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Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies
“Like any other life-sustaining resource,” says Marilyn McEntyre, “language can be depleted, polluted, contaminated, eroded, and filled with artificial stimulants.” Today more than ever, language needs to be rescued and restored. Drawing on a wide range of sources, both critical and literary, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies is an engaging address to everyone concerned with preserving the vitality and precision of the spoken and written word.
“If every literate person in the United States read this book, the result could dramatically transform our society. . . . Written with modesty, keen insight, and grace, Marilyn McEntyre’s Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies proposes a revolution of human expression that would bring precision, honesty, and felicity to the spoken and written discourse of contemporary culture.
“If every literate person in the United States read this book, the result could dramatically transform our society. . . . Written with modesty, keen insight, and grace, Marilyn McEntyre’s Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies proposes a revolution of human expression that would bring precision, honesty, and felicity to the spoken and written discourse of contemporary culture.
256 pages, Paperback
First published June 2, 2009
113 people are currently reading
1247 people want to read
About the author
Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
24 books74 followersMarilyn Chandler McEntyre is a fellow of the Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts at Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California, and she teaches at UC Berkeley. Her other books include Drawn to the Light: Poems on Rembrandt's Religious Paintings, In Quiet Light: Poems on Vermeer's Women, and Patient Poets: Illness from Inside Out.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews
March 14, 2018
This is a book for word birds. A literature professor — formerly at Westmont, now at UC Berkeley — writes about the things that please and impassion her, about the decline in language she's noticed in her students, and ways we all can cherish words.
I didn't love all of it — at times MCM veers toward and advances her political leanings, which I presume are Christian Left. But the parts I loved, I loved with exuberance and kinship.
Her chapter titles are the best summary:
Love Words
Tell the Truth
Don't Tolerate Lies
Read Well
Stay in Conversation
Share Stories
Love the Long Sentence
Practice Poetry
Attend to Translation
Play
Pray
Cherish Silence
She references old friends of mine: Wendell Berry, John Ciardi, Donne, Frost, Hopkins; Flannery, Mary Oliver, Josef Pieper, Oliver Sacks and Yeats. But I have many √ s in my commonplace journal next to a name or title, a reminder to further explore. I want to unearth old BBC broadcasts of a My Word! and tarry with a cup of tea as I listen.
I only comment on a book cover when it is extremely good or bad. This one is, I think, particularly awful. Instead of compelling, it is repelling. My fond wish is that the book is reissued soon with a befitting design.
I didn't love all of it — at times MCM veers toward and advances her political leanings, which I presume are Christian Left. But the parts I loved, I loved with exuberance and kinship.
Her chapter titles are the best summary:
Love Words
Tell the Truth
Don't Tolerate Lies
Read Well
Stay in Conversation
Share Stories
Love the Long Sentence
Practice Poetry
Attend to Translation
Play
Pray
Cherish Silence
She references old friends of mine: Wendell Berry, John Ciardi, Donne, Frost, Hopkins; Flannery, Mary Oliver, Josef Pieper, Oliver Sacks and Yeats. But I have many √ s in my commonplace journal next to a name or title, a reminder to further explore. I want to unearth old BBC broadcasts of a My Word! and tarry with a cup of tea as I listen.
I only comment on a book cover when it is extremely good or bad. This one is, I think, particularly awful. Instead of compelling, it is repelling. My fond wish is that the book is reissued soon with a befitting design.
August 1, 2016
This is an exquisite, delicious book. I want to review it 3 times so I can give it 15 stars. I want to paraphrase a songwriter I knew who said (in response to a Bob Dylan release) that he wanted to bite himself on the arm in regret for not having written it himself. I am in too much awe to try to describe or evaluate the contents, but since I have reviewed other books from a copy editor's perspective, I just want to say that's not what this one is about (though it is relevant). It is more about the spiritual role of words in our relationship to truth.
September 23, 2024
From “fake news” to “alternative facts,” we’re facing a crisis when it comes to the value and believability of words. I’m troubled by this on a number of levels. I’m troubled as a writer and editor who handles words for a living. I’m troubled as a reader and subscriber of various publications, running the gamut from news to opinion, right to left, “religious” to “secular,” high-brow to low. And, perhaps most of all, I’m troubled as a citizen, who is seeing confidence in the possibility of truthfulness vanishing from the public square before our very eyes.
A few years ago, on the recommendation of a friend who stewards words as well as anyone I know, I read Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, who with remarkable prescience seemed to anticipate the coming storm before most of us did. The book was timely then. It’s even more so now.
