The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History

By Walter J. Ong

Book Overview

Terry Lectures. A religious philosopher's exploration of the nature and history of the word argues that the word is initially and always sound, that it cannot be reduced to any other category, and that sound is essentially an event manifesting power and personal presence. His analysis of the development of verbal expression, from oral sources through the transfer to the visual world and to contemporary means of electronic communication, shows that the predicament of the human word is the predicament of man himself.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816610436
• ISBN13: 9780816610433
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr
• Length: 374 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Please make sure your trays are in the upright and locked...

This book is simply amazing. Walter Ong focuses on an epistemology of hearing, contra Plato. Simply amazing. If you want to know what covenantal epistemology is, and what it means to "hear" God in the person and work of Jesus Christ, then pick this book up and read it, pen in one hand, coffee in the other. There is a lot of good stuff here for anyone interested in Luther's theology as well, even though the author is a Jesuit. There is a lot here for Protestants to appreciate.