David Parry wraps up his Scholar’s Call series on Communication for Communion. Find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.Â
Part 4: Communication and Communion
It is a mistake to see language as purely instrumental in the sense of being just to convey information or to get things done. Some aspects of verbal communication don’t have any particular conceptual content to them – rather they are there to form or to maintain a connection between persons. For instance, “How are you?†is not primarily a request for information but a means of forging contact with another human being, as is asking about the weather, at least in Britain. Likewise, utterances such as “Mmm … yeah … uh huh†and so on that indicate that one is still listening are a means of maintaining human contact. [Read more…] about Communication for Communion, Part 4 (Scholar’s Call)