McEntyre calls upon us to think a little more deeply than our typical reflexive selves normally do. She invites us to slow down, take a deep breath, and honestly assess the ways we make sense of the world around us – and particularly the ways in which we decide what we believe to be “true” in any given area of life.
In one especially poignant passage, McEntyre posits a series of questions – not about the other, but about ourselves – that I think would serve us well at this pivotal cultural moment:
What are my responsibilities as a citizen?
As a person of faith?
As a consumer?
As a leader?
As a parent?
As an educator?
What am I avoiding knowing?
Why?
What point of view am I protecting?
Why?
How have I arrived at my assumptions about what sources of information to rely on?
What limits my angle of vision?
Have I tried to imagine how one might arrive at a different conclusion?
How much evidence do I need to be convinced?
What kind of persuasion works most effectively for me?
How do I accredit or challenge authority?
She goes on to conclude: “The answers to these questions are not simply personal. Some of them involve serious theological reflection on the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the state, what it means to give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s, and whether and how to participate in the conduct of worldly affairs. If you’re Mennonite or Amish, that boundary is drawn pretty clearly. But most of us, I think, are navigating the murky middle ground marked out between not-so-separate church and state, trying to resist manipulation, seek truth, and act on it justly in the ways that remain open to us.”
Resisting manipulation. Seeking truth. Acting justly. These pursuits, it seems to me, are unassailable for those of us who are troubled by “post-truth” developments in any sector of society – not least for those of us who claim to follow the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
A few years ago, on the recommendation of a friend who stewards words as well as anyone I know, I read Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, who with remarkable prescience seemed to anticipate the coming storm before most of us did. The book was timely then. It’s even more so now.
McEntyre calls upon us to think a little more deeply than our typical reflexive selves normally do. She invites us to slow down, take a deep breath, and honestly assess the ways we make sense of the world around us – and particularly the ways in which we decide what we believe to be “true” in any given area of life.
In one especially poignant passage, McEntyre posits a series of questions – not about the other, but about ourselves – that I think would serve us well at this pivotal cultural moment:
What are my responsibilities as a citizen?
As a person of faith?
As a consumer?
As a leader?
As a parent?
As an educator?
What am I avoiding knowing?
Why?
What point of view am I protecting?
Why?
How have I arrived at my assumptions about what sources of information to rely on?
What limits my angle of vision?
Have I tried to imagine how one might arrive at a different conclusion?
How much evidence do I need to be convinced?
What kind of persuasion works most effectively for me?
How do I accredit or challenge authority?
She goes on to conclude: “The answers to these questions are not simply personal. Some of them involve serious theological reflection on the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the state, what it means to give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s, and whether and how to participate in the conduct of worldly affairs. If you’re Mennonite or Amish, that boundary is drawn pretty clearly. But most of us, I think, are navigating the murky middle ground marked out between not-so-separate church and state, trying to resist manipulation, seek truth, and act on it justly in the ways that remain open to us.”
Resisting manipulation. Seeking truth. Acting justly. These pursuits, it seems to me, are unassailable for those of us who are troubled by “post-truth” developments in any sector of society – not least for those of us who claim to follow the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
March 18, 2017
Summary: Explores, in a culture of "spin" and poisoned discourse, practices for caring for our use of words, that they may be used well and true.
If you have been following this blog recently, you know how highly I think of this book. Written prior to the latest spate of "alternative facts," agenda journalism, and the publication of "fake news," McEntyre's book explores the abuses of our language, the deadly consequences to which this may lead, and the responsibility of all who preach, teach, and write to care for the language. She summarizes with elegance the theological case for such care:
"Peter's admonition to 'be sober, be watchful' applies to this enterprise. Noticing how things are put, noticing what is being left out or subverted, takes an active habit of mind. But what is our task as a logocentric people if not to cherish the word? God, who became, as Eliot so beautifully put it, the 'word within a word, unable to speak a word,' has put a measure of God's own power into our hands and on our tongues. May we use it to good purpose."
What follows in this book are twelve "stewardship strategies" by which we might care for the words entrusted to us and the wider use of words in our culture. McEntyre, who is a retreat leader as well as English professor, gives us, as it were, formational practices that usher us into the careful use of words. She begins with the simple truth that we must start with loving words. Whether they be single words in themselves or the elegant and arresting expression of words in literature, it makes sense that the care of words begins with loving and delighting in their felicitous expression. She then leans into the challenge of truth-telling, giving the example of asking her students to define terms in common parlance: liberal, conservative, patriotic, terrorist, and Christian. Imprecision and hyperbole make it possible to lie with words, or at least to be obscure in our meaning. This chapter is paired with one on not tolerating lies, in which she shares the questions she teaches her students to ask.
