Wednesday, December 15, 2004

The Vanishing Word

Crossway's The Vanishing Word: The Veneration of Visual Imagery in the Postmodern World by Arthur W. Hunt III receives a positive review from Douglas Groothuis.

Cindy Crosby at Christianity Today also wrote a "review" of the book--but it's only 154 words long (compared to Groothius' 974-word review). Crosby's entire "review," except for a single sentence, is summary ("Hunt says...he writes...Hunt contrasts...Hunt believes...he writes...Hunt examines...He also explores"). Her only "analysis" is that "At times his tone becomes strident, though, when he discusses issues such as music, worship styles, and church service dress."

I don't mean to be harsh, but I find reviews like this to be almost worthless. One doesn't need to even read the book to write them--all of this information could have been found by reading the table of contents, or the back cover, or the introduction.

But perhaps the review itself is evidence of Hunt's thesis regarding "the vanishing word."