Poythress, Vern S.

In the beginning was the word : language : a God-centered approach / Vern Sheridan Poythress. - Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway Books, (c)2009. - 415 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

PART 1: GOD'S INVOLVEMENT WITH LANGUAGE -- Language and the Trinity -- God speaking -- God's creation of man -- God sustaining language -- Creativity in language -- Exploring examples of language -- The rules of language -- -- God's rule -- Responding to God's government -- PART 2: FROM BIG TO SMALL: LANGUAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF HISTORY -- Small pieces of language within the big pieces -- Imaging -- World history -- The fall into sin -- Redemption through Christ -- Redemption through Christ -- Peoples, cultures, and languages -- Principles for cultural reconciliation -- Good and bad kinds of diversity -- Human action -- PART 3: DISCOURSE -- Speaking and writing -- Analysis and verbal interpretation -- Interpreting the Bible -- Genre -- PART 4: STORIES -- Storytelling -- The story of redemption -- Many mini-redemptions -- Counterfeit stories of redemption -- Modern reinterpretations of redemptive stories -- Stories about Jesus -- PART 5: SMALLER PACKAGES IN LANGUAGE: SENTENCES AND WORDS -- Sentences in use: foundations in truth -- Foundations for meaning in trinitarian inter-personal action -- Subsystems of language -- Words and their meanings -- From words to perspectives -- PART 6: APPLICATION -- Truth as perspective -- Living in the truth -- INTERACTION WITH OTHER APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE -- APPENDIX A. Modernism and postmodernism -- APPENDIX B. Doubt within postmodernism -- . -- APPENDIX C. Non-Christian thinking -- APPENDIX D. Platonic ideas -- APPENDIX E. The contribution of structural linguistics -- APPENDIX F. Translation theory -- APPENDIX G. Symbolic logic and logical positivism -- APPENDIX H. The theory of speech acts -- APPENDIX I. Reaching out to deconstruction -- APPENDIX J. Special cases of human speech.

Language is not only the centerpiece of our everyday lives, but it gives significance to all that we do. It also reflects and reveals our all-sustaining Creator, whose providential governance extends to the intricacies of language. Writes Vern Poythress, "God controls and specifies the meaning of each word-not only in English but in Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Italian, and every other language. When, in our modernism or postmodernism, we drop him from our account of language, our words suddenly become a prison that keeps us from the truth rather than opening doors to the truth. But we will use our words more wisely if we come to know God and understand him in relation to our language." Language is not only the centerpiece of our everyday lives, but it gives significance to all that we do. It also reflects and reveals our all-sustaining Creator, whose providential governance extends to the intricacies of language. Writes Vern Poythress, "God controls and specifies the meaning of each word-not only in English but in Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Italian, and every other language. When, in our modernism or postmodernism, we drop him from our account of language, our words suddenly become a prison that keeps us from the truth rather than opening doors to the truth. But we will use our words more wisely if we come to know God and understand him in relation to our language." https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Was-Word-Language-God-Centered/dp/1433501791/ref=sr_1_1?crid=GGN88UK4NB93&keywords=9781433501791&qid=1675104223&sprefix=9781591846406%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-1



9781433501791

2009001552


Communication--Religious aspects--Christianity.
Language and languages--Religious aspects--Christianity.

BV4319 / .I584 2009