A graduate of Wheaton College (Illinois), Professor Ehrman received both his Masters of Divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary, where his 1985 doctoral dissertation was awarded magna cum laude. Since then he has published extensively in the fields of New Testament and Early Christianity, having written or edited twenty-four books, numerous scholarly articles, and dozens of book reviews.

Among his most recent books are a Greek-English edition of the Apostolic Fathers for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press), an assessment of the newly discovered Gospel of Judas (Oxford University Press), and four New York Times Bestsellers: Jesus Interrupted (an account of scholarly views of the New Testament), God’s Problem (an assessment of the biblical views of suffering), Misquoting Jesus (an overview of the changes found in the surviving copies of the New Testament and of the scribes who produced them) and Forged (discusses why some books in the New Testament are deliberate forgeries). His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages.

Among his fields of scholarly expertise are the historical Jesus, the early Christian apocrypha, the apostolic fathers, and the manuscript tradition of the New Testament.

Professor Ehrman has served as President of the Southeast Region of the Society of Biblical literature, chair of the New Testament textual criticism section of the Society, book review editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature, and editor of the monograph series The New Testament in the Greek Fathers (Scholars Press). He currently serves as co-editor of the series New Testament Tools, Studies, and Documents (E. J. Brill), co-editor-in-chief for the journal Vigiliae Christianae, and on several other editorial boards for journals and monographs in the field.

Professor Ehrman lectures extensively throughout the country. Winner of numerous university awards and grants, he is the recipient of the 2009 J. W. Pope “Spirit of Inquiry” Teaching Award, the 1993 UNC Undergraduate Student Teaching Award, the 1994 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement, and the Bowman and Gordon Gray Award for excellence in teaching.

Professor Ehrman has two children, a daughter, Kelly, and a son, Derek. He is married to Sarah Beckwith (Ph.D., King’s College London), Marcello Lotti Professor of English at Duke University. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

His most recent book is Did Jesus Exist? (HarperOne 2012).

My review is here:  Here’s the interview:

1) What does being awarded the 2011 Religious Liberty Award by the American Humanist Association mean to you?

Ehrman – It meant a lot to me. I did not know about the organization until it honored me with this award. It is a terrific group of people who are sincerely, honestly, and openly searching for (and finding!) real meaning in life apart from belief in God or the acceptance of religion. I found the people at the meeting to be interesting, intelligent, and caring . To be recognized by a group like this for my work in scholarship – most interestingly, biblical scholarship, means that I am making a difference in ways that I think really matter. I should also say, though, that the humanists who make up this organization are not my only, or even my principal, audience for my writing. I do not see my work as embracing, necessarily, an atheist or agnostic agenda. Far from it. Many Christians (and Jews, and Muslims, etc.) find my work valuable as well – and I think that’s as it should be. If I am opposed to anything, it is fundamentalism in its various guises. Among everyone else, my views may seem challenging, but they should not seem threatening.

2) Why, in your opinion, has it taken a few millennium to arrive at the conclusions so eloquently laid out in this book?

Ehrman - I don’t think it has taken millennia for scholars to come to believe Jesus existed. ON the contrary, they have simply assumed he existed – since he existed! But to my knowledge, I am the first scholar of the Bible ever to attempt to prove that he existed. The reason no one else has ever tried to do so in a systematic and coherent fashion is that there really has been very little need, since almost everyone thinks he did exist. But with the emergence of the mythicists and their wide-ranging influence, I thought it was necessary for someone – a bona fide, qualified scholar – to take up the challenge and show why the evidence of Jesus is so overwhelming and convincing to everyone else on the planet who has ever looked into the matter.

3) How do you see Christians in the U.S. today “trying to reform” the historical Jesus? ( Your point on p.336).

