Our written words carry weight. Unfortunately, in today's cultural climate, our writing is too 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? This book is not a style guide that teaches you where to place the comma and how to cite your sources (as important as those things are). Rather, it offers a vision for expressing one's faith through writing and for understanding writing itself as a spiritual practice that cultivates virtue. Under the guidance of two experienced Christian writers who draw on authors and artists throughout the church's history, we learn how we might embrace writing as an act of discipleship for today-and how we might faithfully bear the weight of our written words.
"Who we are is absolutely foundational for anything we write. Gibson and Beitler take us to the heart of this largely unexamined principle. Without being grounded as people, our writing will run into a ditch, or we will, or both. As just one instance of this, the authors unmask the menacing metaphor of argument as a form of war, generously offering alternatives to reshape us. Throughout they gently yet firmly guide us to embrace loving others not only in what we write but in how we write."
Andrew T. Le Peau, author of Write Better
"In Charitable Writing, Richard Gibson and James Beitler achieve the worthy goal they set for themselves: they draw on rhetorical theory as well as art and writers in the Christian tradition to explore the all-encompassing effects of Christian love (charity) on the practice of academic writing. When Christians compose with the aim of enacting charity, they listen with humility, they respond to others as fellow children of God, and they demonstrate the discipline required by the metanoic process of writing. Gibson and Beitler offer fresh and worthy models for writers as they seek to embody the law of love."
Elizabeth Vander Lei, professor of English and academic dean at Calvin University
