What is the historical development of the Religious Communication Association (RCA) in the discipline and at NCA?

• In Event: The Religious Communication Association Five Years Out Panel: Contributions to Scholarship and Human Community

Abstract

Loren Reid, in his classic Speech Teacher: A Random Narrative, notes the first recorded "joint conference" a half century ago between what is now the National Communication Association and what was eventually to emerge formally as the Religious Communication Association. During the joint conference, a group of people interested in communicating about religious questions asked Reid whether their group could have a panel at the conference. Reid’s responsive welcome began a long-standing and fruitful association that endures to this day, predating the formal 1973 constitution of RCA. Questions relevant to human meaning and purpose in life, to engagement of fundamental differences, and to the task of promoting free speech responsibly among persons of differing faith commitments through moments of stability and change provide fertile cross-pollination between these two scholarly organizations.

Author

• Ronald Arnett, Duquesne University