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102 PAUL A. SOUKUP Teología y Vida, Vol. XLIV (2003), pp. 102-122Paul A. Soukup, S.J.Santa Clara UniversityThe Structure of Communicationas a Challenge for TheologyI. INTRODUCTIONIn his historical investigation of Martin Luther, printing, and propaganda,Mark Edwards, Jr., concludes, “the story takes a different form if you structure itaround communication” (1994, p. 171). Examining the records of printing outputand sales in Strasbourg in the early years of the Reformation, Edwards notes thatLuther’s devotional works held great popularity well before his polemical works andserved to give the latter a wider acceptance. Edwards identifies two importantimplications here.First, as many others have pointed out, the printed output did serve to spreadLuther’s ideas and thus did play a role in the Reformation (Eisenstein, 1980, pp.379ff.). In the crucial first ten years or so, Luther and the other reformers publisheddozens of editions of key works, vastly outnumbering the output of their Catholicopponents. Edwards explains this in several ways. The more obvious explanation laywith the for-profit nature of printing: the works of the reformers sold better thanthose of the Catholics, leading the printers to print more of them. Equally important,the Catholics tended to write in Latin, addressing an elite audience, whereas Lutherand the other reformers wrote in German. Whatever the other elements of theexplanation, the fact remains that the printing press did play a key role in theReformation and in all subsequent theology. The initial spread of ideas happenedthrough the public press. Theological debates, once restricted to disputations atuniversities or summarized in low circulation manuscripts, now became best sellers.This pattern of the printed word as the agent of publicity and exchange of ideasreflects an instrumental use of communication.Second, and more important still for theology were the structures ofcommunication. Edwards identifies four aspects here. First, the printing press withits mass circulation, made the Reformation disputes a “propaganda war”. Thecontroversialists had not only to marshal arguments to convince their opponents,they also had to convince the people (from the all-important heads of the Germanstates to the peasants). Here, Edwards argues that the earlier success of Luther’sdevotional works gave him a strong lead in the propaganda effort. Both his initial