Someone has to be in charge. Don’t they?
On the highway, in the classroom, at the factory, during the ball game, and in the Christian life, nothing works without someone present being empowered to say, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). Right? Or not?
Let’s think about the subject of authority….
In “The Story of Ain’t: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published,” David Skinner describes the hostile reaction that greeted the release of “Webster’s Third Edition” in 1961. The incident makes a great point for church folk.
First, a few words about the book.
Skinner’s book traces the development of dictionaries in this country and their struggles to determine what goes in and what stays out. Secondly, it chronicles the work of G. and C. Merriam Company to produce a new kind of dictionary this time around. (The book is not easy reading and I admit to having read it off and on over several months.)
What made “Webster’s Third” different is that the editors came to the interesting conclusion that no one had made them the authority over the English language. No one had put them in charge of English as spoken and written in America. In fact, they decided there is no authority.
No authority on the English language. Imagine that.