Welcome back to the imagination redeemed podcast.
My name is Brooke McIntyre and I'm so excited to be here.
First of all said that I can wish you a Merry Christmas.
And secondly because today I get to share a chapter by Marilyn
McIntyre called The Art of naming that she contributed to
the Anselm societies, why we create series now?
Sadly, I am not actually related to Maryland.
McIntyre despite sharing a last name, but I am a huge fan.
Marilyn McIntyre is a writer poet, professor and speaker and
I like to think of her as a keeper of words.
She's written several books, including caring for words, in a
culture of lies and word by word, a daily spiritual
practice. In this chapter, she talks about
the naming role that God gave humankind.
This role allows us to look for the significance and the He's
made to derive, meaning from them, and to join him and
putting the finishing touches on things for which he obviously
had a Clear Vision, she writes about how understanding naming
not only allows us to better understand our relationship with
the created order but also our relationship with God.
The first Creator in the first name.
ER so without further Ado, here is her chapter the art of naming
My daughter's. Remember a moment when we paused
on a walk by a particularly beautiful Deep Purple stand of
lobelia that's so pretty one of them said what's it called for
some reason? At that moment I couldn't recall
its name, I'm not sure. I replied a bit abashed, I'll
look it up but her sister lept into the breach.
I think I'll call it Ralph. She announced her decisiveness
and clarity about the matter made us laugh.
And, and still does, when we happen to see a bit of lobelia
in our family, I'm afraid it's still Ralph.
Naming things is a particular pleasure.
We Begin early with dolls dogs. Now and again, a caterpillar or
a stray cat, which once it's been named becomes a candidate
for adoption, even the smallest children, know that bestowing
and name establishes a relationship and that being
called by name and by sundry nicknames And endearments is a
sign and seal of loving connection.
Many of them. Also know that when their full
name is called first middle and last slowly and emphatically,
they may be in trouble. The Namer has power, The Giver
of the name, has a claim on the one named I have called you by
name and you are mine, the Lord proclaims to his people in
Isaiah. And that ringing Assurance is
followed by a That reaches back to the Red Sea and forward to
Jesus's, farewell to his disciples.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you to
have been called by name is to be known, claimed loved and
sustained. And also to have been summoned
into a relationship with profound obligations and
consequences. What's in a name naming comes up
in the Old Testament? Almost 800 times in the hole.
All of scripture, nearly 1,000 leaving little question as to
its importance. Given names signify character or
commemorate life-changing encounters there, sometimes
assigned by Divine mandate, your name is Israel, you shall call
his name Ishmael or John or Jesus.
And sometimes changed as a sign of conversion, Simon to Peter,
Saul to Paul the earliest instance of God's consigning to
The pleasure and power of naming comes in the second chapter of
Genesis, and whatever the man called every living creature.
That was his name, the consequences of the gift of the
power, to name for good and lll, continue to unfold, what we call
things changes them. When we name something, we frame
it, we assign it a place in the linnaean system of
classification, or in a family lineage or in a social
hierarchy. We assign people to Titles and
forms of address that come with access to property or privilege
literal entitlement and we give stories titles that entice or
suggest or foreshadow what will come to matter to us as we step
through the looking glass or wardrobe and suspend disbelief
to read them, is to give hours or days of our time to at the
ancient quest to discover, what's in a name?
Juliet's. Famous question.
What's in a name is followed by the self-serving argument that
that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet
but the question meant to dismiss the power of names.
Ironically implies its own answer, a lot lies in a name, a
lot is at stake in her impetuous proposal to Romeo, to deny thy
father, and refuse Thy Name. A lot is also at stake in her
alternative option or if that It's not but be sworn my love
and I'll no longer be a Capulet for one of these two young
people to give up the family name for the other, would either
end or intensify an ancient feud in this place.
Shakespeare, who fathomed and celebrated The Power of Words,
as richly as any, who have wielded them lay is out the
tragic potential of names when they become signifiers for whole
histories of conflict. We have only to consider what
has become of names like Jezebel orgy.
