Irregular Verbs

Literature is art in words, so writers should seize every opportunity to understand words better and use them more effectively. We reveal the characters we create through words--and nothing is more revealing than the words we put in their mouths or minds.

A technique to reveal a complex character is called "irregular verbs." An old but insightful joke shows how people use words to excuse themselves and accuse their enemies. It goes like this:

• 1st person: "I was indignant."
• 2nd person: "You were annoyed."
• 3rd person: "She freaked out."
  

E. Bradley Beevers wrote an article called "Watch your language" in the Journal of Biblical Counseling (Vol. XII, No.3, Spring 1994). Beevers explains how unbiblical our vocabulary can be: we say, "I got frustrated" instead of "I was angry," or say "He had an affair" instead of "He committed adultery." People who are sloppy with their words excuse sin by never naming it. Christians who speak carefully discover that their terminology can bring the Bible directly to bear on their behavior, just by using the right words.

There are two ways to use "irregular verbs" in a story. One reveals a character, the other changes it. "Irregular verbs" are a symptom of hypocrisy, so a little well-chosen dialogue can flesh out that kind of character. Or you can show a character changing over time by taking him through all three stages of speech: first excusing his own behavior, then seeing it more neutrally, and finally calling it what it is--and then turning from it.

While we're crafting how our characters speak, let's take Mr. Beevers' advice and listen to ourselves and the people we love. Good writers should be good listeners. If we want to be better people, let's be better speakers, too.

Art and Entertainment

I have always said that my lone novel, Olympus, was "entertainment" rather than art. Having said that, I think David's new cover deserves to be called "art"!

Coming soon: an interview with Seth Remsnyder!

Seth Remsnyder is an exciting painter, art teacher, and Christian thinker whose work has been featured everywhere from small private shows to large conferences like New Attitude (now called Next).

We managed to land an interview with him, and we'll be posting it here in a day or two. Stay tuned for Seth's thoughts on...

• The role of art in the church.
  
• The line between creative and commercial art.
• Advice for a young artist. ("Try poetry!")

All this and more, coming soon to Art&God&Art!

Just start making art.

Hiya. David here (remember me? Probably not... I haven't posted in a while).

This reminder may be more for me than for you. See, I haven't put anything up here because I wanted it to be amazing, insightful, brilliant, life-changing. But the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized that if I take that route, I'll probably never create anything. God can make everything right the first time, but we fallen creatures can't. It's okay to make imperfect work... in fact, if you don't, I can almost guarantee you this: you'll never make anything.

So go ahead and sketch. Put the paint on the canvas. Scribble down that song or short story that's in your head. Publish up less-than-magnificent blog posts. Enjoy the creative process. We're supposed to emulate our Creator's creativity — there's lots of time to learn how to emulate his perfection.

To that end, here's a rough concept sketch for a new painting I'm working on. It's called something like Eden Will Break Through.


Now go ahead. Make something. +David

Blogging as a Spiritual Discipline

John Domingo at Deo Gloria makes a good case for treating blogging as a spiritual discipline. He relies one of my favorite authors (John Piper) to make his point.

He quotes this paragraph from Donald Whitney (author of Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life), and suggests we substitute the word "blogging" for "journaling" throughout:

That there is a crying need for the recovery of the devotional life cannot be denied. If anything characterizes modern Protestantism, it is the absence of spiritual disciplines or spiritual exercises. Yet such disciplines form the core of the life of devotion. It is not an exaggeration to state that this is the lost dimension in modern Protestantism. One of the seldom-practiced but very valuable Spiritual Disciplines is journaling . Though not commanded in Scripture, God has blessed its use since Biblical times. Journaling is one way to express the pursuit of Christlikeness commanded in 1 Timothy 4:7: ‘Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.’

Christ and Culture

Better minds than mine have considered how Christ relates to earthly cultures. John Frame's introduction to a The Road from Eden outlines the five classic positions:

1. Christ Against Culture (some early church fathers),
   
2. The Christ of Culture (e.g. Clement of Alexandria),
   
3. Christ Above Culture (many medieval thinkers including Aquinas),
   
4. Christ and Culture in Paradox (Luther’s “two kingdoms”), and
   
5. Christ the Transformer of Culture (many Reformed thinkers, such as Abraham Kuyper).

John Barber, the author of The Road from Eden, firmly believes that Christ is the transformer of culture. Here's his thesis:

The Cultural Mandate is the church's directive to affect every area of life for King Jesus. Man's original stewardship of the earth developed beyond his humble agrarian beginnings to use all the earth's resources as a means to advance worldwide civilizations. Consequently, the work of the Cultural Mandate is an all-inclusive concept that extends to every sphere of life where man's mind and hands are employed to control and utilize the processes of nature for the good of all. The Church must see in this command its role in shaping every area of life according to God's will - including politics, the fine arts, science, law, medical ethics, and more.

It's hard to separate one's view of Christ's relationship to culture from one's eschatology, the doctrine of "the last things." If you think the world gets worse and worse until Jesus comes back, you don't tend to imagine the Gospel changing the global culture the way yeast leavens three measures of flour (Matthew 13:33). Premillenialism tends to produce a Christian subculture.

If you think the Church will be persecuted but must ultimately prevail, producing a "Golden Age" of health, peace, justice, prosperity, and beauty, then the Gospel must transform culture. Postmillenialism has fallen out of favor (World War I shook the West's faith in unbroken progress), but it used to be all the rage in Protestant circles. Postmillenialism is making a bit of a comeback in Reformed circles, but the primary focus has been on changing the laws rather than changing the arts.

Work in Progress

Last night, a friend asked me what I was working on these days. I told him, "A piece about Philippians 3:12-21, a piece about questions and answers, and a piece about Proverbs 1-9."

I thought you might be interested to see where I'm at with at least one of these... here's my current 1/3-finished Proverbs piece.


(Click image for the bigger, better view.)
+David