God's Story Reflected in Children's Literature

I have been an academic for 30 years and a Christian for 26 years.  At first when I became a Christian I struggled to see connections between the life I was living day by day, and my new life of faith as a believer in Christ. But as I grew in my understanding of the Bible I began to see the presence of God in my work and my study.  As an academic interested in how children learn I have maintained a long-term interest in literature and its power not just to teach about language and life, but also to enrich our lives and even transform the way we think about our world. Over time, I have come to realise that stories, even when created by non-believers in Christ, contain echoes of the central meta-narrative of the Bible.

The focus of the Bible is Salvation History, with its central narrative tracing both the history of Judaism and Christianity and God’s redemptive plan for his people. In the beginning God created…and it was good. But sin entered the world, man rebelled against him and so God placed a curse upon his creation that one day would end in judgement. But God always had a plan for such rebellion; a plan of redemption motivated by love. An amazing gift of grace; his own son sent to die and three days later to be raised from the dead to defeat sin and death. A plan that provided a way for his creation to be restored to a relationship with him. Salvation for those who repent of their sin, seek the mercy of God and in faith commit their lives to following Jesus. This is the meta-narrative of the Bible.

You don't have to go far to begin to see how literature often echoes (even if imperfectly) God's foundational story of salvation told in and through the life of Christ. J.R.R. Tolkien once said (to C.S. Lewis) that “The Christian story is the greatest story of them all. Because it’s the real story. The historical event that fulfils the tales and shows us what they mean.”

Lewis and Tolkien both saw the gospel narrative as the central or foundational human narrative. The rescue of a pig by a spider in a children's story, which at one level might seem trivial, is a faint echo of the ultimate act of sacrifice of God in redeeming his children through the sacrifice of his Son. The real event ultimately fulfils the literary narratives and makes sense of them. After studying children's literature for over 30 years I have come to see the wisdom of Tolkien's comment. There appear at least 5 main ways that Christian writers of children's books can point their readers towards God's divine narrative of redemption:

Type 1 – Stories that directly present the Christian gospel explicitly, often in the form of the retelling of Bible stories suitable for children. Children’s Bibles and collections of Bible stories fall into this category.
Type 2 – Stories that allegorically present the gospel (e.g. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress).
Type 3 – Stories that present or address essential biblical understandings and teaching; where the key elements of the Biblical plan of salvation are woven within the story, or can be seen as explicitly reflecting the key elements of the divine narrative (e.g. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.Lewis). While some would see the latter as allegory, Lewis denied this and instead claimed that the narrative came first and the biblical parallels followed.
Type 4 – Moral tales that have direct biblical parallels or that reflect moral principles consistent with the Bible’s teaching (e.g. evil will be punished; sin has consequences; honesty is better than falsehood). Nursery rhymes and many fairy tales fall into this category, as do many cautionary tales (of course not all such tales reflect biblical moral insights, but many do).
Type 5 – This is really a variation or extension of the above. Here the links or parallels are at the thematic level rather than in the form of moral teaching. Stories of this kind demonstrate or echo biblical teaching (e.g. salvation narratives, stories of redemption, parallels to biblical narratives or parables). These narratives parallel the gospel narrative without explicit commentary. Such stories can be read at one level as simply a nice tale, but at another level the key themes parallel biblical themes that can be discussed.

I have suggested before (here) that types 2-5 offer special potential for audiences beyond the children of Christians. The following demonstrate some type 5 examples of what I mean.

Example 1 – “Charlotte’s Web”, by E.B. White

This is a well-known book written for 6-10 year olds. It is a beautifully written tale about a group of talking farmyard animals, a spider, a rat and a little girl named Fern. While it makes no attempt to teach the gospel narrative, or even disguise it within an allegorical telling, it has themes that parallel key themes within the biblical gospel narrative. At one level, it is the celebration of loyalty, love and friendship. But it is also a salvation narrative. The story of a runt pig rejected by the farmer, sentenced to death but then rescued first by a small girl and later by the work of an intelligent and literate spider. At this thematic level, the narrative points to the power of faith, hope, love, charity, sacrifice and new life.

