In the Thomas the Tank Engine books of the Rev’d W. Audrey (1996), the greatest commendation that can be bestowed is that of “Really Useful Engine.” (p.36) In this little world, ruled over by an omnipotent and omniscient dictator, the highest moral imperative is to be useful and the worst crime is to delay passengers […]
In order to address the potential issues with, and identify the possible strengths of “God uses” language, an analysis of the use of that language in popular Christian literature was required. The first task was to select a group of texts which could be examined in order to discover how and why this language is […]
The next stage of the investigation is to discover whether there is any precedent in the Bible for “God uses” language in relation to people. There was very little evidence provided for this in the literature review. Dictionary Work In order to provide a thorough examination of the Biblical material a two pronged approach was […]
It is clear from this analysis that the word “use” and its cognates are relatively rare in the Bible. However, this is not the case in contemporary English. In order to investigate the dimensions of meanings, and the frequency of these meanings, it was decided to analyse its occurrences in a set of newspapers in […]
Having demonstrated that “God uses” language has little Biblical precedent, and that the idea of a person being used does have negative connotations in secular use, we now turn to its wider implications. This part of the discussion begins with the foundational work of exploring who God is, and the teasing out of certain principles […]
Having explored who God is, we now turn to an exploration of human self. Storied-Self Martin and Barresi (2006) provide a pen sketch of the development of concepts of selfhood. They trace the idea of the true self, as an individual that characterises who we really are, to Cicero. (p.30) In Plotinus is seen the […]
Having discovered that relationship is at the heart of who God is, and of who we are, we now turn to a consideration of the impact of “God uses” language is on our understanding of relationships. As we have seen, the way that we talk about God is formative, and therefore it is important that […]
It was observed in the literature review that one of the key strengths of “God uses” language was its ability to express complete surrender to the Sovereign God. Therefore we now turn to a consideration of God’s sovereignty and whether this language provides the most appropriate way of expressing it and our response to it. […]
A common theme revealed in the literature review was the pastoral deployment of “God uses” language. The assertion that anybody can and should be used by God is believed by these writers to provide resources for the pastoral work of encouraging those who have become discouraged, and of spurring on to more faithful discipleship those […]
I began this work with an antipathy for “God uses” language that was founded in personal experience and a concern for God’s mission in the world. Having completed it, my antipathy for the language is deeper. From the literature review it was evident to me that these writers have a deep appreciation of the sovereignty […]