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Understanding Words to Change Behaviour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Margaret Elizabeth Open the ORCID record for Margaret Elizabeth [Opens in a new window]
Margaret Elizabeth*
Affiliation:
Beeston Nottingham United Kingdom of Great Britain and North Ireland
*
m.e136@outlook.com
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Abstract

Why do people in churches exclude, alienate, and even abuse others? Acknowledging the need for many ways of addressing this question, insights from the study of language have been explored, creating a synthesis from the ways in which ideology and language are related, an adaptation of Judith Butler's exploration of our constitution in language, understandings within the discipline of psycholinguistics, and insights from Wittgenstein's philosophy of language. This synthesis shows how words to and for the divine influence our behaviour to each other and indicates that the traditional words of male hierarchy uphold an ideology that seeks to maintain power structures, with behaviours that exclude, alienate, and even abuse fitting within these structures. The synthesis demonstrates both the need for and possibility of change from the traditionally used words to and for the divine.

Keywords

divinebehaviourpsycholinguisticsconstitutionideology
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 104 , Issue 1111 , May 2023 , pp. 306 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © 2023 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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