Example 2 – “Why do you love me?” by Martin Baynton

This is a beautiful little picture book written for 3-6 year olds. It is essentially a dialogue between a dad and his little boy, prompted by the boy’s question, “Do you love me?” This is one of those conversations that only a parent could full appreciate. The little boy asks, “Why do you love me?” “Do you love me because I’m kind?” “..brave?” “..funny”? “…clever”? “…good”? “…naughty?” To each question the Dad says “Yes”. “So why do I try to be good” says the boy. “You tell me,” says his dad. “Because I love you too”, replies the boy. The echoes to the biblical account of God’s grace are evident. Like God whose love towards us is an unconditional act of grace not linked to who we are and what we do, the father loves the boy in spite of who he is and what he does unconditionally. He loves him through the good and the bad. And the boy, in response to the love of the father, loves his father as well and seeks to please him.

Example 3 – “The Delivery of Dancing Bears" by Elizabeth Stanley

This is a picture book written for children aged 4-7 years that is essentially a contemporary fable, although it was written in opposition to the cruelty that 'dancing' bears had experienced in many countries.  The dancing bear is enslaved and mistreated at the hands of a cruel man who uses her to entertain people in the market square of a village in Turkey. The bears hope of freedom keep her alive until one day a noble peasant comes to rescue the bear by paying the cruel owner a ridiculous price (all he had in the world) well beyond what the bear was seen as worth by its keeper. This great act of grace frees the bear and the old man Yusuf takes her back to his humble cottage near a stream and loves it back to a life of freedom from the fear and pain of the past.

The story is centred on an act of great mercy from the old man, who gives all of his earthly wealth to rescue the bear.  This is a story of rescue from slavery, redemption due to the love, grace and mercy of Yusuf and the bear's ultimate restoration to the life she was meant to live.

The Special Merit of Children's Literature

There is great merit in Christians seeking to write literature in its many forms for children. Such writing needs first to meet the basic criteria for good writing – good tales well told; language used well; narratives that work at multiple levels; rich authentic characters; interesting ‘page-turner’ plots. But beyond this they should:

• offer knowledge that is a celebration of God’s world and his purposes;
  
• act as a mirror allowing the reader to reflect on life and their future;
  
• lead us to consider aspects of the human condition (life and death, fear, loneliness, pain, loss, frailty, brokenness etc);
• point to the central redemption narrative of the Bible.

What is important to stress is that Western literature is an essential communicator of cultural traditions that reflect the central biblical narrative of Christ. Good books, shaped by Christian understanding, offer an opportunity for the essential foundations of the biblical narrative to be communicated in stories that connect with children's contemporary world.  This offers a bridge to the biblical narrative and its life-changing opportunity to be repent and believe in Christ.

Related Links

This post appeared in a different form in a post I write in 2008 ('Christian writing for children - Part 1')

'Christian writing for children' - Part 2 (here)

Christian writing for children - Part 2

In my last post on Christians writing for children I suggested that:

"The gospel of Christ is the central narrative to which virtually all other narratives have some relationship – certainly in the Western cultural tradition and literature."

I pointed out that the focus of the Bible is Salvation History, with its central narrative tracing both the history of Judaism and Christianity and God’s redemptive plan for his people. In the beginning God created…and it was good. But sin entered the world, man rebelled against him and so God placed a curse upon his creation that one day would end in judgement. But God always had a plan for such rebellion; a plan of redemption motivated by love. An amazing gift of grace; his Son sent to die and three days later to be raised from the dead to defeat sin and death. A plan that provides a way for God's creation to be restored to a relationship with him. Salvation for those who repent of their sin, seek the mercy of God and in faith commit their lives to following Jesus.

I also suggested that there are at least five forms or genres of writing for children that Christians could attempt, ranging from Bible stories that present the gospel explicitly or which teach biblical truth, through to literature for children that weave elements or themes of biblical salvation history into the narrative. In the latter, these references to, or echoes of God's salvation narrative have a key role in shaping the plot, characters and language of the stories. In this post I want to talk more about this form of writing and the motivations for writing it, because I believe that it is where Christians can make a greater contribution.


