Dr. Michael Kearney, assistant professor of communication at Dordt University, has received the National Communication Association’s Communication Ethics Division Top Single-Author Book of the Year Award for his work A Communication Ethic of Dialogic Reformation: Nicholas of Cusa on Care for Communities in Crisis.
A Communication Ethic of Dialogic Reformation: Nicholas of Cusa on Care for Communities in Crisis, authored by Dr. Michael Kearney, assistant professor of communication at Dordt University, has received the Top Single-Author Book of the Year Award from the National Communication Association’s (NCA) Communication Ethics Division.
This recognition affirms Kearney’s deep commitment to research in communication ethics. “It’s exciting to see an early-career scholar not only publish a book, but also receive recognition from peers in the discipline,” explains Dr. Leah Zuidema, vice president for academic affairs at Dordt. “His study of a leadership case in the medieval church resonates within the field of Communication Studies—not in spite of its ethical focus, but because of it.”
Kearney also believes the award speaks to the growing importance of communication ethics. “The Communication Ethics Division of NCA supports discussions of moral and ethical foundations in a discipline that has largely been driven by supposedly value-neutral social science assumptions,” says Kearney. “In a deeply confused and divided world, understanding differences in moral goods and how we articulate them is the first step toward constructive communicative engagement with others, and I think Nicholas of Cusa’s work offers one model for that.”
A Communication Ethic of Dialogic Reformation: Nicholas of Cusa on Care for Communities in Crisis explores the life and work of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1564), highlighting his emphasis on the way the coincidentia oppositorum (the coincidence of opposites) influences our understanding of God and the mystical institution of the Church. According to the publisher, Vandenhoeck Ruprecht Verlage, Kearney’s book “traces Cusa’s historical impact on philosophy of communication and communication ethics with an eye toward the health of institutions in a postmodern moment of cynicism and decline. Cusa loved the church and fought passionately for its reform, energized by the ‘clouded vision’ of a God who is beyond opposites.”
Kearney says Cusa’s work resonates with the Reformed perspective taught and lived out in Dordt’s community. “Nicholas of Cusa was not a Protestant reformer, nor even a pre-Protestant, and I think we do violence to his legacy if we try to claim him as that,” explains Kearney. “But he was a reformer nonetheless, one who sought to work within the acknowledged brokenness of the medieval church to promote religious education and philosophical engagement.”
“A dialogic communication ethic works with the notion of biased narrative ground, which resonates strongly with Abraham Kuyper’s contention for value-laden scholarship and against supposed neutrality. Our assumptions about the world directly shape the public and private relationships we share with others,” adds Kearney.
“In a deeply confused and divided world, understanding differences in moral goods and how we articulate them is the first step toward constructive communicative engagement with others, and I think Nicholas of Cusa’s work offers one model for that.”
For Kearney, this book is also a tangible expression of his calling to teach and equip students at Dordt for the complexities of living as Christians in the world today. “Cusa offers us one model for continuing to seek the health of broken institutions when escape to a realm of supposed purity is not an option. That model has tremendous implications for Dordt students who are preparing for a life of helping troubled relationships, families, businesses, churches, and communities,” he says.
“At Dordt, Dr. Kearney brings this same thoughtful attention to ethics into the classroom, enriching how our students engage with communication,” adds Zuidema. “I look forward to the scholarly questions he will continue to explore in his research and with his students.”
About Dordt University
As an institution of higher education committed to the Reformed Christian perspective, Dordt University equips students, faculty, alumni, and the broader community to work toward Christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary life. Located in Sioux Center, Iowa, Dordt is a comprehensive university named to the best college lists by U.S. News and World Report, the Wall Street Journal, Times Higher Education, Forbes.com, Washington Monthly, and Princeton Review.
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