The next chapters ("stewardship strategies") might come under the heading of cultivating our skillful use of words. She urges us to read well, including the incorporation of the practice of lectio divina into our reading. She writes about the importance and delights of good conversation, cultivating the skills of asking good questions and attentive listening. She explores the richness of story, not only those we read but the life stories of those in our families and communities, that give perspective and offer challenge as they are told.
Two of my favorite chapters followed. One was on loving the long sentence, contrary to what you hear from most writing teachers and editors. She contends that "long sentences ask us to dwell in a thought rather than come to a point." The other chapter is on practicing poetry, something missing from my life. After reading this, I picked up a collection of Seamus Heaney poetry, having thoroughly delighted in his rendering of Beowulf. She then wrote about a practice I hadn't given much thought, that of translation. She observes that all of us who use words are translators, conveying a thought (whether our own or another) to a particular audience. Those who have to learn more than one language and translate between languages uniquely appreciate this challenge.
The final three chapters seemed to me to be overarching stewardship strategies to be used in conjunction with the others. One was simply to play with words and ideas and see where they will take you, which is sometimes to unexpected places. I like this because often I discover what I think about something as I write. The second is to pray, both in our own words and those of others and to listen. And this leads to the third, which is to cherish silence where words of clarity and grace and power may come.
What made this work so rich was that one has the sense that McEntyre has lived into the strategies she commends to others. More than this, to read this book is to read words that have been cared for, and chosen for their ability to teach us to love them, and others like them. McEntyre does what she advocates. I found myself wanting to love words more attentively, read better, converse more thoughtfully and write with greater clarity. I found myself wanting to discern with greater acuity the coarse and cavalier ways words are used to poison discourse and spin webs of deceit, and to resist these ways of twisting God's good gift of words to humanity.
"A book for our times" almost seems too cliché, and yet it is accurate to describe how important this work is for all of us who care for words, care for culture, and long for better conversations about the common good. It is not enough to aspire to such things. McEntyre's "stewardship strategies" show us how to translate aspiration into action in our care for words.
Previous posts on this book:
Word Care as Culture Care
A Poet in Your Pocket
If you have been following this blog recently, you know how highly I think of this book. Written prior to the latest spate of "alternative facts," agenda journalism, and the publication of "fake news," McEntyre's book explores the abuses of our language, the deadly consequences to which this may lead, and the responsibility of all who preach, teach, and write to care for the language. She summarizes with elegance the theological case for such care:
"Peter's admonition to 'be sober, be watchful' applies to this enterprise. Noticing how things are put, noticing what is being left out or subverted, takes an active habit of mind. But what is our task as a logocentric people if not to cherish the word? God, who became, as Eliot so beautifully put it, the 'word within a word, unable to speak a word,' has put a measure of God's own power into our hands and on our tongues. May we use it to good purpose."
What follows in this book are twelve "stewardship strategies" by which we might care for the words entrusted to us and the wider use of words in our culture. McEntyre, who is a retreat leader as well as English professor, gives us, as it were, formational practices that usher us into the careful use of words. She begins with the simple truth that we must start with loving words. Whether they be single words in themselves or the elegant and arresting expression of words in literature, it makes sense that the care of words begins with loving and delighting in their felicitous expression. She then leans into the challenge of truth-telling, giving the example of asking her students to define terms in common parlance: liberal, conservative, patriotic, terrorist, and Christian. Imprecision and hyperbole make it possible to lie with words, or at least to be obscure in our meaning. This chapter is paired with one on not tolerating lies, in which she shares the questions she teaches her students to ask.
The next chapters ("stewardship strategies") might come under the heading of cultivating our skillful use of words. She urges us to read well, including the incorporation of the practice of lectio divina into our reading. She writes about the importance and delights of good conversation, cultivating the skills of asking good questions and attentive listening. She explores the richness of story, not only those we read but the life stories of those in our families and communities, that give perspective and offer challenge as they are told.
Two of my favorite chapters followed. One was on loving the long sentence, contrary to what you hear from most writing teachers and editors. She contends that "long sentences ask us to dwell in a thought rather than come to a point." The other chapter is on practicing poetry, something missing from my life. After reading this, I picked up a collection of Seamus Heaney poetry, having thoroughly delighted in his rendering of Beowulf. She then wrote about a practice I hadn't given much thought, that of translation. She observes that all of us who use words are translators, conveying a thought (whether our own or another) to a particular audience. Those who have to learn more than one language and translate between languages uniquely appreciate this challenge.
The final three chapters seemed to me to be overarching stewardship strategies to be used in conjunction with the others. One was simply to play with words and ideas and see where they will take you, which is sometimes to unexpected places. I like this because often I discover what I think about something as I write. The second is to pray, both in our own words and those of others and to listen. And this leads to the third, which is to cherish silence where words of clarity and grace and power may come.
What made this work so rich was that one has the sense that McEntyre has lived into the strategies she commends to others. More than this, to read this book is to read words that have been cared for, and chosen for their ability to teach us to love them, and others like them. McEntyre does what she advocates. I found myself wanting to love words more attentively, read better, converse more thoughtfully and write with greater clarity. I found myself wanting to discern with greater acuity the coarse and cavalier ways words are used to poison discourse and spin webs of deceit, and to resist these ways of twisting God's good gift of words to humanity.
"A book for our times" almost seems too cliché, and yet it is accurate to describe how important this work is for all of us who care for words, care for culture, and long for better conversations about the common good. It is not enough to aspire to such things. McEntyre's "stewardship strategies" show us how to translate aspiration into action in our care for words.
Previous posts on this book:
Word Care as Culture Care
A Poet in Your Pocket
December 27, 2022
Read most of this for class and just finished the rest and loved loved loved it. McEntyre's thoughtful consideration of the power and beauty of words was stunning. I highly highly recommend it, especially those who use words regularly as part of their vocation (which, I know, is most people).
September 7, 2011
Own.
I first heard of this book when Ken Myers interviewed Marilyn Chandler McEntyre for Mars Hill Audio Journal (#99). I thought it sounded interesting and added the book to my Amazon wishlist. It continued to haunt me every time I looked at the list, so I finally ordered it and am so glad I did.
I've had a particularly good year of reading this year with few bummers, and in a good year this is one of the three best books I've read.
McEntyre writes beautiful prose, which would be expected from a poet. The images, examples, and ideas she chooses and proposes are clear, apt, and intriguing. The early paragraphs on the word "felicity" are worth the price of the book.
She weaves the Christian faith in and around ideas so that the reader is awed, while thinking they ought to have made the connection themselves.
I did get bogged down in the paragraph on long sentences, where she practiced long sentences, but even there I was encouraged and my faith strengthened.
You should see how many pages I folded down in my copy. Beautiful, beautiful book.
I first heard of this book when Ken Myers interviewed Marilyn Chandler McEntyre for Mars Hill Audio Journal (#99). I thought it sounded interesting and added the book to my Amazon wishlist. It continued to haunt me every time I looked at the list, so I finally ordered it and am so glad I did.
I've had a particularly good year of reading this year with few bummers, and in a good year this is one of the three best books I've read.
McEntyre writes beautiful prose, which would be expected from a poet. The images, examples, and ideas she chooses and proposes are clear, apt, and intriguing. The early paragraphs on the word "felicity" are worth the price of the book.
She weaves the Christian faith in and around ideas so that the reader is awed, while thinking they ought to have made the connection themselves.
I did get bogged down in the paragraph on long sentences, where she practiced long sentences, but even there I was encouraged and my faith strengthened.
You should see how many pages I folded down in my copy. Beautiful, beautiful book.
December 2, 2024
while i wish i was introduced to this book in a context other than school, i am very grateful it was required! it is readable, thoughtful, and persuasive. as an avid lover of words, it stirred passion and affection in me as well as stimulating me intellectually. at times, the writing becomes a bit far fetched for me, but overall the style was very nice and i was surprised at how quickly i could get the chapters done while still annotating and engaging. definitely recommend! :)
June 11, 2011
The author of this book begins by staking out the position that caring for words is a moral issue: if language is going to sustain and nurture our common life, it must be tended the way a farmer tends to his soil and crops. Because of the vast proliferation of means of communication, the stewardship of language takes on an even greater value. The author lays out a clear argument for the moral implications to careless use of language, showing that we pay a heavy price for our tolerance of inaccuracy and triteness. "Like food, language has been 'industrialized'. Words come to us processed like cheese, depleted of nutrients, flattened and packaged, artificially colored and mass marketed." The book therefore examines strategies of stewardship. To be good stewards of language, we have to do three things: 1) deepen and sharpen our reading skills, 2) cultivate habits of speaking and listening that foster precision and clarity , and 3) to practice poesis: to be makers and doers of the word. A brilliant book, and absolutely necessary reading for anyone wishing to make a commitment to clear and careful use of the language.
April 6, 2016
Caring For Words in Culture of Lies pushed all the right buttons for me since it's about the necessity of preserving beautiful language - not just flowery words, but words that say precisely what they mean.