I find it depressing to examine the children's section when I visit Christian bookshops. Why? Well, at least three reasons. First, because I observe that virtually all of this material is what I referred to in my last post as Type 1 or 2 writing. While this is important writing for Christian families and for sharing biblical understanding with the children of non-Christian families, and I want Christians to write it, I know that most of it will never be read outside Christian families. Second, I know that much of this material is of doubtful literary and artistic quality (yes, there is good stuff too, but there is much dross). It is frequently not as well written, nor as well illustrated, as secular children's literature. Third, I know that there is little Type 3, 4 & 5 writing on these shelves and that when children and parents want these books they will need to go to secular bookshops to find them and that there will be few Christian writers who have written the books from which they will make their selection. But the good news (and the thing that encourages me) is that due to God's sovereign rule and his common grace, that much of this material will be used by him. Even in the literature of those who don't know Jesus, we find glimpses of the biblical salvation narrative and biblical truth. John Calvin while recognising hereditary corruption and the total depravity of humanity acknowledged that through the work of the Holy Spirit and what remains of the image of God in a fallen people, that God still works:

"In reading profane authors, the admirable light of truth displayed in them should remind us that the human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, ii, p16).

While knowing that God can work through all things for the good, our desire is to promote his purposes, to honour his name in all that we do. Christians have a responsibility to engage with and use literature for God's purposes in all of its forms. And now here's the rub (as they say), children's love of literature and their literary history is going to be shaped mostly by type 3 to 5 literature. This is what they will often read at school, and this is what fills the bookshelves of libraries and bookshops, and this is what their friends will read. Just as adult Christians are enriched by narrative accounts that are not based directly on the Bible's gospel narrative, or written deliberately about biblical truths, so too children will have a natural thirst for story. A thirst for story, for story is about relationships, and God made us to be relational beings. Related first to him and secondly to each other. We crave stories that offer insight into the human condition and we share much of ourselves through story.


I grew up in a non-Christian home and for many years when I reflected on my early literary experiences concluded that while my parents seemed to do nothing to encourage a love of literature or writing, I was influenced by two great storytellers. First, my father who was a consummate oral storyteller. He shared his life story through anecdotes – tales of mine tragedies, the deadly Rothbury riots that he was part of as a teenager, tales of great Scotsmen, sporting triumphs, the glory of the trade union movement, the merits of communism and the evil of the employers like the major mining companies. My father’s memories shared through story were vivid and lively. They were shaped by his values, his history, his fears, his prejudices, his hopes and the culture and class within which he was raised. His stories marked me in some way that I was unable to grasp until he was dead and I had reached middle age. This was long after I had rejected some of the underlying truths of what he had taught me in his stories of tough life as a miner.

The second storyteller was my Grandfather, a conservative Christian with Brethren background who was also of Scottish descent. A brilliant and inventive man who loved God and had a rich literary tradition shaped by the Bible, classic literature, Australian ballads and Scottish poetry. As a child he immersed me in Scripture as he spoke the Psalms and Proverbs to me and as he recites poetry at a moments notice when it seemed relevant. These somewhat conflicting storytellers helped to shape me through their stories and the narratives of others. God used each to shape me and prepare me to receive the truth of the gospel at the age of 31 years. I praise him for his grace and mercy and tremble at the thought that he would choose to spare me the wrath that is due to me, and instead place it upon his own perfect Son (Romans 3:21-26).

The Challenge

My challenge is simple. Where are the new Chronicles of Narnia, this century's Pilgrims Progress, the 21st century cautionary tales (or some equivalent), a new Christian Dr Seuss with strong biblical knowledge and intent? While professing committed Christians represent just 5% of the population in Australia, we are people of the Word and many of us have the potential to be writers. Language is central to God's communication of salvation and we are stewards of this Word and the gift of language. If Christians spent less time in difficult to win moral arguments about literature (see for example the argument about the word "scrotum" here) and more time encouraging Christian writers to write quality literature published by secular publishers, we would see a change in the mix of books available to the children of Christian and non-Christian families.