Des Benedict Arnold or Uncle, Tom Shakespeare's comedies, on
the other hand, turn our attention to the Artful playful
possibilities of naming. Usually by way of renaming,
Rosalind becomes, Ganymede and Viola becomes Cesario changing
not only their names but their gender to teach their lovers
lessons playful. Though is not trivial here to a
great deal. Hangs on the giving and taking
of names. Us and the power, the women
claim and renaming themselves for their own purposes.
Flirt, with danger in broaching, great cultural taboos self
authorization, especially in women, is at best, unsettling to
those deeply anchored in patriarchal traditions and at
worst heretical. Not neutral entities, We see a
variation on the same theme of self authorization in The
Scarlet Letter, when Hester, Prynne finally, forgiven by her
harsh, judges refuses to take off the label, they sentenced
her to we're having in effect transformed.
Its meaning with hard-won irony, she turns her badge of Shame
into a sign of contradiction defying church, and state by an
act of retranslation. We see it again.
In Toni Morrison's Unforgettable character.
Latt in Song of Solomon. Who transforms her name, a male
name resonant with betrayal and cowardice and redeems.
It infusing it, with her own meaning on her own terms,
indeed. The title of the novel itself.
Entails a similar ironic reframing of the biblical love
poem Morrison's later novel. Beloved takes another, perhaps
even deeper look at how naming or not naming can change the
way. We look at both personal.
And cultural history. Beloved a child killed by her
mother to save her from enslavement goes to her grave
unnamed, except for that one, descriptor which some readers
have suggested stands for the many enslaved.
People whose names have been forgotten but whose tragic
history continues to break and break open the hearts of their
people. Among the many literary
explorations of the power of naming Charles Williams.
Arcane but gripping novel. The place of the lion, occupies
a unique. If somewhat marginal place a
favorite of several of the Oxford England's, the novel
deals directly and disturbingly with a mysterious power that
lies in naming. It is a naming, the forces of
Destruction that Anthony the protagonist establishes dominion
over them. See, Louis is letter about the
book to Arthur Greaves from February 26th 1936.
The story reminds us lest, we moderns have forgotten that
archetypes Angels platonic forms ideas themselves are forces at
work in the world and that we negotiate with them at our
Peril. They are not neutral entities,
nor our words rather than simple.
Sounds are indicators words are instruments.
That control confine consign or perhaps enliven and Empower they
kill or heal. When we Speak them into the
universe. There is an answer.
Naming and claiming these stories and scores of others
point us toward a question that should at least from time to
time trouble. Our sleep.
How do we use the power to name? And how might the creative work
of renaming, help to bend the Arc of History tour, de Justice
and the Arts of language towards truth.
How might any of us use that adamic authority to revitalize
our relationship to the created order how might renaming restore
what has been eroded or depleted of meaning and how are we to
understand our responsibility for what we have called by name
and made our own to take the last of these questions first.
I would point out that history itself rests on naming and
claiming the way we think and talk about our own countries and
societies is based on names that we have inherited often to the
sometimes violent exclusion of others.
We live in a world after Babel however, we Repeat that story.
We must conclude that God has allowed.
Our language has to be sundered, because of our pride, this was
the fall of language, and in this Fallen World, there is
competition between languages. Sometimes quite brutal
competition, all too often tyrants, exert, their power, by
attempting, to rename something, and to destroy even the memory
of the old names. As Christians, we have the
ability and the obligation to look beyond the limitations of
the naming. We see at work in our culture's,
we must strive to see what in our culture's naming is true.
And what is taranis? Where is the name, an indication
of reality and where is it an attempt to Veil reality?
Sometimes, of course, a name can be both of these things.
And that is where we must use Prudence to discern.
How we use our power of naming to Injustice and true knowledge
to our communities. The opposite of this virtuous
naming is when we try to use names or renaming to exert power
over reality rather than to discern and reveal a reality.
That is hidden, for example, throughout history.
Humans have renamed regions as part of Conquest.
Sometimes the renaming takes place by the stroke of a pen
sometimes by planting a flag. But always with solemn words
that assign a new name, one that is often Recently, proprietary
British East Africa, French West Africa, Belgian Congo Spanish,
Guinea, German East Africa. This practice of coercive name,
changing makes it easier for invading governments to impose
unjust political and social policies explorers and
colonizers assignment of names overlooked or ignored.
