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The Vanishing Word: The Veneration of Visual Imagery in the Postmodern World (Focal Point Series)
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Item Description...
Sounds blare and pictures flash frantically across the screen.This may seem to be an accurate description of every commercialaired on TV, but such commercials are actually symptomatic of amuch more important cultural shift. Arthur Hunt argues that thereis a conceptual transformation taking place today, as we move froman emphasis on the "word" to the predominance of the "image." Hunt focuses on the contrast between a Judeo-Christian heritage, characteristically word-dependent-and paganism, typicallyimage-dependent. As people trust experience and visualrepresentations to interpret their surroundings, they focus less oncontent and more on sensory appeal. Hunt argues that movements likethe Protestant Reformation, Puritanism, and the beginnings of theAmerican nation were all created and sustained in an environmentthat transmitted its ideas through words, while historical shiftsto emphasize image have occurred during periods like the Dark Ages.As the word, both written and spoken, is devalued, there is arenewed descent into paganism. A wide range of issues-education, politics, entertainment, postmodernism-are brought together in an incisive, illuminatingway. This book examines trends in today's culture and churches thatlead away from a word-centered world and into an image-soaked worldripe for propaganda and a demagogue. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 272
Dimensions: Length: 8.5" Width: 5.62" Height: 0.69"
Weight: 0.71 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Mar 1, 2003
Publisher GOOD NEWS PUBLISHING #65
ISBN 158134404X
EAN 9781581344042
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Availability 4 units.
Availability accurate as of May 22, 2012 09:39.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Powerful words Jul 12, 2008 |
I'm not a professor or a philosopher. I'm a wife and a mom. This book had a positive impact on my life because the author was courageous enough to tell us the truth...the truth about our culture and the dangers of a subtle overdose of celebrity worship, visual images, and watered-down worship. Thankfully, the book was written with concern rather than harsh judgment. The concepts in this book will be with us for a long time. Hopefully, we'll be able to successfully pass them on to our children.
| | | | Contrast with "Everything Bad is Good for You" Jun 14, 2006 |
As a fan of Gene Veith, Neil Postman and Allan Bloom, I noted this book as inspired by the dialogue between Postman and Camille Paglia. It is an excellent book and well worth the read but following the natural urge to find something to disagree with while we walk the same road in the same direction, I would like to engage a few issues that I find especially intriguing even though they are small potatoes in the whole stew.
When AWH critiques or contrasts the Egyptians with the Hebrews by referring to the Egyptians as image based and the Hebrews based, we certainly should agree, but the images of the Egyptians were their alphabet at least at some point. Hieroglyphs apparently came to represent sounds (didn't they?). The feather in a sense becomes a letter? The shift to a phonetic aleph bet was certainly significant but they are still images - images of the letters. Perhaps images of the shape of the mouth (at least symbolically) while making the sounds - think of Greek Theta or just the letter "o". So the contrast between the Egyptians and the Hebrews is certainly there but how sharp a contrast should we think it is? I wonder.... In any case, AWH even remarks that the "Egyptians thought Toth invented writing" (p. 37) so this is certainly a matter of degree. We might also wonder why "advanced civilizations cannot exist without writing" (as AWH quotes Gelb) if this might be because they need a recording system. Would video do? (I imagine reading a book presented as a DVD, for example.) Is video text as the postmodernists might say? In which case, the vanishing word is not vanished at all but more powerful than ever in digital form.
An interesting contrast to this book is Steven Johnson's "Everything Bad is Good for You."
| | | | A Thoughtful Examination Jun 7, 2006 |
| In our technologically advanced age the value of the written word is being lost. The Author shows by fiving a historical account how this is leading our society into Idolatry and Paganism. The devaluation of the written word is leaving people defenseless against counterfeits and leaves them open for whatever trend comes along. This book takes a close examination of our media saturated culture. | | | | Stemming the Tide of the Image Culture Mar 19, 2004 |
Arthur Hunt's "The Vanishing Word" is a helpful and insightful salvo in the battle to preserve the written word in an age enamored with images. Hunt is currently a professor of speech and communications at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Although he teaches speech and communications, his real expertise is in the fledgling discipline of Media Ecology. Media Ecology was a field pioneered by men like Neil Postman and Marshall McLuhan. "The Vanishing Word" is essentially a work of Media Ecology and in it Hunt examines our cultural environment and finds it polluted with pagan image idolatry.
Hunt's work is particularly helpful because it begins with an historical analysis of the rise of the written word. Hunt condenses the important events of Western history into readable and accessible chapters. He presents this historical information in a lively fashion by including helpful illustrations and examples. Hunt's Christian presuppositions are certainly not hidden in this book. His history of the word begins with God and Moses and not with Aristotle or Gutenburg.
Following the linear unfolding of history, Hunt notes that a major shift occurred in our culture with the rise of electronic mass media. He contends that this "new" development is bringing our culture back to "old" ideas, particularly pagan idolatry. He writes:
"The old system just keeps coming back. Not that long after the Flood's waters had receded, Nimrod stretched forth his hands to receive the astrological charts from atop Babel's tower. The sands of Egypt were still between the toes of Moses when he proceeded down the mountain of thunderings and lightnings, tablets in hand, only to find the Hebrews dancing around a golden calf. The people of God multiplied under the Roman knife, but then the pantheon strangely reappeared over the church altar. The fire of the Reformation pushed the gods back until the icon-making machines of the twentieth century ushered them back again in living color (155-156)."
Hunt's book also provides a helpful analysis of the shift from modernism to post-modernism. He also makes some penetrating comments about the impact of the image culture on the church, particularly in the area of worship.
I highly recommend this book to pastors, Christian educators and anyone interested in understanding and stemming the tide of the image culture. | | | | A wake-up call for the church Mar 16, 2004 |
| The author sees the current cultural tendency to exalt visual imagery at the expense of language as a direct assault on Christianity. He warns Christians that the church is being cut off from its word-based heritage, to its great detriment. Superb socio-cultural analysis by a keen-minded Christian scholar, along with a much-needed affirmation that "the Word is everything." Although Professor Hunt builds upon the previous studies of Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Camille Paglia, and others, his radically different spiritual perspective as a conservative evangelical makes this a highly original work with many entirely fresh insights. Required reading for all thoughtful Christians who would equip themselves better for the "spirit wars" of our time and halt the church's slippage into a mindless paganism. | | | Write your own review about The Vanishing Word: The Veneration of Visual Imagery in the Postmodern World (Focal Point Series)
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