I've written widely for educators, teachers and researchers about the role that literature has in shaping knowledge, attitudes, values and family relationships. One of my key points has always been that story and narrative is part of the way that we relate to our children and how we build on these relationships. For Christians nothing can and should take the place of the Bible itself as the core of our teaching and nurturing of our children. But story in all its forms is part of the glue that binds us together as a family; part of our shared history - scarily, even television has a place for most people! One of the reasons that I have been so concerned at the potential demise of the book as the major vehicle for story is that it isn't clear to me what would replace it (I've listed a few previous posts below that touch on these issues from my blogs). There will always be children's stories published in some form, but what impact will new media have on the quality of these stories. If we look at the rise of adult literary forms like the mobile phone novel (see previous post here), and the impact of online newspaper delivery on investigative depth, the quality of writing and the content, I have some justification for my concern. But whether literature is delivered via a device like the Kindle (see post here), or via traditional books, matters less than the content and quality of the work. Christians must be involved in this, writing some of it and seeking to shape (or at least influence) discussion. We need to be questioning the motives and worldview of those who promote new technological forms, anticipating potential collateral damage to the literary form. What might happen should we embark on a brave new world filled with multimodal texts where word, image, sound, video, music etc are massaged together into a postmodern blancmange? Could we end up with a new textual form with lots of technological bells and whistles but with little of the substance that reflects the Bible's central salvation narrative?

My two posts about Christians writing for children and my presentation to the Faithful Writers' conference have multiple messages and intent, but there is one that I want to stress once more. I want to challenge Christians who have demonstrated the ability to write (and this doesn't just mean that you have a university degree - writing a children's book is not the same as writing an assignment in engineering, law, literature or theology), to consider writing for children. Here's how you might start:

• Read lots of children's books - see what makes the difference between good and bad writing for children.
• Test some of the books you like by reading them to children of different ages, including other people's children.
• Try writing a simple short story for children. Test it with some children (not just your wife, your husband or your mother - they'll all think its great even if it's terrible).
• Begin collecting ideas for writing (get a book and write them down) - words that you love, words that make children laugh or take notice, topics that children seem to like, unusual things that you've deserved, opening lines for a poem or novel, rhymes that amuse you etc.
• Again test these ideas by writing something, then re-write it, and then re-write it and then...(you get the message).
  
• Then get some advice about submitting manuscripts, research the publishers to see what they publish and submit a manuscript.

You might just be able to write a successful book at your first sitting but for most writers it takes years of effort and multiple rejection letters. Give it a try.

Some related previous posts

Christian writing for children - Part 1
Truth and the Internet
Mobile phone novels
Books that stand the test of time
Death of the book?

Other related CASE references

In the latest issue of our CASE quarterly magazine there are a number of articles that have indirect relationship to my post. The theme of this issue was God, Creativity and Creators - Case

Anna Blanch (2008). Echoes and patterns. Case 16, pp 13-16
Trevor Hart (2008). Creation, incarnation and redemption - in the arts? Case 16, pp 9-12
Andrew Lansdown (2008). Fantasy and its place in the Christian imagination. Case 16, pp 4-8
Scott Monk (2008). The Word and the wordsmith. Case 16, pp 17-21

Christian writing for children - Part 1

Last Saturday New College hosted the 2008 Faithful Writer Conference. In all, 120 people came to discuss and learn about writing. The event was jointly sponsored by Matthias Media and CASE (which is part of New College). The plenary speaker for the day was Mark Tredinnick a well-known writer, poet, editor and teaching or writing. As well, seminars were run on essay writing, writing for sceptics, editing other people’s work, poetry writing and writing for children. I ran the latter seminar and thought I’d share some of the things I discussed.

Writing for children

The starting point for my seminar was the central proposition that the gospel of Christ is the central narrative to which virtually all other narratives have some relationship – certainly in the Western cultural tradition and literature. The central focus of the Bible is Salvation History; with its central narrative tracing both the history of Judaism and Christianity and God’s redemptive plan for his people. In the beginning God created…and it was good. But sin entered the world, man rebelled against him and so God placed a curse upon his creation that one day would end in judgement. But God always had a plan for such rebellion; a plan of redemption motivated by love. An amazing gift of grace; his own son sent to die and three days later to be raised from the dead to defeat sin and death. A plan that provided a way for his creation to be restored to a relationship with him.

Drawing on the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien I suggested that the central Bible narrative account of God’s redemptive plan and work is the central narrative that gives shape to all other narratives. In every story there is a sense in which there is an echo of the biblical narrative.

J.R.R. Tolkien once said (to C.S. Lewis) that “The Christian story is the greatest story of them all. Because it’s the real story. The historical event that fulfils the tales and shows us what they mean.”

Lewis and Tolkien both saw the gospel narrative as the central or foundational human narrative.