Ehrman – Many Christians today think of Jesus as a 21st century American with good solid middle-class American values. He believes in the free market and the principles of capitalism; he believes in working hard to become successful in life; he subscribes to traditional family values; and so on. One of the points I make in my book, once I show that Jesus existed, is that to understand who Jesus really was, you cannot simply assume that he was like us. He was not, in fact, a 21st century American with 21st century American values, beliefs, perspectives, and concerns. He was a first-century Palestinian Jew, and all of his views were deeply rooted in his own historical and cultural context, just as ours are rooted in ours. Jesus was not a capitalist who subscribed to our family values. He was a Jewish apocalyptic prophet who believed this world and all its institutions were soon to come to a cataclysmic end when God intervened in history to overthrow the forces of evil (including, and especially, the government) and set up a perfect utopian kingdom on earth. That would happen within his own generation, before the disciples died off. As I stress in my book, the mythicists have in fact gotten the matter precisely wrong. It is not that Jesus is a non-historical being. He is not unhistorical. He is far too historical. He, like all of us, is rooted in his own time. And if you try to transplant him from his own time and place into ours, you radically alter his overarching message into something other than it originally was.

4) Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has written: “I regret that we have fostered a political culture that rewards the extremes, a culture in which dogmatic belief is deemed a virtue and open-mindedness a weakness, and sarcasm and slanderous attacks frequently drown out intelligent discussion. Haven’t we had enough of this? We need a dose of unity.”[1] On page 332, you allude to a similar concern (humanist camp). Can you illuminate any current efforts for intentional, collaboration between theists and humanists whereby they are engaged in accomplishing the objective of acting on a belief “in the power of humanity to make society and individual lives happy, fulfilling, successful, and meaningful.” (your words – p. 332).

Ehrman -I think people from a range of perspectives represented in modern American society can agree – for admittedly different reasons – on certain social agenda. We *all* should be overwhelmingly concerned to help people who are poor, hungry, homeless, oppressed, and generally suffering. For Christians: this is what Jesus demanded. For humanists: this is what our shared humanity demands. We may have wide ranging differences about things that really matter to us, but on this fundamental attitude toward life and our fellow humans, we can all, surely, agree.

5) My sense is you would be a tremendous author of fiction ( a sincere compliment). Do you have a novel within you that you are trying to find the time to write?

Ehrman -I wish I could! I could use a vacation home on the beach….

6) Clearly, as you state in the book, there were other humans, before and after Jesus, who claimed to be the messiah. How is the growth and development of the Christian faith explained after the death of Jesus, that is NOT represented in the adherents to other purported messianic figures who either preceded or followed Jesus?

Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth

Crown Publishers – an imprint  of Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. Copyright (c) 2012 by Thomas Peele.

On August 2, 2007 a journalist by the name of Chauncey Bailey was mercilessly gunned down in Oakland, CA. It was only the second time in U.S. history that a journalist was intentionally murdered (pre-meditated) pursuing a story… a terribly important story.

I must say that living in the U.S. affords one the privilege of devouring the works of a small group of extraordinarily talented, uniquely gifted investigative journalists – Thomas Peele has now firmly established himself amongst them.

This is a story of manipulation, oppression, deception, rape, murder, intimidation, savagery, brutality, cultism, dogma, racism, religion – so compelling and adroitly characterized that I had to put the book down (on multiple occasions) and go fetch a glass of water to calm my stomach. However – this is a book you simply cannot start and then leave it for another day. The heinous insanity of the behavior of those involved in this story is beyond the borders of shock and awe.

Spellbinding! Shocking! Heinous! The embodiment of evil – spawned within a back story of a completely perverted sense of ‘religious’ righteousness. It’s a story about con-men who prey on the hopeless and the helpless – manipulating them into pawns who descend into the depths of a living hell that one cannot possibly imagine – in 21st century America. Yet, it’s true.

The sheer depth and breadth of the sourcing that went into this book will blow your mind. This is work – hard work. Yet, the  end result, Killing The Messenger by Thomas Peele, provides an incredibly important missing piece of the ongoing woop and warf of American history…and the reconstruction of the devastation that occurs at the intersection of people, religion, race, and culture….the molecular structure within the alchemy of the manufacture of madness!

