By Campbell Collins

In his new book, Training the Tongue and Growing Beyond Sins of Speech,  Father Gregory Pine lays out a path toward developing virtue in speech. Pine’s book—which discusses truth-telling, conversation, communion, correction, humor, teaching, and prayer—seems particularly pertinent to the lives of Hillsdale students. We talk so much that we have our own conversational clichés: “That guy” in Logic and Rhetoric and lunchtable debates over predestination are our cultural touchstones. Thus Pine’s work might feel particularly applicable to the life of a Hillsdale student. His subject is a fundamental aspect of common life, and he approaches it with admirable clarity and simplicity.

[Pine’s] subject is a fundamental aspect of common life, and he approaches it with admirable clarity and simplicity.

Pine begins by laying out his intent to focus on developing the positive virtues of speech rather than lamenting typical failures. He notes that “it is helpful to treat sin and vice in some measure, and we will, but understanding evil is not central to our human formation.” This positive focus deepens the theology of Pine’s work. Throughout the book, he alternates between high and low registers. At one point, for example, he describes speech as “the currency of spiritual-bodily exchange.” Shortly after, he gives advice for making small talk. “Rather than asking the pat ‘How are you doing,’” he suggests, “you might ask ‘What’s good?” Surprisingly, this alternation in style and subject is not jarring. Because Pine grounds his book in theological truth, he creates the space to treat small things as important. The reader is constantly reminded that “in the end, we hope to render to God an offering of our whole selves, hearts and tongues together.” For Pine, each facet of speech, no matter how minor it seems, is a part of life that ultimately drives us toward deeper communion with God.

For Pine, each facet of speech, no matter how minor it seems, is a part of life that ultimately drives us toward deeper communion with God.

Pine believes that this kind of communion is mediated through our relationships with others, and thus for him rightly ordered speech becomes away of living out the Great Commandment. He presents each aspect of speech in a way that always has others in mind. Truth-telling, for example, is important because truth “is part of what we owe each other.” This outward focus prevents Training the Tongue from reading like a standard self-help book. Pine does not promise that his guidelines will produce perfect speech and, by extension, perfect the speaker. Rather, he highlights the need for us to consider whether we use our tongues as God commands and strive to speak better as an expression of love for God and neighbor. Thus Training the Tongue is both a deeply theological and a relentlessly practical, prompting readers to examine themselves and consider the ways that even their smallest verbal habits can be turned to the glory of God. For many Hillsdale students, it may provide—as it did for me—a convicting reminder of the need to grow in the virtues of speech in order to engage well in our common work and common life.

Campbell Collins is a junior studying English and Theology.