Drawing on this central proposition I suggested in my seminar that for Christians there is much fruitful writing that can point children towards Jesus. I suggested that there are a number of very direct forms of narrative writing for children that are worthy of our time, energy and creativity (I’ve add an extra one in this post that I didn’t share at the seminar):

Type 1 – Stories that directly present the Christian gospel explicitly, often in the form or the retelling of Bible stories suitable for children. Children’s Bibles and collections of Bible stories fall into this category.
Type 2 – Stories that allegorically present the gospel (e.g. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress).
Type 3 – Stories that present or address essential biblical understandings and teaching; where the key elements of the Biblical plan of salvation are woven within the story, or can be seen as explicitly reflecting the key elements of the divine narrative (e.g. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.Lewis). While some would see the latter as allegory, Lewis denied this and instead claimed that the narrative came first and the biblical parallels followed.
Type 4 – Moral tales that have direct biblical parallels or that reflect moral principles consistent with the Bible’s teaching (e.g. evil will be punished; sin has consequences; honesty is better than falsehood). Nursery rhymes and many fairy tales fall into this category as do many cautionary tales (of course not all such tales reflect biblical moral insights, but many do).
Type 5 – This is really a variation or extension of the above. Here the links or parallels are at the thematic level rather than in the form of moral teaching. Stories of this kind demonstrate or echo biblical teaching (e.g. salvation narratives, stories of redemption, parallels to biblical narratives or parables). These narratives parallel the gospel narrative without explicit commentary. Such stories can be read at one level as simply a nice tale, but at another level the key themes parallel biblical themes that can be discussed. The following examples demonstrate what I mean.

Example 1 – “Charlotte’s Web”, by E.B. White

This is a well known book written for 6-10 year olds. It is a beautifully written tale about a group of talking farmyard animals, a spider, a rat and a little girl named Fern. While it makes no attempt to teach the gospel narrative, or even disguise it within an allegorical telling, it has themes that parallel key themes within the biblical gospel narrative. At one level, it is the celebration of loyalty, love and friendship. But it is also a salvation narrative. The story of a runt pig rejected by the farmer, sentenced to death but then rescued first by a small girl and later by the work of an intelligent and literate spider. At this thematic level, the narrative points to the power of faith, hope, love, charity, sacrifice and new life.

Example 2 – “Why do you love me?” by Martin Baynton

This is a beautiful little picture book written for 3-6 year olds. It is essentially a dialogue between a dad and his little boy, prompted by the boy’s question, “Do you love me?” This is one of those conversations that only a parent could full appreciate. The little boy asks, “Why do you love me?” “Do you love me because I’m kind?” “..brave?” “..funny”? “…clever”? “…good”? “…naughty?” To each question the Dad says “Yes”. “So why do I try to be good” says the boy. “You tell me,” says his dad. “Because I love you too”, replies the boy. The echoes to the biblical account of God’s grace are evident. Like God whose love towards us is an unconditional act of grace not linked to who we are and what we do, the father loves the boy in spite of who he is and what he does unconditionally. He loves him through the good and the bad. And the boy, in response to the love of the father, loves his father as well and seeks to please him.


Example 3 – “Cowardly Clyde”, by Bill Peet

This is a picture book written for children aged 4-7 years that tells of a brave (foolish?) knight and his trusty (cowardly stead) who set out to solve the problem of an ogre who is devastating the countryside. Clyde is terrified but the knight (Sir Galavant) heads into a dark forest to kill the ogre. They follow the trail of horse bones and find him. Clyde turns and runs, reaching the edge of the forest only to turn and discover that Sir Galavant has gone; the victim of a low branch. He goes back, and in an act of bravery bites the tale of the ogre to divert its attention from Sir Galavant. The ogre pursues him to the edge of the forest only to explode just as he grabs Clyde’s tale and disappear in a puff of smoke as the sun’s rays strike him, “An owl-eyed monster who thrives on darkness and gloom can’t last ten seconds in the bright sunlight, and he knew it….” The parallels are not as strong as the above examples but they are there – good conquers evil; and evil belongs to the darkness and cannot survive the light.