If you enjoy non-fiction American history – particularly from the perspective of sub-cultures – you’ll be amazed, dismayed and duly disturbed by the sheer intensity of this story.

 Spellbinding!

P.S. Have a roll of antacids on hand BEFORE you begin this book. It gets to your gut…trust me…

A poem by Bill Dahl 2012

All Rights Reserved.

To some I’m known as Something-

Existing someplace or somewhere.

I’m the One they cry to,

Desperate for Someone to care.

To others I’m Somebody

Called upon sometime or someday

When your lives become aflame

Desperation’s rescue – somehow or someway

For many I’m a Somewhat

Just a partial notion of what you think you need.

Something you must have to soothe yourself -

From the lies of self-sufficiency and greed.

In this poem this Something is

Someone much more than some proclaim.

I’m intimate and kind, come and test my claims.

Your masses refer to me – many are my names

I live and reign in all of sometime

Every dimension within each someday.

The breath of life for you each morning,

Tomorrows light of the someway.

A love for you so passionate

Not content with someplace or somewhere

I make my home inside of you

Not someplace “over there.”

Great Spirit, Wonderful, and Almighty

The Someone – source of grace.

The Sometime who created this

A presence – voice, and face.

This One that I speak of

The Creator of all place, where, time and day

The One true One of all of it

The Provider of all thing, body, what, how and way

From the wealthy to those in poverty

The shortest to the tall

The Great Spirit I AM everywhere -

The Awesum Author of it all.

For Reprint Permission: Please email Bill Dahl at: wsdahl (at) bendbroadband (dot) com.

by Bill Dahl

Photography by Bill Dahl – All Rights Reserved

The following is an interview I completed with Diana Butler-Bass regarding her new book: Christianity After Religion– The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening. My review of the book is here and on Amazon. In my view, her new book is both timely and prescient. It is convincing evidence defining Diana as a thought & practice leader in the faith & culture genre (if she wasn’t already).

About Diana Butler-Bass (excerpt below is from her site):

Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of eight books including Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening, NOW AVAILABLE from HarperOne (on Amazon). Her other books include A People’s History of Christianity: the Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009), nominated for a Library of Virginia literary award and the best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us (2006) which was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY.

Currently a Chabraja Fellow with the SeaburyNEXT project at Seabury Western Theological Seminary, Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She blogs at The Huffington Post and Patheos and regularly comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. From 1995-2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She is a contributing editor for Sojourners Magazine has written widely in the religious press, including Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations.

From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality—a project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from The General Theological Seminary in New York. Diana also serves on the boards of the Beatitudes Society and Public Religion Research.

Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies.

She and her family live in Alexandria, Virginia.  She can be contacted through her website at www.dianabutlerbass.com and can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

Here’s the interview with Diana: I call it, Dancing with Diana. Enjoy!

1. Dr. Ellen J. Langer of Harvard has written the following, which seemed to keep coming to mind as I read your book:

A mindful approach to any activity has three characteristics: the continuous creation of new categories; openness to new information; and an implicit awareness of more than one perspective. Mindlessness, in contrast, is characterized by an entrapment in old categories; by automatic behavior that precludes attending to new signals; and by action that operates from a single perspective. Being mindless, colloquially speaking, is like being on automatic pilot. (1)

Can you comment on the above as it relates to several of the arguments you share in Christianity After Religion – The End of the Church and The Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening?

I’ve not heard that distinction using the vocabulary of “mindfulness,” but I have used similar language about intentionality and being “reflexive.” All of these actions include creativity, reflection, engagement, and multi-perspectivalism as well as a willingness to move into unfamiliar territory. For Christianity to thrive in the 21st century, western Christianity must develop mindful, intentional and reflexive ways of being in community, acting out faith in the world, and living with conviction. A mindful Christian faith is the necessary opposite of received or inherited faith–and the world can no longer afford a sort of Christianity that rests solely of the patterns of the past. (emphasis is the Editor’s)

2. Neuroscientist Dr. Robert A. Burton has said in his book On Being Certain – Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not: “We do not need and cannot afford the catastrophes born out of a belief in certainty.” He also says, “Certainty is not biologically possible. We must learn (and teach our children) to tolerate the unpleasantness of uncertainty.” (2)

How do these statements match up with what you have illuminated in Christianity After Religion – The End of the Church and The Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening?

