Against Godtalk
“It is common among many of us when we become more aware of what is involved in following Jesus and the urgencies that this involves, especially when we find ourselves in Samaritan territory, that we become more intense in our language. Because it is so much more clear and focused we use the language learned from sermons and teachings to tell others what is eternally important. But the very intensity of the language can very well reduce our attentiveness to the people to whom we are speaking—he or she is no longer a person but a cause. Impatient to get our message out, we depersonalize what we have to say into rote phrases or a programmatic formula without regard to the person we are meeting. As the urgency to speak God's word increases, listening relationships diminish. We end up with a bone pile of fleshless words—godtalk.”
—Eugene Peterson, Tell It Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers