Book Review: Charitable Writing

 

Charitable Writing

Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words

by Richard Hughes Gibson; James Edward Beitler III

InterVarsity Press 

IVP Academic

 Christian 

Pub Date 15 Dec 2020

I am reviewing a copy of Charitable Writing through InterVarsity Press in Netgalley:

Charitable Writing is a writing guide, but not in the typical sense; this book examines how we think about writing as well as how we go about it. In both respects, the conceptual and the practical, this book argues that our spiritual commitments can and should provide bearings for our academic and professional work.

This book reminds us that; Writing is a social and rhetorical activity • Writing involves making ethical choices • Writing speaks to situations through recognizable forms • Disciplinary and professional identities are constructed through writing • Writing enacts and creates identities and ideologies • All writers have more to learn.   

We are reminded too that to recognize that writing not only can be but also should be a hospitable practice has profound implications for Christian writers. To write hospitably requires that we use words and genre conventions that our reader will recognize and understand. To write hospitably requires that we take the time to edit our writing so as to make it approachable. To write hospitably requires that we actually think about who are readers are in the first place. Above all, to write hospitably requires that we recognize writing as a gift.

Charitable Writing reminds us that our words carry weight, but unfortunately in today’s climate our words are often laced with harsh judgments and vitriol rather than careful consideration and generosity. But might the Christian faith transform how we approach the task of writing? How might we love God and our neighbors through our writing? 

What this book isn’t is a style guide, but what it does is offers a vision for expressing one's faith through writing and for understanding writing itself as a spiritual practice that cultivates virtue. 

I give Charitable Writing five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!