INVITATION FOR PAPERS
Organized by: IMPACT, Cochin in collaboration with Gotell, Dayton, USA

Venue: Nava Spoorthi Kendra (NSK), Bangalore
Date: Oct. 31 - Nov. 2, 2009
Participants: Bible scholars and those active in Bible apostolates. (Maximum 40)

(This is a sequel to the 2005 Conference on “the Bible and Communication”. Edited by J. Palakeel and published as “The Bible and the Technologies of the Word” by ATC, Bangalore, 2007)

IMPACT, Cochin is glad to announce a Scholars Conference on Biblical stories in the context of the emerging digital storytelling. It aims at connecting the present biblical scholarship with the original biblical medium of oral stories and the emerging ‘new orality’ of the digital communication.  This conference seeks to create an opportunity to articulate a bold integrated paradigm of early Christian storytelling, modern digital culture, and a rich theological reflection on all of it for creating a unique new paradigm for evangelization in India. 

Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Repeat them to your children and talk about them… (Deut. 6:6-7)

The Bible draws together stories of the spiritual experience of the communities of Israel and the early church. The people of Israel handed down the stories of God by repeating them to their children and talking about them at bedtime and at mealtime, while working and traveling, while playing and resting. The early Church continued this practice by telling the stories of Jesus to their children. Christianity spread and survived in the Roman Empire as underground religion, primarily by means of the stories of Jesus, handed down through conversations, and on parchments and scrolls. 

The Bible originated as the oral-aural word, committed to writing at a much later stage. The first-century Mediterranean area comprised predominantly oral cultures, that writing primarily served orality, that performances were central to early Christian communities. The arrival of the printed books made reading and textual study popular and storytelling became rare and was dubbed as ‘irrational’ or for the children. The print-culture generated a sophisticated hermeneutics of the Bible, which is the prevalent method of biblical studies today. Performance criticism today tries to reconstruct and enliven the biblical text in its original context of performance scenarios.

 In our century, TV and film has brought back storytelling in new ways using audiovisual media. The multimedia digital culture challenges to understand the Bible from a new hermeneutical perspective.  The rich oral tradition of India and the edutainment tradition of media industry invite us to experience and proclaim the Word of God in the predominant medium of stories.

The Immediate context

1. The Asian Mission Congress (Telling the Story of Jesus in Asia) in 2006 highlighted story-telling as an Asian way of experiencing and proclaiming the Gospel. 
2. The Roman Synod on the Word of God calls for innovative ways of learning, experiencing and proclaiming God’s Word to “unleash the hidden power of God’s words in the present world which is searching for spiritual meaning.
3. The year of the priest calls for effective proclamation of the Word of God.
4. Today Film, Television and the digital media have made story-telling the most popular form of edutainment (education through entertainment). 
5. Indian religions have a great tradition of sacred stories. Christianity, however, follows literate strategies of faith formation and proclamation like catechism, homilies and exegesis. 
6. Studying the Word of God in its original medium would be very useful in experiencing the dynamism of the Word of God and proclaiming it in India today.

The proposed Scholars’ Conference

1. Method: Scholarly papers, discussions (papers will be edited and published)
2. Goals and Objectives
   • Hear the Word of God in its original medium of oral stories
   • Contextualize Biblical studies into the emerging digital culture
   • Internalize and tell biblical stories for faith formation
   • Evolve a new paradigm for evangelization in India
   • Relate Word of God to personal, family and media stories
   • The papers will be edited and published for wider use

Proposed PAPERS and PRESENATATIONS

1. Keynote Address: Oral Origins and Character of the Biblical Discourse (Lucien Legrand)
2. The Future of Biblical Interpretation in Digital Culture. (Thomas E. Boomershine)
3. "Today's Global Digital-Communication Culture: A New Challenge/Opportunity for Biblical Storytellers and Contemporary Churches". (Frances Forde Plude, Research Professor, Notre Dame College, Cleveland)
4. Telling the Story of Jesus: Challenge of Digital Culture: return of (new) orality. (Joseph Palakeel)
5. Principles and Practices of Introduction to Biblical Storytelling (Amelia C. Boomershine)
6. Biblical Stories and Oral Cultures of India, Selva Rathinam, (JDV, Pune)
7. Exodus Story, the master story of the Hebrew Bible. By Dr. George Edayadiyil, CMI (Director, Dharamaram Academy for Distance Education, Bangalore)
8. Gospel stories of Jesus. Dr. Jacob Nalupara MCBS (Editor, Karunikan, Cochin)
9. Stories of Indian Commercial Films and Biblical stories: A study on the Lage Raho Munnabhai. Gilbert Choondal SDB (HoD- Department of Catechetics and Youth Ministry, Kristu Jyoti College, Bangalore)
10. Retelling the Story of Jesus through comics and Cartoons. Michael Karimattam