Apr 12 2008
An Ardent Advocate of Alliteration
I read something last night on alliteration that I thought was excellent. I have long been somewhat wary about the use of alliteration in sermons (or any serious address), and as far as I can remember, have never used it myself. Now, I’m not antagonistic towards alliteration. On the contrary, some of my fondest childhood memories are of my dad’s challenges during family devotions where he employed alliteration quite liberally. Even today I remember that God’s plan in Joseph’s life brought him from the pit, to the prison, to the palace. I always enjoyed my dad’s alliteration.
But nostalgia aside, I think there is a problem for a pastor/preacher/speaker to regularly use alliteration, and Roger Ellsworth cuts very well to the heart of that problem:
“I would caution you about the common practice of alliteration. It is possible to so fall in love with this that we become more focused on it that we are on dealing honestly with the text. If we are not careful, we can distort what the text actually says in order to get from it another point that fits our alternative scheme. I am not opposed to the use of alliteration if it is natural and not contrived, but our primary concern must be what the text says. Truth carries its own appeal.
I think the two criterion are useful: (1) natural and (2) not contrived.
And of course the last sentence is so very well put. “Truth carries its own appeal.”
One response so far
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Ahh… this post brought back great memories of family devotions and not-so-great memories of camp messages. The former are great because I was usually laughing, and the latter are not-so-great because I was usually mad.