A PREGAÇÃO NA IDADE MÍDIA - Luiz Carlos Ramos

RAMOS, Luiz Carlos. A Pregação na Idade Mídia: os desafios da sociedade do
espetáculo para a prática homilética contemporânea. São Bernardo do Campo,
2005. 280 f. Thesis (Doctor Degree in Sciences of Religion – Praxis and Society)
— São Paulo Methodist University, São Bernardo do Campo, 2005.
ABSTRACT
This research intends to demonstrate how the modern spectacular communication
phenomenon affects the contemporary homiletic praxis. It certifies that the
religious practices have been more and more spectacular, to the extent that, influenced
by the media; they are reformulated according to the rules of the spectacle
(show business) and of the industry of the entertainment. In the media age,
the experience of preaching in the churches finds in the communication medium
its modus operandi (principles), its modus faciendi (methods) and its modus
vivendi (purposes). Meanwhile, the broadcastings turn into typical religious
agencies, spiritual entities (virtual) and electronic temples, whose liturgical and
missionary practices spread good-news that should be believed and images that
should be adored. This analysis of the phenomenon has the following elements
as starting point: the references offered by the homiletic historians; the reapproach
done by Chaïm Perelman to the Aristotelian principles regarding the
persuasive communication — the so called New Rhetoric —; and by Guy
Debord’s critical approach to the society of the spectacle. This approach is accomplished
in three stages: first, the conceptualization of homiletic is explored
from a historical retrospective; second, a theory of the classic homiletic principles,
methods and purposes is formulated (a theology of the proclamation); and
third, from the historical and theoretical references, the research proceeds to a
comparative analysis of the spectacle homiletic practice in relation to the classic
homiletic. The result will be a collection of general references that make possible
a better understanding of the contemporary homiletic phenomenon, as well
as foundation for future analysis, of more specific character, for the conventional
homiletic as well as for the telehomiletic.
Key words: homiletic – sermon – preaching – rhetoric – persuasion – seduction
– communication – media –spectacle – entertainment.