Charitable Writing: Cultivating Virtue through our Words (Review)

“Argumentative Writing” is a course I teach at public university. Students are confounded when I begin the instruction with short videos and writings on humility and charity. They say, “I thought argument was about winning or proving my point or showing someone else they’re wrong.” Classmates are surprised to discover that the old proverb about attracting flies with honey might be true.

I commend universal wisdom to young minds which sound very much like Solomonic proverbs. Application of truth to life opens a vista of light into the cultural partisanship of this or any day. Gibson and Beitler have done writing professors and instructors in every course a huge favor by displaying, once again, the practical nature of biblical truth for everyday life. Simple, direct concepts to humbly love one’s neighbor include listening, reasoning, generosity, or communal conviviality. The authors do indeed want to accomplish the subtitle to their text, Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words. The intention of Charitable Writing does not function as a textbook but a workbook, working its way through faculty.

What immediately attracts any member of the academe is the honest admission “This book began out of a professional crisis” (7). Surprising to the reader is the objective of the book. Gibson and Beitler practice in their book what they practice in their classes. They woo the reader to the task as they do their students. Committed to visual-verbal connections, the authors link the principles they espouse to classic works of art. Gallery paintings become links to the writing world. The enticement to their argument is seen immediately in the structure of the book.

Part One focuses attention on humble listening; what it means for both the individual and community. Part Two invites a loving argument; what it means to persuade by inviting others to a table for the feast of discussion. Part Three suggests that the writer keep time hopefully; what it means to practice slowness and liturgy in writing. Appendices are not to be missed in this book. Discussion questions and writing prompts for each chapter from the authors’ teaching are helpful. The essays by Jeffry C. Davis and Stephanie Paulsell are littered with personal notes and exclamation points in my copy; each will be read multiple times.

But then, as I page through Charitable Writing, I find notations and exclamations on most every page. The book’s focus on humility and charity not only have their own chapters but the concepts bleed through every page. Rhetoric is “repurposed” toward spiritual formation (8-9). If loving one’s neighbor “admits no exceptions” (11) I must ask how my own teaching is influenced by Jesus’ command. “Threshold concepts” in writing, the reader discovers, is not a new but an ancient concept; another Christian tradition (11-13). “Imitation” should be taught over against plagiarism (15-17) as a virtuous practice. The authors even suggest a “how to use this book” as a “fellow traveler” along The Way (19-20).

Aquinas’ “Prayer Before Study,” situated by my desk for years, is found here (25-27). The consistent reference to artwork that may have heretofore been overlooked as a writing primer is interpreted throughout. While I subscribe to a monastic-mystic approach to thoughtful writing I am brought up short if I do not also adhere to writing “as a conspicuously social pursuit” (emphasis theirs, 29). We must be reminded “our writing is at once a foreword and an afterword” (emphasis theirs, 31) in the service of present and future audiences. Honestly, I could continue to page through the book to offer golden nuggets of thought arising from this exceptional text.

And it is a book for our time. Consumed by ever-present social media, charitable, humble writing practices might well endear our students and our readers to a winsomeness not often experienced in the tsunami of words overwhelming every waking moment. Christians more than any other group should be committed to concepts such as others, community, faith-integration, rhetoric, the power of words, and the care with which those words are wielded. If we truly want to practice agape love, we will want to follow Gibson and Beitler as they apply it to writing (100).

If we view ourselves as elders in the classroom, then we should practice the attribute of “hospitality” generic to eldership (1 Timothy 3:2, 114-16). If we know our arguments can “go feral” (122), we recognize in ourselves the necessity to buttress our words with tenderness. “Making space at the table” (125-36) is an invitation to a feast for all, bringing new approaches of tone, invitation, irenic-versus-polemic apologetics, and a need to see the Bible as one of the most inclusive texts in all human history. The practicality of practice in writing (139-65) could offer renewed insights into the selah of communication craft; the Hebrew concept shows our need to stop, reconsider, ponder, and reflect. The authors are never overbearing but extend an offering which is immediately applicable to teachers and their classrooms.

Charitable Writing is one of those books I wish I could put in the hands of every faculty member, high school through grad school. Instructors bear the first responsibility of cultivating these Hebraic-Christian virtues in their students by how they construct their classes. Teachers must ask ourselves,

“Am I expecting too much?” or “Am I giving students time for reflection and revision?” or “Is content and speed more important to me than planting seed?” or “Am I frustrating my students or uplifting my students?”

Each person will have to address the many practices proposed. Further, each teacher will have to ask themselves questions about themselves.

“Is my teaching charitable and humble?” or “Am I willing to listen to my classes as a discourse community?” or “Am I generous in my acclamation of students as they perform?” or “Are my writing assignments allowing students to ‘keep time,’ during the time of their lives?”

If we truly want to practice the fruit of The Spirit in our whole lives, surely, our work as teachers should be a place where such a task is first employed. As I begin a new semester, I am spurred on by the prompts I find in Gibson’s and Beitler’s masterful work. Whether at the public or Christian university I am asking myself, “How do I make the gospel of Christ attractive” to my students (Titus 2:10)?

Review by Mark D. Eckel, President, The Comenius Institute, Indianapolis, IN; Professor of Leadership, Education and Discipleship, Capital Seminary and Graduate School, Lancaster, PA. Published in the April, 2021 edition of Christian Education Journal.

Charitable writing: Cultivating virtue through our words. By Richard Hughes Gibson and James Edward Beitler III. Foreword by Anne Ruggles Gere. Afterword by Alan Jacobs. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 2020. 231 pp. $22.00. softcover.