In the new book, I talk about the necessity of experiential belief, what I also refer to as integrated belief. Belief that issues from experience and from human wholeness is almost in tension with ideological certainty. For life experience and the capacity to believe with our hearts always make room for the messiness of life and the exceptional cases. It is one thing, for example, to be certain that homosexuality is wrong; and it is a completely different thing to be the parent of a homosexual child. Being a good parent means mitigating certainty in favor of love. Belief is a necessary part of human life, every one believes many things. But belief that springs from experience and relationship is a healing sort of belief, rather than belief as intellectual certainty. We need to belief differently, not stop believing.

3. In Christianity After Religion – The End of the Church and The Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening you write:

“A new Light Form of faith, is led by those who wish to connect with people and ideas that are different, to explore the meaning of story and history, and to include as many as possible in God’s embrace.” – p.232.

What does this actually look like, practically speaking, using examples of such, that you’re aware of.

Although there are many such examples, one of the best is the Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha, Nebraska. There, Jews, Christians, and Muslims have joined together and are building a synagogue, church, and mosque on a common piece of property, and all three sacred spaces will be joined by a common building for joint worship, education, and shared practices. They are building a sacred geography of connection with each other, exploring the meanings of their own stories and histories in relationship with the stories and histories of their neighbors. It is a big project, involving many thousands of people in Omaha, but it shows that we can think big in this Awakening. This isn’t just about micro-level connections, but together we really can create new macro-level structures that model and lead toward God’ dream of shalom.

4. Eugene Peterson has written:

“With God depersonalized and then repackaged as a principle or formula, people could shop at their convenience for whatever sounded or looked as if it would make their lives more interesting and satisfying on their own terms. Marketing research quickly developed to show us just what people wanted in terms of God and religion. As soon as we knew what it was, we gave it to them.” (3) p. 23

How does this statement match up with what you have written in Christianity After Religion – The End of the Church and The Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening?

There is line between being responsive to cultural change and the longings of human beings at any given moment in history, and turning those longings into a marketing strategy. All religions, indeed all forms of spirituality, relate intimately to new ideas about culture, science, human nature, and justice. None stand outside of the contours of human desire, even if that is desire for God. In that way, faith communities are always and must always adjust to different languages, tastes, song, ways of relating to one another, forms of leadership, practices of prayer. Yet, that must always be held in tension with the old quip of the 19th century Anglican Dean William Inge, “Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.” To simply recreate faith on the basis of what is fashionable today is a mistake. But to sense, understand, and respond to the work of God’s spirit in and through the world in which we live–well, that is the primary vocation of Christians in every age.

5. George Barna has written regarding the spiritual transformation of Christians in the U.S.:

“the research indicates that only a handful of people make serious progress on the journey to wholeness.” (p.8) “Of all the adults who make a profession of faith in Christ – that is, they become “born again” – there is surprisingly little to show for the effort. On numerous occasions Jesus talked about the fact that you can tell Christians by the spiritual fruit they bear, but the data suggest that just one out of every ten adults who accept Jesus as their Savior make any substantial changes in their spiritual routines.” (4) pp.25-26.

What does this say about the success of religion in the U.S. – as evidenced in what you have written in Christianity After Religion – The End of the Church and The Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening?