Not only the claims, but the names given to places indigenous
peoples, inhabited including sacred lands, in the case of the
examples above part of the process of establishing National
Independence and addressing deep-seated, Injustice has been
restoring old names. Kenya Senegal Niger, Democratic
Republic of the Congo. Rwanda, Mozambique just to name
a few closer to home. America is still wrestling with
the lingering scars of the slave trade, which used an Aiming to
dehumanize its victims, slave Traders, imported ships, full of
newly nameless, people whose identities had been Stripped
Away to this day. Many of their descendants still
carry the names of why White owners or ancestors, a daily,
reminder, of a cruel practice that sought to subjugate and
dehumanize an entire group of people addressing these past
injustices, will require us to face this history of unjust
naming right now in America. There are some efforts to do
this. We are seeing waves of re
Africanized names and restoration of indigenous tribal
names for land. Naming non-human creation.
There is a similar movement in science right now.
There are intriguing exhilarating controversial
inconsequential, efforts taking place amongst scientists nature,
lovers, conservationists preservationists and Poets to
rethink the words, we English speakers have used for non-human
beings. One of the more eloquent
apologists for rethinking the way language links us to other
creatures is Robin wall. Camera, whirs, braiding
Sweetgrass. Both a professor of Botany, and
a member of the Potawatomi tribe camera, organizes.
Her elegant Reflections around the central question of how to
integrate the insides of empirical science along with
European systems of classification, and naming with
the insights of tribal peoples who have lived close to their
lands for centuries, have known them intimately and have woven
that knowledge into highly poetic sometimes elliptical
myths. And teachings.
How for instance, might the rich creation story of the sky woman
who created a garden for the well-being of all, be reconciled
either with the Eden story or with the enlightenment infused
strictly impersonal descriptive, nomenclature of Darwin, Von,
Humboldt and Mendel, Kemmerer notes, that most of her graduate
students invested as they are in learning have lost connection.
She longs to restore when they put More energy into memorizing
Latin names. She observes they spend less
time looking at the beings themselves.
Kim a book is more Invitational than critical indeed.
She expresses great respect for what she has learned in the lab
from highly skilled plant scientists.
But she also invites readers to a kind of humility that reaches
to the root of that word hummus, which becomes a word for soil,
humility calls us to return to our own.
Insensate Elemental relationship with soil, strawberries and
squash not primarily as products to be purchased but is gifts
given to be enjoyed in a context of gratitude and reciprocity.
She uses words, like community and relatives to describe the
plant lives with which humans interact and brings what one
science writer called the tenderness of the scientific
gays to bear on those beings. As It's and needs and strategies
of survival in some native languages camera points out by
way. Of example, the term for plants
translates to those who take care of us.
Imagine what might shift if we were simply to shift the
pronoun, we use to describe a tree from what to who or spoke
of cows rather than livestock, the culture of commodification
seeks to drive, a wedge between our relationship with things as
creatures in our experience of Those things as Goods it does
this by introducing separate terms one set, the identifies
living beings as creatures participants in creation and a
whole separate set that identifies them as marketable
products. Jesus's parable of the shepherd
who leaves the 99 sheep to find and rescue.
The hundredth suggests a kind of caring that remains relational,
even though Lambs were sold slaughtered and eaten.
The use of the names sheep and lamb remind us that we have a
relationship and responsibilities to these
animals. Even though we may end up eating
them. Mapping the world, non-human
beings have their own ways of being, even their own ways of
knowing they have, as botanist Peter, woola been put it a
hidden life knowing their secrets, takes time, and
patience and some relinquishment of anthropocentric assumptions.
And this knowing requires, new words for an or poetic or
sometimes fanciful to get at how other creatures are leafy
protectors, and those throw called are A brute neighbors
live and move and have their being Tolkien provided.
Some of that, in his sweeping story of a time when
Middle-earth included many orders of living being dwarves,
and Hobbits and elves, and ends, as well as humans, whose
coexistence was a working relationship rooted in an
understanding of complementarity, each kind of
being in Middle Earth has a distinctive language.
Its sounds, and Rhythm, and range of reference suited to
their Your and work Elvin speech is marked by fluid loveliness
words and names. Like I knew Linda lay an aria do
Nadine Galadriel, lothlorien nemuri, a and Tauriel are as
close as language comes to music dwarves.
