Homo loquens coram Deo

This is a project that's been in my mind for a couple of years now. I want to set aside a bit of time and effort to reflect on theological anthropology as a linguist. By 'linguist' I mean 'linguistic scientist', that is someone who studies language not simply particular languages [though that is part of it] but the phenomenon of language. Now I'm not current in my reading, but my first degree was in linguistics and I realised that I still tend to use the grounding I have and think about things linguistically. So I have been thinking in little bits about things like the first chapters of Genesis and musing over them vithe the questions and general knowledge that comes from a linguistic science perspective. I think that this will mean paying attention to the way that language is attributed to God, the way that language functions in a created being, the matter of the image of God in relation to the nature of language, the issue of finitude and infinity in relation to meaning-making and hermeneutics, language and culture and even language and the Powers ...

It'll therefore probably be rather occasional. I had thought about starting a new blog on the topic but I suspect that it would be too occasional to make that worthwhile. Originally I was thinking in terms of an essay of five to ten thousand words.

Any way, the idea is that each post will be called 'homo loquens coram Deo" [speaking humanity before God] with a further identifier of either a number or a word or two. I am thinking of starting with this passage.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"

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Filed in: language, God, humanity, theology