ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover AwardOur written words carry weight.Unfortunately, in today's cultural climate, our writing is too often laced with harsh judgments and vitriol rather than careful consideration and generosity. But might the Christian faith transform how we approach the task of writing? How might we love God and our neighbors through our writing?This book is not a style guide that teaches you where to place the comma and how to cite your sources (as important as those things are). Rather, it offers a vision for expressing one's faith through writing and for understanding writing itself as a spiritual practice that cultivates virtue.Under the guidance of two experienced Christian writers who draw on authors and artists throughout the church's history, we learn how we might embrace writing as an act of discipleship for todayand how we might faithfully bear the weight of our written words.

James Edward Beitler III (PhD, University of Michigan) is associate professor of English at Wheaton College, where he is the director of First-Year Writing and also coordinates the Writing Fellows Program. He is the author of Seasoned Speech: Rhetoric in the Life of the Church and Remaking Transitional Justice in the United States: The Rhetorical Authorization of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission.Richard Hughes Gibson (PhD, University of Virginia) is associate professor of English at Wheaton College. He is the author of Forgiveness in Victorian Literature: Grammar, Narrative, and Community. With designer Jeremy Botts, he codirects Manibus Press, an occasional publisher of artists' books.

List of Illustrations Foreword by Anne Ruggles Gere Opening Meditation: At the Gallery Introduction: At the ThresholdPart One: Humble Listening 1. Entering the Study 2. On Humility 3. Humble Listening in Local Writing Communities 4. Humble Listening in Discourse CommunitiesPart Two: Loving Argument 5. The Law of Charitable Writing 6. On Argument 7. On Charity 8. Charitable Writing as Love's Banquet 9. Beastly Feasting 10. Making Space at the TablePart Three: Keeping Time Hopefully 11. Slow Writing 12. Liturgies of Writing Closing Meditation: At the Gallery Afterword by Alan Jacobs Acknowledgments Appendix A: Practicing Charitable Writing: Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts Appendix B: Teaching Charitable Writing: Choosing aVia Nova, by Jeffry C. Davis Appendix C: Writing as a Spiritual Discipline, by Stephanie Paulsell Bibliography General Index Scripture Index