Your idea of comparing our words to the divine Word is helpful. One thing that the comparison brought to my mind is that Christ the Word always refers to His Father. The emptiness of our words then is because they refer to so little, or maybe even they refer to nothing. Mrs. Harris is famous for the circularity of her words, when she deigns to speak. In other words, her speech is self-referential. It has content only within the internal context of itself and has no external referent.
One step that we should all make then is to make sure that our words refer to something that is real. If we find ourselves forced to use abstractions, a good example from my work would be discussing corporate success metrics, then let's make a point of driving the abstraction back to something concrete and real. It would be best, like Christ the Word, to always point to the Father, but at a minimum let's make sure to actually refer to created things and not some intellectual derivative thereof.
Brilliant analysis and use of language here. Lurking behind our culture of "murmuration" is the philosophical assumption of Nominalism, which still dominates the western mind, even if only by implication. If our words refer to nothing essential, but are mere products of the will, then speech devolves into an instrument to stimulate the feelings, all with the ultimate goal of manipulating the will. Meanwhile the intellect is slowly starved, and rationality perishes. The author is right to point out how this hollow rhetoric has also pervaded our churches and their pulpits.
Your idea of comparing our words to the divine Word is helpful. One thing that the comparison brought to my mind is that Christ the Word always refers to His Father. The emptiness of our words then is because they refer to so little, or maybe even they refer to nothing. Mrs. Harris is famous for the circularity of her words, when she deigns to speak. In other words, her speech is self-referential. It has content only within the internal context of itself and has no external referent.
One step that we should all make then is to make sure that our words refer to something that is real. If we find ourselves forced to use abstractions, a good example from my work would be discussing corporate success metrics, then let's make a point of driving the abstraction back to something concrete and real. It would be best, like Christ the Word, to always point to the Father, but at a minimum let's make sure to actually refer to created things and not some intellectual derivative thereof.
This is excellent!
Thank you, Suzanne!
Brilliant analysis and use of language here. Lurking behind our culture of "murmuration" is the philosophical assumption of Nominalism, which still dominates the western mind, even if only by implication. If our words refer to nothing essential, but are mere products of the will, then speech devolves into an instrument to stimulate the feelings, all with the ultimate goal of manipulating the will. Meanwhile the intellect is slowly starved, and rationality perishes. The author is right to point out how this hollow rhetoric has also pervaded our churches and their pulpits.
Excellent article. More please!
Thank you, Anthony! I didn’t even think about nominalism when I wrote this, but you’re onto something.
Great writing Matthew, I look forward to reading more of your work.
Regards,
Anthony (@The Kirkwood Center)