On the other hand have consonant, Rich hard-edged
words, like Xerox Eagle gabble Gothel, nuraghe and Baruch This
is no accident, as both a philologist and a man of deep
Faith Tolkien brought a sensibility to his work, that
Drew upon the ancient Hebrew understanding of naming as
something I would call in Christian terms, sacramental.
He also understood in conveyed, how words distinguish the way a
people sees the world and what they care for Common words as
well as names map out relationship with the world we
live inside grammatical structures that organize and
give meaning to what is given tolkien's, fiction and has more
scholarly, fill a logical studies.
All point to a fact that should continue to inform our curricula
linguistic diversity, like biodiversity is a prerequisite
for a healthy Planet. Our complementarity and the
patient nuanced work of translation.
Keep us in a Of creative tension.
As we work out, our means of production and our hopes for
peace. Known only by God clearly as
tolki new in. As camera reminds us, we share
this lovely fragile Earth. Our Island home with creatures
who know things we don't in one of his unusually light hearted
poems t.s. Eliot.
Offers a reminder not to assume that the names we impose on
those creatures are in any way a final measure of who's there.
The opening lines of the naming of cats introduces, the problem,
the naming of cats is a difficult matter.
It isn't just one of your holiday games.
The speaker goes on, to explain with comic earnestness that a
cat must have as he emphasized in all caps, three different
names in addition to the sensible everyday names.
A cat keeper, I hesitate to say owner might give a name that's
peculiar and more dignified. I'd there is that name that no
human research can discover, but the cat himself knows and will
never confess. I quote here, the last lines of
the poem with some reluctance since to do.
So offers a kind of spoiler when I'd rather you just hasten to
your bookshelf or if you must the internet and spend a few
delightful minutes with the entire poem.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation, the reason
I tell you is always the same, his mind is engaged in a rapt
contemplation of the thought of the thought of the thought of
his name. His ineffable affable Fe An
affable deep and inscrutable singular name.
The poem still makes me smile after many readings.
At the way, it takes Delight in lists and probable names and
invention of. If an ineffable, it also,
perhaps more importantly makes me remember when I see the
neighborhood stray, cat touring, our garden, that there is a who
they're known only to God and it Shores up my conviction that the
same is true for us. The one who calls us by name
knows that name, even though we ourselves do not Echoes of the
word paying attention to words and their effects, upon the
material and spiritual orders. We inhabit is surely part of our
calling as people of faith, more particularly it is a vocation
for those Among Us who following a desire of the heart given at
some early point in our Journeys, spend many of our
waking hours with words when we sit at our desks moving words
around. It is good to remember that.
We do this work for. Or the glory of God in the
fullness of Creation in every Community, there must be some
who wrestle with words and meanings.
There must be some who excavate at am ologies as there must be
archaeologists, who dig through layers of ancient soil to help
link us to the cultures that have shaped us.
There must be some who Ponder the shades of meaning between
near synonyms. The difference between
perplexity and confusion, for instance, or between settlement
in occupation. There must be those who look
upon brand names and AD copy with a jaundiced eye, in an
informed understanding of how influencers turn meaning into
manipulation. And there must be many, who
cherish the words we inscribe and life-giving liturgy, and
poetry and prayer. Cherishing does not prevent us
from reaching translating from time to time.
Instead, it calls us to hold on to what is good to pay.
Our tithe of do attention to Sacred texts as they summon us
to lift up our hearts. And to join in the Joyful Noise
of a thousand tongues that daily pray, their versions of Hallowed
be thy name. A line that begins in Aramaic
with a summoning to hear the one sound that created all others.
The reality of words is that they are always mere Echoes of
the great word because of this speaking, true words begins and
ends with listening You've been listening to a podcast of the
Anselm Society in Colorado Springs.
Our mission is a Renaissance of the Christian imagination.
We exist to help Christians, remember who they are to
cultivate a deep awareness of their relationship to the great
story and to bring that awareness home to their families
and churches to find out more about us or to become a patron,
please visit Visit and sell them Society dot-org.
Thanks for listening. Visit and sell them Society
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