Speak Thus: Christian Language in Church and World

In its various forms, speech is integral to Christian mission. The gospel is a message, news that must be passed on if it is to be known by others. Nevertheless, the reality of God cannot be exhausted by Christian knowledge, and Christian knowledge cannot be exhausted by our words. All the while, the philosophy of modernity has left Christianity an impoverished inheritance within which to think these things. In 'Speak Thus', Craig Hovey explores the possibilities and limits of Christian speaking. At times ethical, epistemological, and metaphysical, these essays go to the heart of what it means to be the church today. In practice, the Christian life often has a linguistic shape that surprisingly implicates and reveals the commitments of people like those who care for the sick or those who respond as peacemakers in the face of violence. Because learning to speak in one way as opposed to another is a skill that must be learned, Christian speakers are also guides who bear witness to the importance of churches for passing on a felicity with Christian ways of speaking. Through engagements with interlocutors like Ludwig Wittgenstein, George Lindbeck, Jeffrey Stout, Stanley Hauerwas, John Howard Yoder, Thomas Aquinas, and the theology of Radical Orthodoxy, Hovey offers a challenging vision of the church able to speak with confidence that comes from deep attentive ness to its own limitations, while also able to speak prophetically in a world weary of words. Craig Hovey offers us a book of Christian manners. Just as manners are the skills and practices we require to be at home in social contexts, so Hovey shows how the gospel equips us to be at home wherever God s mission takes us, because we are always at home with the Lord. Hovey maintains Christians have not been told what to say, but have instead been shown how to speak. In this book he continues his emergence as a profound and penetrating scrutiniser of what it means to speak, witness, and confess the Christian faith. This book is a masterclass in learning to speak simple truth amid a cacophony of contemporary cleverness. Canon Sam Wells, Dean of Chapel, Duke University; Research Professor of Christian Ethics Hovey s finely crafted collection of essays both persuasive and contentious combines great clarity with nuance. Apparently opposed positions are shown to share common presuppositions, with Hovey frequently providing an alternative positive conception or perspective. In an un-showy but impressive way, Hovey s writing is richly informed by the tradition and practices to which he is committed. The voice that emerges is passionate, urgent, and wry. Christopher Insole, Department of Theology, Durham University CRAIG R. HOVEY (PhD, Cambridge) teaches religion and ethics at the University of Redlands and Fuller Theological Seminary Extension in Southern California.