Writtenness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Near the end of her book on The Heavenly Book Motif, Leslie Baynes notes the \u201cnegative attitude about writing that Plato\u2019s Socrates expresses in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Writtenness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Near the end of her book on The Heavenly Book Motif, Leslie Baynes notes the \u201cnegative attitude about writing that Plato\u2019s Socrates expresses in the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leithart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-12T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PLeithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/\",\"name\":\"Writtenness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-12T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-12T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\"},\"description\":\"Near the end of her book on The Heavenly Book Motif, Leslie Baynes notes the \u201cnegative attitude about writing that Plato\u2019s Socrates expresses in the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Writtenness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\",\"name\":\"Leithart\",\"description\":\"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\",\"name\":\"Peter Leithart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Peter Leithart\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Writtenness","description":"Near the end of her book on The Heavenly Book Motif, Leslie Baynes notes the \u201cnegative attitude about writing that Plato\u2019s Socrates expresses in the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Writtenness","og_description":"Near the end of her book on The Heavenly Book Motif, Leslie Baynes notes the \u201cnegative attitude about writing that Plato\u2019s Socrates expresses in the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/","og_site_name":"Leithart","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","article_published_time":"2016-01-12T00:00:00+00:00","author":"Peter Leithart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@PLeithart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Leithart","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/","name":"Writtenness","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-01-12T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-01-12T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d"},"description":"Near the end of her book on The Heavenly Book Motif, Leslie Baynes notes the \u201cnegative attitude about writing that Plato\u2019s Socrates expresses in the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Writtenness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/","name":"Leithart","description":"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d","name":"Peter Leithart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Peter Leithart"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":17823,"date":"2016-01-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2646"},"modified":"2016-01-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T00:00:00","slug":"writtenness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/01\/writtenness\/","title":{"rendered":"Writtenness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

Near the end of her book on\u00a0The Heavenly Book Motif<\/a>, Leslie Baynes notes the \u201cnegative attitude about writing that Plato\u2019s Socrates expresses in the Phaedrus<\/em>\u201d is absent from early Christianity. For early Christians, \u201cWords are ephemeral and disappear as soon as they are spoken, but writing remains. Under ideal circumstances, writing is permanent, and surely heavenly writing is stored under ideal circumstances. Writing is considered a worthy form in which to store the most portentous information conceivable: lists of the names of those who will inherit eternal blessing as the citizens of God\u2019s heavenly community, the deeds on which those judgments are based, the laws by which a community should live its life, and even the pre-ordained history of the world. Especially when inscribed on a tablet, writing is fixed and unalterable. If that writing comes from heaven, by definition all of the authority of God backs it up\u201d (206).\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Derrida in the background, she draws the insight that for the early Christians writing was often quite literally a matter of life and death for them. When in the company of these texts, Platonic phonocentrism has to eat its words. For these Jewish and Christian authors (and presumably their readers as well), it is not the case that \u2018what writing itself, in its nonphonetic moment, betrays, is life.\u2019 For them, writing is not \u2018[the] end, [the] finitude, [the] paralysis\u2019 of \u2018history as the spirit\u2019s relationship with itself.\u2019 Rather, writing transforms death into life. It is real and true and trustworthy, and so much so that the root of all presence, the creator God, unlike Plato\u2019s Thamus the king, values the exteriority of writing, not least for its pharmaceutical properties in re mneme<\/em>. Writing, the concretization of absence, is held dear by Presence\u201d (206).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"