I always find it interesting when George Barna and I agree–since we come from such different theological perspectives! Here, I mostly agree with him. Much of American religiosity can be thin, there’s a bad tendency, as there as with many religious traditions, among “born again” Christians to not practice what you preach. However, I’m actually glad that such a small percentage of those who Barna identifies as “born again” practice what they preach. Too much of “born again” religion in the United States is theologically narrow and politically right-wing. Should their spiritual routines involve excluding Jews and Muslims and Buddhists from civic engagement? Making women submit to their husbands? Recreating some sort of Christian America? Barna isn’t clear with his definitions of “born again,” or the sort of “spiritual routines” he thinks Christians should engage. Are those spiritual routines private or public? How do those people read the Bible? So, despite my general agreement with his assessment of shallowness of American religiosity, this statement makes me nervous as to what counts as being Christian. I’m more concerned with the vast numbers of Americans who say they believe in God yet continually support political policies that diminish the lives of their neighbors. That’s more important to me–and more important to America–than worrying about the fact that American evangelicals don’t change their spiritual practices.

6. David Kinnaman has written: “If outsiders stop listening, we cannot just turn up the volume.” (5)

If you agree, what do the new melody, lyrics, dancers and where we dance look like to you – as well as the impact this behavior may have on others and ourselves?

Ah! The Dance! One of the most beautiful mystical symbols for the reign of God! My teenage daughter would be mortified by the idea of her mom at a dance. My wonderful friend, Phyllis Tickle, has spoken of this age being not an age of orthodoxy or orthopraxy, of “right” belief or practice, but of ortho-nomy, that which she called “right” harmony, of the harmony of beauty being the fundamental test of human flourishing and truthfulness. I have meditated on that image for several years now, and I think that it is in harmonizing our voices, our loves, our experiences–and here I mean “our” as in the whole human family, not just Americans or Christians or people in a particular tradition–that we will find a path forward. But harmony does not eliminate voices that are dissonant. Indeed, those who cannot or refuse to harmonize sometimes make a music that the rest need to hear. It isn’t a matter of everyone in the world making harmony with the majority; it is often the case of the majority adjusting its music to the song of the marginalized.

As to the dance, it is most surely a circle dance, a communal one, not just the dance of individual partners. The days of the minuet are gone; these are the days of the dance around the campfire. (Editors Note: I love this characterization – don’t you?)

7. Diana, you’re a superb example of how a quality education can transform a person. The expense of higher education today is, unfortunately, precluding far too many from embracing this privilege. Do you have any thoughts on “new models” of higher education that readers might begin exploring? Also, how must seminary education change to maximize their contribution to “A New Spiritual Awakening?”

I’m still paying for that quality education myself! About two more years to go on what was an expensive but amazing adventure–one that created in me the disposition of a life of learning. I’m working with a number of groups trying to think about new models of higher education. At this point, there’s a lot of creative thinking, but not much has been put in practice. I think that much creativity is inhibited by what is still a hierarchical (and even patriarchal) model of expertise and leadership. When it comes to education, I always think that Parker Palmer‘s writings and his vision of circles of trust are a fantastic vision and resource–he has offered up in several of his books a model of integrated education. Seminary education possesses, in and of itself, the possibility of integration as theology must and should be based in and through an experience of God as understood by the heart. But, sadly, seminary education has too often mimicked secular expertise rather than the heart of wisdom upon which excellence theology is birthed. Right now, secular processes of accreditation and professionalism are holding the church back. What is really needed are theological learning communities, based in a mentor/friend/guild model, where people can engage in a range of practices from theological reflection to prayer to doing justice in the world. Seminary education, however, is a chicken-and-egg sort of thing. Seminaries can’t change until denominational policies do; denominational policies can’t change until seminaries nurture new vision; and nothing can change until grassroots churches demand change. And for churches to demand change, they must change themselves.

Thank you SO MUCH for such a tremendous book Diana!

You’re welcome! I’m so glad for your enthusiasm and support, Bill.

NOTES:

(1) Langer, Ellen J. The Power of Mindful Learning, DA CAPO Press – A member of the Perseus Books Group. Cambridge, MA Copyright © 1997 by Ellen Langer, Ph. D. p. 4.

(2) Burton, Robert A. M.D. On Being Certain – Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not, St. Martins Press, New York, NY Copyright © 2008 by Robert A. Burton, M.D. pp.223-224.

