Tag: language
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Inarticulate Emotions
Weather interfered with our plans – to bid a fond farewell to a couple of valued, treasured members. People are delighted for them to have found a new place closer to children and grandchildren, and better situated for their needs. And people are simultaneously dismayed at everything this will mean for us, absent them, going…
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Can I Skip the Wild Heart?
Brown, Brené. Braving the Wilderness: the quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone. Vermilion, 2017. [An installment of the “Read Me” Project.] Our congregation has been studying Braving the Wilderness together for the past several weeks, as a next step in our participation in the Golden Rule 2020 project. [We finished up…
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How Superficial is That Oxford Comma?
Dreyer, Benjamin. Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. Random House, 2019. [An Installment of the “Read Me” Project.] Did I even know copyediting was a thing? I did not. But I do now, thanks to this book by Benjamin Dreyer, “Copy Chief of Random House,” and also a talented author in…
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Hastings Day!
“On this day in 1066, King Harold II died valiantly defending our Saxon rights.” Today is Hastings Day. The Battle of Hastings, arguably the most decisive battle in world history, was fought 953 years ago today, on October 14, 1066. I promised my brother, the historian, several years ago that I would celebrate it appropriately.…
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Trinity Sunday
We all know, or should know, that it is not possible for our human minds to grasp the deep mystery of the Trinity. Fortunately, then, our pastor did not attempt to explain the Trinity in church this morning. [The angel of the Corydon Presbyterian Church may have breathed a sigh of relief. At least, I…
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“Messaging”
More and more, I read and hear people ridiculing a cluster of “postmodern” ideas: that “reality is socially constructed,” that “language is a political power-play,” that rhetoric molds passionate intensity and conviction along with it. Denying the socially-constructed quality of social reality, and the element of power-play in the meaning of words, seems to have…
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Lamin Sanneh on World Christianity
Lamin Sanneh. Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. Christianity is not identical to western imperialism. So says Lamin Sanneh, in Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003). Christianity is not even necessarily the ideological tool of 19th century colonialism. It is not…
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Going Cold Turkey on the Crazy and Stupid Explanations
Everywhere I go these days – church, school, chorus, the family room, the internet (the internet!), my own head – I hear two explanations for why “they” (whoever “they” are) disagree with “us” (whoever “we” are). “Crazy.” “Stupid.” Or both at once: “Crazy and stupid.” On the rare occasions when I have wandered off into…
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Christian Doctrine (14)
These are my summary notes on Chapter 14 of Christian Doctrine1 “Who’s in Charge Here? The Doctrine of the Resurrection”: Christians celebrate Easter as the victory of God and good over the powers of death and evil. But in the world we see around us, the powers of death and evil are visible everywhere. [Guthrie’s…
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On Wanting Language to Say Something
I worry about “semantic freewheeling,” at this moment in history in particular. Bourdieu says this: …language is the exemplary formal mechanism whose generative capacities are without limits. There is nothing that cannot be said and it is possible to say nothing. One can say everything in language, that is, within the limits of grammaticality. We…
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Why Talk About the Language of Worship?
So, question: can you think without language? No. ? I mean … I don’t think so. Wait … do you mean … anything … in general? Or … something specific?
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A Definition of Politics
Here’s something I have been thinking about for a long time … since 1987 or so, almost 30 years: how to “define” politics. That is another way of saying, “how to think about what we mean when we say ‘politics.’” Here’s my proposal: a helpful way to think about what we mean by “politics” is…
Matters of Interpretation 