Scan barcode
A review by jbmorgan86
Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words Are Vanishing-and How We Can Revive Them by Jonathan Merritt, Shauna Niequist
3.0
3.5/5
Every subculture has its own jargon. Christianity is no exception. There is “Christian-ese,” those in-culture words that evangelicals tend to throw around (“blessing,” “love offering,” “supplication, “born again,” etc.), and then there are those weightier, sacred words (grace, sin, saint, spirit, mystery, etc.). As religion journalist Jonathan Meritt moved from the Bible to NYC, he came to realize that these sacred words had different meanings or no meanings outside of his "bubble" (he gives an example of a time when he told someone that he was attending a "worship service" and received a puzzled look). In his new book “Learning to Speak God from Scratch,” Merritt examines how and why many of these sacred words are fading from the vernacular, how Christians ought to respond, and then several case studies of sacred words ("yes," "creed," "prayer," "pain," "disappointment," "mystery," "God," "fall," "sin," "grace," "brokenness," "blessed," "neighbor," "pride," "saint," "confession," "spirit," "family," and "lost").
The book is divided into two halves. The first half of the book is fantastic. Merritt explains the nature of languages. Languages live, languages die, and, sometimes, languages live again. English has become the "lingua franca" and swallowed up many native languages (just as other lingua franca have done throughout history). Some languages only survive in professional or academic sectors, like Latin. Some languages are used only for cultic purposes, like Coptic. Irish/Gaelic was fading away but is now being revived. After disappearing for centuries, Hebrew is more prominent now than it was in ancient times. Merritt argues that sacred Christian language is also fading away but, like modern Hebrew, can live again.
So how do Christians (especially Christian leaders) respond to the disappearance of sacred words? Merritt argues that there are two basic ways:
(1) Fossilization - Words are fenced in and protected. Ultimately, this will fail because languages breathe and grow.
(2) Substitution - Words that are too uncomfortable or rigid are replaced with more appealing words. Merritt quotes Rob Bell as a prime example of this: "When a word becomes too toxic and too abused and too associated with ideas and understands that aren't true to the mystery behind the mystery . . . it's important to set it aside and search for new and better ways to talk about it." Of course, this is a "throwing-the-baby-out-with-the-bath-water" situation.
Riffing on prescriptions from Walter Bruggemann (Orientation > Disorientation > Reorientation), N.T. Wright (Packing > Unpacking > Repacking), and Richard Rohr (Order > Disorder > Reorder), Merritt's solution is as follows: "In order to speak God from scratch, we begin with what we have accepted. Then, we break it down, challenging preconceptions. Finally, we build it back up in a way that is more helpful, richer, and beautiful."
In the second half, Merritt attempts to take these dying sacred words and reevaluate them. Unfortunately, this second half was underwhelming. Part of the problem is his word choices (particularly, I'm thinking of "yes" and "pain," which are not particularly sacred words). The other problem is that he doesn't seem to really be truly investigating each word. Rather, he gives preachy anecdotes on each one. Some of these are pretty good and have some teeth (for example, "Maybe we should stop hashtagging blessings and start handing out blessings" [paraphrase]). Sometimes he seems to go far afield of his goal. For example, he spends several pages weighing in on the gender of God and several more pages telling his chronic pain story. Again, most of these reevaluations of words are underwhelming.
Every subculture has its own jargon. Christianity is no exception. There is “Christian-ese,” those in-culture words that evangelicals tend to throw around (“blessing,” “love offering,” “supplication, “born again,” etc.), and then there are those weightier, sacred words (grace, sin, saint, spirit, mystery, etc.). As religion journalist Jonathan Meritt moved from the Bible to NYC, he came to realize that these sacred words had different meanings or no meanings outside of his "bubble" (he gives an example of a time when he told someone that he was attending a "worship service" and received a puzzled look). In his new book “Learning to Speak God from Scratch,” Merritt examines how and why many of these sacred words are fading from the vernacular, how Christians ought to respond, and then several case studies of sacred words ("yes," "creed," "prayer," "pain," "disappointment," "mystery," "God," "fall," "sin," "grace," "brokenness," "blessed," "neighbor," "pride," "saint," "confession," "spirit," "family," and "lost").
The book is divided into two halves. The first half of the book is fantastic. Merritt explains the nature of languages. Languages live, languages die, and, sometimes, languages live again. English has become the "lingua franca" and swallowed up many native languages (just as other lingua franca have done throughout history). Some languages only survive in professional or academic sectors, like Latin. Some languages are used only for cultic purposes, like Coptic. Irish/Gaelic was fading away but is now being revived. After disappearing for centuries, Hebrew is more prominent now than it was in ancient times. Merritt argues that sacred Christian language is also fading away but, like modern Hebrew, can live again.
So how do Christians (especially Christian leaders) respond to the disappearance of sacred words? Merritt argues that there are two basic ways:
(1) Fossilization - Words are fenced in and protected. Ultimately, this will fail because languages breathe and grow.
(2) Substitution - Words that are too uncomfortable or rigid are replaced with more appealing words. Merritt quotes Rob Bell as a prime example of this: "When a word becomes too toxic and too abused and too associated with ideas and understands that aren't true to the mystery behind the mystery . . . it's important to set it aside and search for new and better ways to talk about it." Of course, this is a "throwing-the-baby-out-with-the-bath-water" situation.
Riffing on prescriptions from Walter Bruggemann (Orientation > Disorientation > Reorientation), N.T. Wright (Packing > Unpacking > Repacking), and Richard Rohr (Order > Disorder > Reorder), Merritt's solution is as follows: "In order to speak God from scratch, we begin with what we have accepted. Then, we break it down, challenging preconceptions. Finally, we build it back up in a way that is more helpful, richer, and beautiful."
In the second half, Merritt attempts to take these dying sacred words and reevaluate them. Unfortunately, this second half was underwhelming. Part of the problem is his word choices (particularly, I'm thinking of "yes" and "pain," which are not particularly sacred words). The other problem is that he doesn't seem to really be truly investigating each word. Rather, he gives preachy anecdotes on each one. Some of these are pretty good and have some teeth (for example, "Maybe we should stop hashtagging blessings and start handing out blessings" [paraphrase]). Sometimes he seems to go far afield of his goal. For example, he spends several pages weighing in on the gender of God and several more pages telling his chronic pain story. Again, most of these reevaluations of words are underwhelming.