media would go beyond the boundaries of nations) concept foreseen by a social theorist, Marshal McLuhan in the 1960s is still a dream because of the digital divide. Cyberspace inulturation demands the use of computers and other technology in order to communicate the Good News, though the Gospel in itself is value-free but the technology is not without monetary value. Those who are economically poor may be schemed out of the evangelization structure. The upper classes of the society may be the only ones who could be “saved” through this medium of communication. Apparently, the Gospel is meant for all, never has it being and never will it be an exclusive preserve for the rich. The scripture was very clear on this when Jesus instructed His disciples thus: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ...and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you….” (Matt. 28: 18). 7. Perspectives and Conclusion One of the worrying issues about the use of either mass media and or new media for evangelization is that, none of these media can be effective in all contexts. Some have proved more useful and effective within a particular culture and milieu than others. However, the less effectiveness of a particular media within a context does not exclusively make it irrelevant because no society is completely isolated from the influence of other societies. Societies that are economically and info-rich could through various means of interaction and interdependency, communicate messages that were born from the fruits of their technological advancement to Internet Isolated Communities. Within the context of inculturation in cyberspace, the Internet Isolated Communities or economically poor societies through socialization and other agents of change could gain at least indirectly the fruits of the computer mediated communication. Cyberspace is truly forming a new culture, more and more people are spending more time online now than when it all started. For some people obviously use it to fill their religious needs and identities while others for business or other social gains. Cyberspace has changed our perception of reality and to some extent the ministry of the Church. In my view, it has become more of a practice instead of mere technology. With the daily growing traffic of users, cyberspace shares our social lives and thus engages in psychological growth directly or indirectly. I totally agree with Babin and Zukowski in their observation thus: “The holding power of computing (Internet) can create a twilight zone of electronic time and space and lived time. It is seen as an authentic extension of our being. It is rapidly becoming our consciousness and nervous system.” This new media technology like other modern means of mass communication as noted in the Pastoral Instruction on the means for Social Communication “can make for greater understanding and closer unity. A mass of information is continually on the move to and from all parts of the world and as a result, men can learn what goes on and how other men live.” An attempt to neglect cyberspace technology in the ambient of inculturation will mean losing an essential ingredient for mission-based ‘marketing’ in our modern day world. Cyberspace culture is complex, vast and deep as new realities are discovered every so often. With new and high powered search engines, it is still absolutely difficult to control or know what is happening in cyberspace each minute of the day since it is a democratic zone with a global dimension. Therefore meaningful inculturation in cyberspace must apply the metaphor of an archeological dig. The incarnation of the Gospel values via cyberspace must be patiently and persistently carried out with profound investigative techniques for the principal paradigm of the cyberspace is not control but dissemination.