Awaiting Beautiful Evidence

I have just ordered my copy of Edward Tufte’s new book, Beautiful Evidence. I’m hoping to blog through each chapter, like an extensive review. I’ve mentioned Tufte before on this blog (oops, it looks like I didn’t finish that series!!!).

One paragraph, from the sample page, really caught my eye,

“Making an evidence presentation is a moral act as well as an intellectual activity. to maintain standards of quality, relevance and integrity for evidence, consumers of presentations should insist that presenters be held intellectually and ethically responsible for what they show and tell. Thus consuming a presentation is also an intellectual and moral activity.”

The morality of presentation consumption; what a tantalising thought to ponder. How often do discussions of presentation in churches – preaching, worship, whatever, focus on what is wrong with the communcation, with the presentation? But, what about the consumers of those presentations, the activity of listening, recieving? Some good thoughts to ponder.

[tags] Tuft, Communication, Preaching [/tags]