Delivered on Tuesday 03 April 2007 in St George's Chapel

'Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me!'

Not true. And we know from personal experience that this is not true. And knowing that it is not true is no new discovery. Gorgias writing in the fifth century B.C. also knew that it was not true. Not only did he know it, he made a living out of knowing it.

Gorgias, known to us most readily as one of the sophist philosophers that Plato poked fun at, was a wordsmith. He taught people how to use words, how to argue. His interest was not to find the truth or to argue for something he really believed in; he was simply looking for ways to use words so that he could persuade. He was a kind of postmodern philosopher - everything is just a matter of opinion, there is no such thing as falsehood. A professionally clever man, he was one of the first in a long line of spin doctors.

But Gorgias was no fool. He knew all too well the corrupting power of words. To show us just how corrupting they can be, he set himself the task of writing a speech in defence of the naughtiest woman ever. The beautiful Helen of Troy was the supposed cause of a ten year war but had she made off with the handsome Paris because she had been abducted or because she merely wanted to elope? Perhaps it makes no difference says Gorgias:

If she was abducted by force, unlawfully assaulted and wrongfully violated, it is obvious that the man who abducted her is the wrongdoer, while she, being abducted is a victim of misfortune. What then holds us back from supposing that Helen too came under the influence of words, against her will, just as if she had been taken by force? For ... speech lacks the appearance of compulsion but it has the same power. Speech, by persuading the mind, constrains it both to believe what is being said and to consent to what is being done. Hence the man, by persuading her, is doing that is morally wrong in so far as he compels her; the woman, being subject to compulsion by the speech, we blame in error. ... The power of speech has the same relation to the configuration of the mind as the hierarchy of drugs has toward the nature of the body. For just as various of the drugs expel various humours from the body, and some terminate an illness and others terminate life, so also some speeches sadden the listeners, some gladden them, some terrify them, some rouse them to valour, while others poison the mind with some kind of evil persuasion and seduce it. Thus we have outlined how Helen was not immoral but unfortunate, if she was persuaded by speech.

Gorgias compares the power of works to the effect of drugs or physical force. If you are overpowered by something beyond your control, you can hardly be blamed. Of course, Gorgias' own speech is also an effort to overpower us. He attempts to work on us the very seduction he warns about in the text. He wants us to conclude that Helen is not at fault - only the victim of sweet talking. Whether we find ourselves overpowered by his efforts or not, Gorgias does us the service of alerting us to the insidious effects of rhetoric. Words can indeed hurt us. In another essay Gorgias sets out to show us that rhetoric can convince us of the most bizarre theses. In On what is not he tries to persuade us that nothing exists, but that even if it did we could know nothing about it, and even if could claim to know something about it there is no way we could communicate that to others. We cannot communicate. We cannot know. There is, in any case, nothing here. Quite a catalogue of bizarre claims. His plot is to try to spin a superficially convincing web of pedantic arguments so mind-boggling that they trap the unwary into confused defeat. It isn't that Gorgias believes that nothing exists - or either of his other claims - he only wants to show that he can persuade the incautious of the incredible. He wants to show the power of words.

If I can persuade people that the impossible is possible, that the incredible is credible, that the illogical is logical, then I have power of control. Gorgias points to a truth well documented in the human story - men and women persuaded to perform atrocities of all kinds, shapes and sizes. It is not, of course, that words are bad in themselves. That is certainly not what Gorgias hopes to have us believe; it is more that while words are valuable, the very fact that they are valuable means that in the mouths of humans they have the potential to be destructive.

And herein lies a difference between words and the Word, between logoi and the logos. The Greek word Gorgias used for 'word' is logos. The Word, the one word, spoken by God, is also the Logos. But this is no destructive word this Word is creative.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

God's one Word is spoken and life is created, light is created, hope is created. Words may indeed hurt me but the Word created me and will redeem me.

Jesus said: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."
Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die."
Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
"I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing."
"Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name."