Grammar and Theology: Farther or Further?

What's wrong with this sentence:

"As we grow farther and farther from God, our ability to avoid sin plummets."

Hints: (1) there is something wrong with the grammar and (2) with the theology . . . do you know what they are?

Conniptions Anyone?
Late last night after a long day of intensive research and writing, I got myself a hot drink, a recent issue of a professional journal, and I sat myself down in a little area in our home known as the "reading area."

Kicked back on the recliner, I anticipated reading some interesting comments by other professionals/scholars. I was not disappointed. Some of the material was very interesting.

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the journal and found that one article had been written by one of our very own faculty members. "How nice," I thought to myself. Whenever I read something that was written by a friend or colleague, it is always just a bit more interesting. It was a good article, and I enjoyed it very much. But, ever the writing and theology professor, I ran across one sentence that gave me conniptions. So, I figured that I would use that sentence to springboard into this issue of Coffee Talk. The line was,

"As we grow farther and farther from God, our ability to avoid sin plummets."

Before I tell you what is wrong with this sentence, and why it gave me fits, let me ask you, do you know what's wrong with it? If you do, then you might want to "eighty-six" this issue of Coffee Talk. If you don't know what's wrong with it, then please read on.

FArther or FUrther
Our colleague should have used the word further rather than farther. The word farther means more distant in actual, physical space, and further means more distant in degree or time.

Thus, you may hit a ball farther than your friend is able to, but you may feel emotionally further away from your friend as you "grow apart." Thus, our colleague's use of the term farther instead of further is grammatically incorrect.

FArther = physical distance. "The rest stop is farther down the road." (literal distance physically traveled)

FUrther = advancement time or degree or relationship. You can further your education through CES. (to a greater degree than what you have now, nonphysical advancement)

Splitting Hairs
Now some will read my comments and say to themselves, "Oh, for pity sake! Why split hairs over such a trivial issue? It is one single letter (a or u). Give me a break!"

Well, that one small letter makes a world of difference not only in grammar but also in theology. For you theologian-scholars out there, this small grammatical mistake actually sets up a false theology as well. You see, if God is omnipresent (infinite), then it is literally impossible to be farther and farther from God, as if He were located in a fixed point within the universe, and we are moving farther away from Him. David makes it clear that one cannot move farther away from God when he says,

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. (Psalms 139:7-10)

Finite Godism
The false theology that is implied by the concept of "growing farther and farther from God" is called "finite godism." But, knowing the author as I do, he did not intend to make any such implication. It is impossible to grow farther and farther from God, but it is possible to grow further and further from God, and this is what he meant. And, it is a good point he makes: "As we grow further and further from God, our ability to avoid sin plummets."

Words Change
Now, I should point out that words are constantly changing. Words change through--most often--misuse. For example, when society at large begins using the term "gay" to mean homosexual, then the old song which says "don we now our gay apparel" begins to take on a whole different meaning.

However, as late as 2003, the fantastic book Working with Words: A Handbook for Media Writers and Editors , 5th edition, identifies these two words as distinct from each other and says,

"Farther is used for literal distance, such as farther down the road;
further is used for figurative distance, such as further into a subject" (p. 10).

My point is this: the words farther and further have been misused enough to where well-educated people don't know that there is a significant difference between them. However, the mixing of these two terms still has not become acceptable, neither in academics nor in journalism. And the faulty theological conclusions that this particular misuse has lead to is certainly not acceptable in Orthodox Christian theology.

=========

Free Writing Class:
For those of you who might be interested: I have produced a lecture series on audio with notes. I cover the basics of good writing, grammar, punctuation, and more. I've had people with Master's degrees and PhDs go through these lectures, and some have told me that they learned more about this subject from my lectures and notes than they had from all of their previous education combined. You can listen to the lectures for free and download the lecture notes as PDF files (for free) at CES Writing Protocols Lectures.