Just as we should be good stewards of natural resources, McEntyre writes that we should also be guardians of another precious resource: words. Like any other life-sustaining resource, language can be depleted, polluted, contaminated, eroded, and filled with artificial stimulants. Like any other resource, it needs the protection of those who recognize its value and commit themselves to good stewardship. (p. 1)
Like food, language has been "industrialized." Words come to us processed like cheese, depleted of nutrients, flattened and packaged, artificially colored and mass marketed. And just as it takes a little extra effort and attention to find, buy, eat, and support the production of healthy foods, it is strenuous business to insist on usable, flexible, precise, enlivening language. (p. 16)
This book is not for everybody, but it's a definite must-read for stewards and lovers of fine language.
Just as we should be good stewards of natural resources, McEntyre writes that we should also be guardians of another precious resource: words. Like any other life-sustaining resource, language can be depleted, polluted, contaminated, eroded, and filled with artificial stimulants. Like any other resource, it needs the protection of those who recognize its value and commit themselves to good stewardship. (p. 1)
Like food, language has been "industrialized." Words come to us processed like cheese, depleted of nutrients, flattened and packaged, artificially colored and mass marketed. And just as it takes a little extra effort and attention to find, buy, eat, and support the production of healthy foods, it is strenuous business to insist on usable, flexible, precise, enlivening language. (p. 16)
This book is not for everybody, but it's a definite must-read for stewards and lovers of fine language.
October 16, 2021
Having heard about this book multiple times in multiple places, I recommended it for one of my book groups. I expected to love it. And I expected, based on the title, that it would be a certain kind of book—one whose chief focus was on truth-telling. Maybe if the title had been different—more, well, honest—I'd've enjoyed it more for what it was, but when an author won't even use God's preferred pronouns, I know she's so deeply immersed in the culture of lies that I can't trust a word she has to say on the topic.
All of my friends who have reviewed this on Goodreads have given it four or five stars, but they all read it before the second edition came out, so I've wondered if there might be a significant difference between them. Or maybe they were able to look past what I found so off-putting and just enjoy the author's enjoyment of language.
The narrator was fine.
All of my friends who have reviewed this on Goodreads have given it four or five stars, but they all read it before the second edition came out, so I've wondered if there might be a significant difference between them. Or maybe they were able to look past what I found so off-putting and just enjoy the author's enjoyment of language.
The narrator was fine.
March 7, 2020
Many reviewers here and at Amazon do not like chapter seven on loving the long sentence, but I appreciated that and all the others. This is my second reading, and I am still finding things to underline (like these comments, p. 68, 71: “Consider, for instance, how good reading involves attitudes and predispositions: consent, permission, forgiveness, relinquishment, empathy, resistance, compromise. What do you have to forgive Hemingway to get the gift that he offers? His machismo? His anti-Semitism? What do you need to consent to in order to read The Sound and the Fury on its terms? . . . to make ready to receive precisely the gift one needs in precisely this moment of reading”). Originally a series of lectures at Princeton Seminary, this is a rewarding book.
April 6, 2019
Great food for thought.
August 27, 2012
During my years teaching at a Christian Liberal Arts college, I once naively asked a roomful of First Year Writers what it means to write as a Christian. Some students argued that Christian writing is defined primarily by the moral nature of the content: "Writing as a Christian means that I take a particular position on [insert hot-button political topic here]," some argued. Others contended that "writing as a Christian means that I attempt to use my writing to convert/evangelize." Other students took the more complex and abstract argument that writing as a Christian has less to do with particular propositions or topical repertoires than it does with the writer's qualities/habits of mind: "Writing as a Christian," one intrepid student noted, "means that I must be willing to speak what I believe is the truth, regardless of whether or not my community agrees with my opinions."
McEntyre takes precisely this latter position: Christians who write must cultivate particular habits of mind, particular creative practices that mirror the work of a Divine Creator. The habits of mind that McEntyre suggests are: Love words, tell the truth, don't tolerate lies, read well, stay in conversation, share stories, love the long sentence, practice poetry, attend to translation, play, pray, and cherish silence. These habits of mind are, of course, excellent practice for all writers, regardless of (non)religious persuasion, but by framing them as reflections of God's creative work, and as ways of honoring the best of humanity's createdness, McEntyre reminds Christians of our particular responsibility to steward language with care and precision. Words and the silence that surround them are a gift, and should be cherished and honored as such.