(3) Peterson, Eugene H. Practice Resurrection – a conversation on growing up in Christ, William B. Eerdsman Publishing Company Grand Rapids, MI and Cambridge, U.K. Copyright © 2010 by Eugene H. Peterson. P. 23

(4) Barna, George Maximum Faith – Live Like Jesus, Metaformation, Inc. Ventura, CA & Strategenius Group, LLC New York, NY and WHC Publishing, Glendora, CA Copyright 2011 by George Barna.p. 23.

(5) UNchristan–What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity…And Why It Really Matters, by David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons, Copyright © 2007 by David Kinnaman and Fermi Project. Published by Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, MI. p. 84.

All Rights Reserved. For Reprint Permission – please contact Bill Dahl at wsdahl(at)bendbroadband(dot)com. Links are fine without asking.

Because most have a self-confessed understanding of Jesus wrapped up in a tidy little box that they can comfortably carry around – or discard when it becomes inconvenient.  Try this: The next time you’re in conversation with someone who claims to “know Jesus” – ask them to provide you with the historical evidence derived by reputable historical scholars – who are NOT Christian! Trust me – They’ll be flabbergasted. You might be too.

As author Jim Palmer has recently written in his new book: Being Jesus in Nashville:

Through religion people have absorbed a bunch of ideas and beliefs about themselves, God, others and life that govern their identity, relationships and way of being in the world. It’s as if we’re trapped inside a story that is rigged to never lead to the freedom, fulfillment and abundance that people want and Jesus promised.

Enter Bart D. Ehrman – Distinguished author, scholar and historian – the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.  Ehrman is a self-professed agnostic. In this book, he takes on what are commonly referred to as the “Mythicists” – those who claim (in a rather passionate and voluminous set of writings (and rantings) that the existence of Jesus was a myth.

Here’s a YouTube video about the book:

This book is a journey with Ehrman to:

1. Illuminate the historical evidence that unequivocally demonstrates that Jesus, did in fact, exist.

2. A refutation of the major mythicist arguments to the contrary of #1 above.

3. An insightful examination of the question, Who was Jesus?

Sure, Ehrman jumps off the bus at the resurrection and the central Christian belief that Jesus is God (as any self-professed agnostic would). Yet, the treatment that Ehrman provides for #’s 1,2 & 3 above are absolutely mesmerizing.  Of course, in terms of the question, “Who was Jesus? Ehrman’s conclusions differ tangibly from the Christian tribe.

I learned a tremendous amount about Jesus, the Gospels, first century Judea and the like —  I had never learned in church, Sunday school, Bible studies, lectures, literature or otherwise by reading this book.

Again, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book. No matter what you think you might know about Jesus, the history of the Christian faith, The Gospels, the Bible, and who Jesus thought he was…Bart Ehrman provides the historians evidence that will distinctly fill in the holes your understanding was filled with. Finally, his treatment of the mythicist arguments is comprehensive and convincing.

Jesus Did Exist! – from the skilled historians perspective. Read this book – you need to appreciate what Bart D. Ehrman reveals in this profoundly important work. It’s an incredible feat!!!

I was blessed by this book…truly blessed. My friend Ron Cole said this is the most important book he read in 2011. For Ron to say something like that…well…I had to devour it.  It’s delicious.

If you are wondering what the oft used phrase “the kingdom of God” means; or if you’re certain you already understand it; or if you’re curious…READ THIS BOOK!!!

Trust me…my friend Ron Cole was spot on.

A poignant and timely treatise on The President and the Supreme Court. The parallels to current day in the U.S. are prescient. James F. Simon has an ability to weave history, law, and the development of characters that most other authors can only admire. I really enjoyed this book. You will too.

“Language is NOT a handmaiden to perception; it IS perception; it gives shape to what otherwise would be inert and dead. The shaping power of language cannot be avoided. We cannot chose to distance ourselves from it. We can only choose to employ it in one way or another.” – excerpt from How To Write A Sentence – And How To Read One by Stanley Fish. pg.42.