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St. Thomas More Discourse Community

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Before delving into the the discourse community, it is essential to provided clarity for the term that is used throughout: Discourse community. Discourse, according to James Paul Gee, “I use the term ‘Discourse,’ with a capital ‘D,’ for ways of combining and integrating language, actions, interactions, ways of thinking, believing, valuing, and using various symbols, tools, and objects to enact a particular sort of socially recognizable identity.” (Gee, p. 441). With this, a Discourse community is a group of people that embody language, actions, beliefs, symbols and so on. St. Thomas More parish is one the Discourse community that will be examined.
Given that the term is defined, it is pertinent to review the details of the St. Thomas More…show more content…
Otherwise, we have dogma, doctrines, and creeds that we also believe.” (Kane). To someone outside of the Catholic church, they would not hold the same beliefs to be true nor understand the reasons for their belief. Nevertheless, these traditions have been passed down for generations and are still upheld today. As Kane pointed out, Catholics believe that Holy Communion is the body and blood of Christ.
Having very traditional beliefs, the Catholic Church uses numerous different terms and practices that are not familiar with non-Catholics. Inside of the Discourse community, Catholics have set terms that are used widely to discuss different matters. For instances, the term “priest” is used to describe what others would typically call a “pastor.” In addition to the terms used, there are also rituals that are based on their traditional beliefs. The most drastic of them would be the Eucharist. This tradition is referred to by Catholics as “Holy Communion” and is referred to by protestants as “The Lord’s Supper.” Meg Kane described the differences by saying, “Catholics actually believe that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ. It has much more meaning behind it than other communion services.” (Kane). Drastically differing from other religions, Catholics believe that their priest was granted the ability by God to turn the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Traditional values and the faith of Catholics largely affects the Discourse community and
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