McEntyre takes precisely this latter position: Christians who write must cultivate particular habits of mind, particular creative practices that mirror the work of a Divine Creator. The habits of mind that McEntyre suggests are: Love words, tell the truth, don't tolerate lies, read well, stay in conversation, share stories, love the long sentence, practice poetry, attend to translation, play, pray, and cherish silence. These habits of mind are, of course, excellent practice for all writers, regardless of (non)religious persuasion, but by framing them as reflections of God's creative work, and as ways of honoring the best of humanity's createdness, McEntyre reminds Christians of our particular responsibility to steward language with care and precision. Words and the silence that surround them are a gift, and should be cherished and honored as such.
January 22, 2020
A Landmark Book on the Subject of Culture Care
Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies is one of THE most important books I have read in a long time. It caught and held my attention from the very start, and it didn't disappoint at any point along the way. Among other things, Marilynne McEntyre identified one of the primary reasons American society is on a downward trajectory. We have ceased to care for words as we ought.
Organized by twelve types of stewardship every Christian needs to relearn and practice, this book covers all of the critical elements, from loving words and telling the truth, to playing, praying and cherishing silence. I could fill up a commonplace book with quotes from this book alone (and I almost did). This book's content really is quite remarkable.
I must share just a couple of my favorite quotes,
"Precision of expression is neither taught nor appreciated in a culture that has prostituted language in the service of propaganda." (34)
"Trained imaginations are what we need most at a time like this." (151) [Why?] "Because the love of beauty is deeply related to the love of peace. Beauty and peace are things to be learned and protected."
My recommendation? If you are thinking of buying this book for yourself, buy one for a friend, too. Study it. Analyze it chapter by chapter. Select it for your book club. You'll be glad you did.
Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies is one of THE most important books I have read in a long time. It caught and held my attention from the very start, and it didn't disappoint at any point along the way. Among other things, Marilynne McEntyre identified one of the primary reasons American society is on a downward trajectory. We have ceased to care for words as we ought.
Organized by twelve types of stewardship every Christian needs to relearn and practice, this book covers all of the critical elements, from loving words and telling the truth, to playing, praying and cherishing silence. I could fill up a commonplace book with quotes from this book alone (and I almost did). This book's content really is quite remarkable.
I must share just a couple of my favorite quotes,
"Precision of expression is neither taught nor appreciated in a culture that has prostituted language in the service of propaganda." (34)
"Trained imaginations are what we need most at a time like this." (151) [Why?] "Because the love of beauty is deeply related to the love of peace. Beauty and peace are things to be learned and protected."
My recommendation? If you are thinking of buying this book for yourself, buy one for a friend, too. Study it. Analyze it chapter by chapter. Select it for your book club. You'll be glad you did.
July 17, 2018
Interesting read on words, language, and communication. Not focused on etymology, but the use of words, and power of words, and how speech ought to be used--ultimately for good. "Though the circumstances in which we enter into conversation maybe unplanned, the entering is still decision to set other agendas aside and attend. Deliberation distinguishes conversation from idle chatter which requires little and offers less when we enter seriously and intentionally into conversation, we effectively commit to thinking with the other being responsive, listening, and caring." "Precision is, after all, not only a form of responsibility and the kind of pleasure, but an instrument of compassion. To be precise requires care, time, and attention to the person, place, or process being described." "as we get older deep and focused conversation with those given to us in the present may be dissipated in much superficial communicating. We say more and more about less and less to more and more people. We have traded deep, sustained, intimate conversation for vast and sometimes overwhelming forms and means of 'communication'."
February 18, 2021
Marilyn McEntyre is an excellent writer who presents in this book a very strong case for the careful use of language during a time when so much of our culture is dumbing down our interactions and limiting our attention spans. While the book was written in 2009, what she has to say is more pertinent than ever.
The author encourages care in the use of language through 12 strategies including: love words, don't tolerate lies, read well, stay in conversation, attend to translation, and cherish silence. I would have liked using some of the ideas from this book with my English classes.
I found this a compelling read that challenged me to reread some passages to fully consider them and to stop at the end of each section too ponder and reflect. And while McEntyre gives us a great deal of food for thought, she does so with a style that kept me engrossed.
For a review that is much more thorough and wonderfully written, see the blog bobonbooks.com (Bob Trube has a page on here with the review.
The author encourages care in the use of language through 12 strategies including: love words, don't tolerate lies, read well, stay in conversation, attend to translation, and cherish silence. I would have liked using some of the ideas from this book with my English classes.
I found this a compelling read that challenged me to reread some passages to fully consider them and to stop at the end of each section too ponder and reflect. And while McEntyre gives us a great deal of food for thought, she does so with a style that kept me engrossed.
For a review that is much more thorough and wonderfully written, see the blog bobonbooks.com (Bob Trube has a page on here with the review.
