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Heather Cadenhead's avatar

I enjoyed reading this. Thanks for sharing. I think the study of language is important for every Christian — I’m in a place where most of my personal Bible reading now includes looking up Greek and Hebrew. As you wisely and succinctly put it: words matter.

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Eliana Wickland's avatar

"Words have depth to them, entire worlds holed up in their cores, and I’d rather break the shell to see what’s inside than take them for granted."

I think C.S. Lewis would agree with you very much on this point. I just finished reading That Hideous Strength through the lense of Medieval cosmology for school, and there's a point in there when the planets (or rather the spiritual beings associated with each planet) descend. When Mercury comes down, the philologist (Ransom) feels the essence of language itself overflowing with meaning and reality.

I loved reading through your reflections on words! I had an assignment once to translate a poem I wrote for one class into Latin, and it was really enjoyable to pore over dictionaries and read all the possible meanings of a word so I could choose the one with just the right connotation. It's great to know someone else out there has enjoyed dabbling in Latin, too!

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