The essence of the mission of Anvil House is to present through the written word (printed page or electronic) the truth of the Judeo-Christian worldview and its preeminence as the central vision of American culture upon which the nation was founded. The importance of this mission can be seen by quoting from Ye Shall Be As Gods, the very first book published by Anvil House.
Richard Weaver believed that “…a divine element is present in language. The feeling that to have power of language is to have control over things is deeply imbedded in the human mind.” Throughout the ages language has been the means of achieving order in culture. Knowledge of truth comes through the word which provides solidity in the “shifting world of appearances.” Weaver called words the storehouse of our memory. In our modern age humanists have effectively used semantics to neuter words of their meaning in historical and symbolic contexts, that is, words now mean what men want them to mean. By removing the fixities of language (which undermines an understanding of truth), language loses its ability to define and compel. As the meaning of words is divorced from truth, relativism gains supremacy, and a culture tends to disintegration without an understanding of eternal truths upon which to orient its self. In the battle of worldviews, certain words have gained power to obscure truth and history through the machinations of humanist redefinition.*
We of Anvil House believe the fixities of language must be defended and thereby truth. As words are assembled to present ideas and hence understanding of truth, the writer must be careful to surrender his or her efforts to the forge to burn away the dross. Thus refined, the author’s words can be crafted and shaped on the anvil of truth. Thereafter, we can be assured that the tempered and hardened words will withstand the attacks of the relativists and transcend the ravages of time.
Larry G. Johnson, 2011
Anvil House Publishers, LLC
10208 E 89th St. N
Owasso, OK 74055
(918) 760-8991
Email: publisher@anvilhousebooks.com
*Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences, (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1948), pp. 148-149, 152, 158, 163.
Recommended Reading:
For readers wishing to explore various themes regarding truth, faith, Christianity, Western civilization, the Judeo-Christian worldview, and the founding of the United States, Anvil House highly recommends the following books available from other publishers (for availability, contact your local bookstore or do a web search):
- The Myth of Separation – David Barton
- The Broken Hearth – William J. Bennett
- Commentaries on the Laws of England – William Blackstone
- Slouching Towards Gomorrah – Robert Bork
- Reflections on the Revolution in France – Edmund Burke
- Witness – Whitaker Chambers
- How Now Shall We Live? – Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey
- The Kingdom of God and the American Dream – Sherwood Eddy
- The Theme is Freedom – M. Stanton Evans
- The Way of the Modern World – Craig M. Gay
- Clash of Orthodoxies – Robert P. George
- The Road to Serfdom – F. A. Hayek
- The Reason for God – Timothy Keller
- The Roots of American Order – Russell Kirk
- The Essential Kirk – Selected Essays – Russell Kirk – George A Panichas, ed.
- Reason in the Balance – Phillip Johnson
- The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics – C. S. Lewis (Harper One)
- The Timeless Writings of C. S. Lewis – C. S. Lewis (Inspirational Press)
- The Normal Christian Life – Watchman Nee
- Elements of a Christian Worldview – Michael D. Palmer, ed.
- The Federalist Papers – Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
- The Good Life and Its Discontents – Robert J. Samuelson
- Escape from Reason – Francis A. Schaeffer
- A Patriot’s History of the United States – Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen
- The 5000 Year Leap – Cleon W. Skousen
- The Secular Revolution – Christian Smith, ed.
- Democracy in America – Alexis de Tocqueville
- Living Constitution, Dying Faith – Bradley C. S. Watson
- Visions of Order – Richard Weaver
- Ideas Have Consequences – Richard Weaver