The Greatness of Writing

What makes great writing is living in, and understanding greatness. We can have a natural gift, and richly develop it into an outstanding skill, but it is what we write about which constitutes the greatness of writing, i.e. the writing of greatness. We can be lacking in developed skill and yet write powerfully when what we write about is greatness, but to be competent and brilliant in writing and yet lack the knowledge of what is great is to use our skill on something which does not much matter.

Let us be clear—there is writing which is professional, by which we earn a living, which in one way or another is journalism. All writing is communication, whether we realise that or not. To be a reporter, a freelance or employed journalist, a news-writer, a scriptwriter are forms of professional writing. It is surely legitimate for us to operate in these forms of the writing media, and to earn our living. The same goes for any other trade or profession. Our contribution is needed in society and so we work in whatever vocation is ours. We said that all writing is communication, but it would be better to say that all living is communicating. Doubtless, as Christians, we will have certain ethics by which we write, as in any vocation we ought to have certain appropriate standards.

Tape Code: CCS 1	(video tapes and mp3 are also available)	Speaker
1	Introduction to Christian Writing	Geoffrey Bingham
2	Christian Communication, Arts and Culture (1) and (2)	Geoffrey Bingham
3	Christian Communication, Arts and Culture (3) and (4)	Geoffrey Bingham
4	Christian Communication, Arts and Culture (5) and (6)	Geoffrey Bingham
5	The Greatness of Writing	Geoffrey Bingham
6	Desktop Publishing	Geoffrey Bingham
7	Writing a Book	Max Winter
8	Writing History	Rob Linn