The qualities of good Christian writing for children

My conclusion to this seminar was that there is great merit in Christians seeking to write literature in its many forms for children. I suggested that such writing needs to first meet the basic criteria for good writing – good tales well told; language used well; narratives that work at multiple levels; rich authentic characters; interesting ‘page-turner’ plots. But beyond this they should:

• offer knowledge that is a celebration of God’s world and his purposes;
  
• act as a mirror allowing the reader to reflect on life and their future;
  
• lead us to consider aspects of the human condition (life and death, fear, loneliness, pain, loss, frailty, brokenness etc);
• point to the central redemption narrative of the Bible.

Related Links

'Between Two Worlds' link to this post (here)

'Christian writing for children' - Part 2 (here)

Speech and writing are different

In my last post I indicated that I would do a mini-series on writing. I nominated the following as my topics:

* How are writing and speech different?
* Does context matter?
* Do we need to know our audiences?
* What do other media add to the message of the Word?
* What are the risks and possibilities of BLOGS, email, network communities (e.g. Facebook)?

One of our readers also suggested that I comment on the ephemeral nature of digital publications like BLOGS. I’ll probably cover that in my last suggestion.

So, how are writing and speech different? Someone suggested at the Faithfull Writer Conference that writing is simply “talking on paper”. But, writing is not the same as talking. In fact, one of the most important things that all writers need to learn is that writing is NOT talking. Yes, there are parallels between speech and writing, and together they make up language, but there are many differences. For example, writing doesn't include prosodic and paralanguage features such as intonation, rhythm, phrasing and pausing (although we try to approximate this by using devices like brackets etc). And in parallel, talking doesn't indicate the use of sentences and paragraphs. Secondly, speech and writing have different contexts for different purposes. So the meanings that we use in written contexts are not always easily translated into talk. Writing and talking end up being used for different purposes. Of course language changes and so do purposes for language forms. So what we once spoke (by phone or in person) might end up being written (in an email or BLOG), but more on this in a future post.

I could go on to discuss social variations (dialects) that occur that reflect the groups to which you belong as speakers and writers and the functional variations that reflect what is going on, who is taking part and the role that language is fulfilling.....but you're probably already bored. My point is this. If you want to be an effective Christian writer and communicator, you need to understand a few things about the differences between speech and writing. In each of these posts I’ll offer a key understanding for would-be Christian writers. Here’s the first.

# Key understanding 1 - Know the strengths and limitations of speech and writing and how these vary across these two language forms. And know, the contexts and functions for which each form of language is best suited. If you do understand this you won't read a long complex essay at an evangelistic event and call it an outreach talk. Neither will (or should) you use email to discuss a problem you're having with someone.

Christian Writing

106 Christian Writers gathered at New College on Saturday to take part in The Faithful Writer conference. The conference was a joint initiative of CASE and Matthias Media and the driving force behind it was Karen Beilharz who has worked for both of us and is a keen writer. It was a very helpful day that provided practical advice and offered further reason to write. My background is in English education and my research has been focussed on literacy and how we learn and use it for varied purposes. Writing has been a long-term interest for me as a teacher, researcher and writer. One of my current research interests is the intersection of writing with other modes of communication, and the way that new forms of communication are changing what it means to be a writer.

It occurred to me during the conference that all writers need to understand how writing is different to speech, drawing, film and so on. But we also need to understand the way language use is being changed by new forms of communication, and how varied forms of meaning are related to one another. What will be the impact of new forms of communication on the ministry of the word. Is the spoken word losing its primary role as the language form that binds communities together (an interesting diversion could be the growth of internet language forms - new dialects etc?)? What is the implication of change in language and communication for how we share the gospel with others? Do we simply embrace new communication forms at the expense of old ones? Or, do we use them as complements? Are there dangers in seeing the uncontrolled internet as a major vehicle for biblical teaching? What are the possibilities?

So, over the next few posts I want to rave on about a few issues that I see as important for Christian writers. Here are a few that I'm going to write about in 500 words or less:

* How are writing and speech different? And why does it matter?
* Does context matter?
* Do we need to know our audiences? Is it okay to write faithfully for unseen and unknown audiences?
* What do other forms of communication add to the message of the Word?
* What are the risks and possibilities of BLOGS, email, network communities (e.g. Facebook)?

Over the next couple of posts I'm going to discuss a few of the above topics one by one (my first BLOG mini series!).
I'd welcome your suggestion of issues or topics to consider if this lot don't match your interests.