I agree with Hunt in many areas, particularly that imagerelated technology is becoming a problem for the American church, "The Vanishing Word" does not make a very strong case for this viewpoint.
On the positive side, Hunt seems very well read, This book is by no means a typical antitechnology rant, On the negative side, I noticed the following problems:
, His definition of what it means to be "pagan" and "image oriented, " Neil Postman, who Hunt admires, argued that cultures were first oral, then writingbased, and are now
becoming imagebased, Hunt, however, never deferentiates between oral and imagebased cultures, He accuses pagan cultures of being imagebased, but to prove that assertion he only deals with temple worship and idolatry, not with daytoday life, While there may indeed be a connection between paganism and being imagefocused, clearly there is a difference between an ancient temple worshipper and a modern TV junkie.
. History. Hunt spends most of "The Vanishing Word" essentially going through a history of the world with a focus on paganism, Unfortunately, he isn't a historian, and it shows, He tends to lack balance in how he treats certain cultures and periods particularly those that are neither Jewish nor Protestant, And he spends time talking about irrelevant historical tidbits,
. Modern times. Hunt takes many identified problems with modern life for granted rather than proving them sufficiently enough to convince a neutral or antagonistic reader,
In short, read Neil Postman, not Arthur Hunt, if you want a good critique of modern imagerelated technology, Really good. This book is really tremendous, It gives a decent glimpse into the condition of America regarding all the technological "advances" and how the simple art of a conversation is dying, It provides insight as to the wickedness that is occurring around us without us even realizing it, Such a good eyeopener and impetus to action, I recommend it to all,
Second time SummerThe book is still as good as when I read it, The only difference maybe is that now I see these things present even more in our society, It's really sad and almost scary, People are so selfabsorbed, materialistic, apathetic, and when one takes a step back to look at the whole picture, the work of the devil is seen, Were it not for God's intervention and preservation of his word and his people, who knows what hope we would have, This book is such an eyeopener, I could not put it down and completed reading it inhours, It is not for the faint of heart, though, The evil and wickedness of this world and the blindness people are enslaved to is enough to make one weep, I am glad I read it, Hunt contrasts our worddependent JudeoChristian heritage with imagedependent paganism, He warns that by exalting imagery we risk becoming mindless pagans to be abused by those who exploit the image but neglect the Word, .