June 23, 2023
McEntyre has a lot of beautiful thoughts & good points of reflection about the value of taking time to slow down and reflect and see the value and beauty of language in today's world--maybe it's telling that it took me almost two full years to finish reading this book
The actual reading experience wasn't my favorite, but it was worth it for the content
The actual reading experience wasn't my favorite, but it was worth it for the content
April 20, 2021
I believe that the lessons contained in this book give us the tools to better "inwardly digest" Scripture, to become more gracious in our speaking, more hospitable in our listening, and more persevering in our silence. This book is a page-turner, nothing less.
June 23, 2020
Excellent little book that challenged me to think deeply about my relationship with words and take more care in my use of them.
February 4, 2022
Beautiful and compelling. I think this will end up being one of my favorites of 2022.
December 30, 2020
A book with so much wisdom. A book to be interacted with, notated, wrestled with, stirred by, spurred on by. A book where one reading of it is only to scratch the surface.
May 3, 2022
I’ve read this book 3 or 4 times over the past decade, and it only gets richer with each rereading. I dwell in these pages like I do few other books, and I have been rejuvenated and guided by McEntyre’s words.
May 6, 2019
There was so much good in this book, but enough that I had issues with that it only gets three stars from me.
I found her predictions about the state of words in our culture to be a bit dire, and our call as Christians when it comes to words to be a bit of a stretch.
Also, it is clear that she loves words, but sometimes it feels like she uses fancy or otherwise obscure words just for the sake of doing so! But maybe her point is that that is what we should be doing, for the sake of preserving these words? I don’t know.
She criticized hyperbole, text messaging, and even newspaper headlines (claiming we no longer have to read more to get the point of the story, as it’s in bold in big letters at the top!). I get her point, but also feel like these things have simplified some things so that we can concentrate on things that really matter! (Maybe not hyperbole, I just like it.)
Some good quotes:
“The point is this: because they hear so many words so constantly, their capacities to savor words - to pause over them, ponder them, reflect upon them, hear the echoes of ancient cadences, and attune themselves to allusiveness and alliteration are eroding.”
“She knew the power of generous listening, of asking the next question. She asked them, in effect, Who are you? What is it like to be living your particular life? How do you cope with your own sufferings? How do you feel about eye challenges you encounter in the world you’re inheriting? Why have you made the particular choices you’ve made thus far? What delights you? What makes you afraid? What may we offer one another at this stage in our journeys?”
I want this to describe me.
“This kindly endeavor offers a promising model for an increasingly needful form of ministry. It may be that we who are in the church, to be what we are called to be, must become increasingly intentional about providing occasions for leisurely conversations that take us beyond the enforced superficialities of hurried contact. If it is true, as I have read, that over 60% of Americans don’t even thatcher once a day with their families or housemates over a meal, that statistic alone may give us some measure of what has been lost and incentive to imagine how it might be retrieved.”
I liked this because it makes it seem like a call to ministry to just create conversation. Also, because we don’t gather for meals in our family (for the most part) so it makes me want to imagine other ways to engage with each other.
“Perhaps their greatest comfort [tragic tales] value lies in the way they point beyond themselves to the larger stories of creation and promise and salvation.”
One of the reason I love epic novels/stories! They remind me of this world and the greater Story happening, beyond just me.
“At their best, if they are doing what they are meant to do, stories help us to cultivate compassion. This, I think, is their primary function. They open our hearts and imaginations. They invite and challenge and tease us into understanding and take us places we might not otherwise consent to go.”
“To name is to recognize: and this re-cognition opens our minds and hearts to receive what we need once again and allow ourselves to be blessed.
The language of prayer, then, works on multiple levels. It reminds, reframed, and re-awakens; it humbles us and also empowers us to claim and act on God’s promises; it brings our intentions into sharp focus; it engenders intimacy with God and also brings us into alignment, harmony, and unity with the other members of the Body of Christ and with the communion of saints and angels.”
And this is just a small number of the good quotes I have underlined! So I hope this helps to prove my point that there is also a lot of good in this book.
I found her predictions about the state of words in our culture to be a bit dire, and our call as Christians when it comes to words to be a bit of a stretch.
Also, it is clear that she loves words, but sometimes it feels like she uses fancy or otherwise obscure words just for the sake of doing so! But maybe her point is that that is what we should be doing, for the sake of preserving these words? I don’t know.
She criticized hyperbole, text messaging, and even newspaper headlines (claiming we no longer have to read more to get the point of the story, as it’s in bold in big letters at the top!). I get her point, but also feel like these things have simplified some things so that we can concentrate on things that really matter! (Maybe not hyperbole, I just like it.)
