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Gray’s the color of life

Understanding the Gray Matrix ngel promoted a revolution. Not Engels the Marxist thinker, but James Engel the missiologist. He first outlined what has become known as the ‘Engel Scale of Spiritual Decision’. This describes the way in which an individual, or by extension a whole group, progress in their understanding of the gospel, as God’s sovereign grace begins to illuminate …

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Digital Communication Foundations 3: The CAST model of communication

In part one of this series, Tony Watkins introduced the concept of modality and multimodality. In this article, he develops these ideas to focus more explicitly on communicating through digital media. This is applied particularly within the context of Christian mission and ministry, but these principles are not distinctively Christian. They apply to any kind of digital media communication – for …

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Digital Communication Foundations 2: What is communication?

In part one of this series of articles, Tony Watkins looked at the meaning of the term ‘mode’ within communication theory, and introduced the ideas of ‘semiotic resources’ and ‘affordances’. e must consider an important question before we go any further: what is communication? Gunther Kress says that communication is more complex than we imagine. The classic model of communication …

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Digital Communication Foundations 1: Introducing Modes

In the first of a series of articles on digital communication theory, Tony Watkins introduces the idea of modes of communication. This material is based on lectures given at Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo.  mode of communication is a way of expressing meaning, through speaking, writing, video, etc. Gunther Kress defines a ‘mode’ as a socially shaped and culturally given …