I decided to use the clip above, from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, in my class about religion and communication. It gives a funny way into discussing aspects of communication by focusing in on people in the back row at the Sermon on the Mount. We actually talked about whether the Sermon on the Mount, considered as a unified sermon delivered on a single occasion (which it almost certainly was not), would be a good example of clear communication. In fact, much that we have in the Gospels seems to be the illustrations and pithy summaries from what must have been a larger body of oral teaching that no one could have or would have remembered in detail.
I also shared the amazing video below with the class. In it, Michael Winslow offers the vocals, drums, and electric guitars on the Led Zepplin song “Whole Lotta Love,” to illustrate the amazing capacities and flexibility of the human voice.
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