Some good quotes:
“The point is this: because they hear so many words so constantly, their capacities to savor words - to pause over them, ponder them, reflect upon them, hear the echoes of ancient cadences, and attune themselves to allusiveness and alliteration are eroding.”
“She knew the power of generous listening, of asking the next question. She asked them, in effect, Who are you? What is it like to be living your particular life? How do you cope with your own sufferings? How do you feel about eye challenges you encounter in the world you’re inheriting? Why have you made the particular choices you’ve made thus far? What delights you? What makes you afraid? What may we offer one another at this stage in our journeys?”
I want this to describe me.
“This kindly endeavor offers a promising model for an increasingly needful form of ministry. It may be that we who are in the church, to be what we are called to be, must become increasingly intentional about providing occasions for leisurely conversations that take us beyond the enforced superficialities of hurried contact. If it is true, as I have read, that over 60% of Americans don’t even thatcher once a day with their families or housemates over a meal, that statistic alone may give us some measure of what has been lost and incentive to imagine how it might be retrieved.”
I liked this because it makes it seem like a call to ministry to just create conversation. Also, because we don’t gather for meals in our family (for the most part) so it makes me want to imagine other ways to engage with each other.
“Perhaps their greatest comfort [tragic tales] value lies in the way they point beyond themselves to the larger stories of creation and promise and salvation.”
One of the reason I love epic novels/stories! They remind me of this world and the greater Story happening, beyond just me.
“At their best, if they are doing what they are meant to do, stories help us to cultivate compassion. This, I think, is their primary function. They open our hearts and imaginations. They invite and challenge and tease us into understanding and take us places we might not otherwise consent to go.”
“To name is to recognize: and this re-cognition opens our minds and hearts to receive what we need once again and allow ourselves to be blessed.
The language of prayer, then, works on multiple levels. It reminds, reframed, and re-awakens; it humbles us and also empowers us to claim and act on God’s promises; it brings our intentions into sharp focus; it engenders intimacy with God and also brings us into alignment, harmony, and unity with the other members of the Body of Christ and with the communion of saints and angels.”
And this is just a small number of the good quotes I have underlined! So I hope this helps to prove my point that there is also a lot of good in this book.
November 29, 2019
I tried to read this book during travel and it was not a good pick. The last half of the book seemed so much richer sitting at home—the call to slow and silence, poetry and pauses, and community with conversation is a lovely one. An intentional and thoughtful about the intentionality of language and its gift to us.
August 11, 2025
This book was beautiful. It's definitely going on my bookshelf, and is one I'm going to want to read thorough again in a year or so. I've noted so many quotes throughout it, and have much to ponder. The chapter on poetry made me want to read poetry, the chapter on play made me want to write, and the final chapter on cherishing silence encouraged me to set my audiobooks and podcasts and music aside so that my mind has time to rest and mull over things.
June 8, 2016
I loved this book about words and our responsibility for them and how they are used. The author makes a case for us to become stewards of words. Each chapter discusses one aspect of that stewardship. She calls them Stewardship Strategies: Love Words, Tell the Truth, Don't Tolerate Lies, Read Well, Stay in Conversation, Share Stories, Love the Long Sentence, Practice Poetry, Attend to Translation, Play, Pray, Cherish Silence. Much of my copy is underlined in red, notations made in the margins, passages bookmarked that I want to think about, consider, ponder. Her chapter on prayer gave me new insight into this sacred conversation with God. Her chapter on poetry encouraged me to pull some books off my shelf, to begin to memorize and internalize beautiful language and ideas. She invites us to love the graceful sentence, to speak with clarity and precision. And she encourages us to make room for silence where words can germinate and blossom, "to flower into understanding."
November 20, 2017
Marilyn Chandler McEntyre believes that we as a culture, generally, and as a faith community, specifically, have not stewarded well the gift of language. After making her case that the Word cares about words, she shares twelve thoughtful strategies to steward language: Love Words, Tell the Truth, Don't Tolerate Lies, Read Well, Stay in Conversation, Share Stories, Love the Long Sentence, Practice Poetry, Attend to Translation, Play, Pray, Cherish Silence.
August 23, 2023
I love the examples from poems and books that McEntyre peppers through her writing to underscore her points. She practices what she preaches as a word steward. However, I am part of the problem in that I'm not really a good descriptive writer, so some of her sentences seemed a little...excessive to me. Flamboyant, if you will. Still a great read, but I never would've picked this up on my own.
October 4, 2016
I read this for my school's senior thesis class and I actually throughly enjoyed it. A very interesting take on why and how we should use our words in the modern age.
October 19, 2017
The kind of book you want to start reading again as soon as you finish it. Wonderful.
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