Articles, 1980-1989

1980

“For the Record.” Universitas 5 (Spring 1980): 2. A letter published in the “Letters to the Editor” section “to set the record straight” regarding what was reported in “Man vs. Womb” in the section “In My Professional Opinion,” Universitas 5 (Winter 1980): 3, concerning what Ong said in the Messenger Lectures at Cornell University in Sept. and Oct. 1979 as picked up by Universitas from a National Enquirer story.

“Oral Remembering and Narrative Structures.” Theological Implications of Narrative Form: Essays for a Special Session at the Modern Language Association Convention, 27 Dec. 1980. Comp. Charles A. Huttar, Chairman. Holland, MI: Hope College, 1980. 49-63. Rpt in revised form in Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1981: Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk. Ed. Deborah Tannen. Washington: Georgetown UP, 1982. 12-24.

“Reading, Technology, and the Nature of Man: An Interpretation.” The Yearbook of English Studies, 10, Literature and Its Audience. 1 (Special Number) (1980): 132-49. Part of this paper was originally delivered as the opening address for the Ferguson Seminar on Publishing at the College of William and Mary, 17-18 Nov. 1977. Rpt as “Reading, Technology, and Human Consciousness” in Literacy as a Human Problem. Ed. James C. Raymond. University, AL: U of Alabama P, 1982. 170-201.

1981

“McLuhan as Teacher: The Future is a Thing of the Past.” Journal of Communication 31 (1981): 129-35. Rpt in abridged and revised form as “McLuhan as Teacher: The St. Louis Years” in The Antigonish Review no. 74-75 (Summer/Autumn 1988): 35-40; and in FC1 11-18.

1982

“The Agonistic Base of Scientifically Abstract Thought: Issues in Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness.” The Role and Responsibility of the Moral Philosopher. Vol. 56 of Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. Ed. Daniel O. Dahlstrom, Desmond J. Fitzgerald, and John T. Noonan, Jr. Washington: American Catholic Philosophical Assoc., Catholic U of America, 1982. 109-24.

Introduction. A Fuller Course in the Art of Logic. By John Milton. Ed. and Trans. Ong and Charles J. Ermatinger. Complete Prose Works of Milton. Vol. 8. Ed. Maurice Kelley. New Haven: Yale UP, 1982. 139-205.

“Introduction: On Saying We and Us to Literature.” Three American Literatures: Essays in Chicano, Native American, and Asian-American Literature for Teachers of American Literature. Ed. Houston A. Baker, Jr. New York: MLA, 1982. 3-7.

“The Psychodynamics of Oral Memory and Narrative: Some Implications for Biblical Studies.” The Pedagogy of God’s Image: Essays on Symbol and the Religious Imagination. Ed. Robert Masson. Chico, CA: Scholars P, 1982. 55-73.

1983

With James Paul Gee. “An Exchange on American Sign Language and Deaf Culture.” Language and Style (Queens College P, Flushing, NY) 16 (Spring 1983): 231-37. Gee’s letter to the editor, 231-33; Ong’s reply, 234-37.

Foreword. The Oral and Written Gospel: The Hermeneutics of Speaking and Writing in the Synoptic Tradition, Mark, Paul, and Q. By Werner H. Kelber. Philadelphia: Fortress P, 1983. xiii-xiv.

Foreword. The Present State of Scholarship in Historical and Contemporary Rhetoric. Ed. Winifred Bryan Horner. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1983. 1-9. Rpt in revised form in 2nd ed. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1990. 1-8.

“‘People Are Sick’: Keynote Address.” Proceedings: Educational Policy Committee Retreat on Values and Attitudes of Medical Students, Fordyce House, 22-23 Apr. 1983. St. Louis: School of Medicine of St. Louis U, 1983. 30-40.

“Writing Is a Humanizing Technology.” ADE Bulletin no. 74 (Spring 1983): 13-16.

1984

“Orality, Literacy, and Medieval Textualization.” New Literary History 16.1 (Autumn 1984): 1-12. Introductory article for an issue on “Oral and Written Traditions in the Middle Ages.”

1985

“Orality-Literacy Contrasts and the Current Critical Milieu.” Dieciocho: Hispanic Enlightenment, Aesthetics, and Literary Theory 8.1 (Spring 1985): 80-89.

“Writing and the Evolution of Consciousness.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Comparative Study of Literature and Ideas 18 (1985): 1-10. Rpt in FC3 202-14.

1986

“Communications and the Rise of Individualism.” Forum II: Communications and Rise of Individualism. Sponsored by the St. Louis Humanities Forum. Funded by the Missouri Commission for the Humanities. In View on Individualism: Presentations by Israel M. Kirzner, Walter J. Ong, Mancur Olson, and Kurt Baier. Ed. Donna Card Charron. St. Louis: St. Louis Humanities Forum, in care of Missouri Commission for the Humanities, 1986. 28-43. Transcribed from a tape of a 9 May 1983 lecture at St. Louis U. Edited slightly by Ong.

“Homily for Mass on the Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola.” The Rockhurst Occasional Papers no. 1 (Summer 1986): 1-4. Delivered 31 July 1985, Rockhurst College Chapel, during the Symposium on “Questions of Orality and Literacy: A Tribute to Walter J. Ong, S.J.,” 29 July – 1 Aug. 1985, initiating the celebration of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Year of Rockhurst College.

“Text as Interpretation: Mark and After.” Oral Tradition in Literature: Interpretation in Context. Ed. John Miles Foley. Columbia, MO: U of Missouri P, 1986. 147-69. Rpt in Semeia: An Experimental Journal for Biblical Criticism 39 (1987): 7-26; and in FC2 191-210.

“Writing is a Technology That Restructures Thought.” The Written Word: Literacy in Transition. Ed. Gerd Baumann. Wolfson College Lectures 1985. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1986. 23-50.

1987

Letter to Professor Victor J. Vitanza, Editor of PRE/TEXT. PRE/TEXT 8.1-2 (Spring-Summer 1987): 155. Letter protests against being credited with a “great leap” theory of literacy by Beth Daniel, author of “Against the Great Leap Theory of Literacy.” PRE/TEXT 7.3-4 (Fall-Winter 1986): 181-93.

“Orality-Literacy Studies and the Unity of the Human Race.” Oral Tradition 2.1 (Jan. 1987): 371-82. Rpt in FC1 209-18. Paper presented at “Questions of Orality and Literacy: A Tribute to Walter J. Ong, S.J.,” a symposium about Ong’s work held at Rockhurst College in 1985. Issue of Oral Tradition was a festschrift for Ong.

“A Post-Vatican II Nonhappening.” ITEST Bulletin 18.4 (Oct. 1987): 4-5. Excerpt of a letter written by Ong at the request of Mark J. Brummel, C.M.F., editor of U.S. Catholic. Letter was in response to June 1987 interview of Martin E. Marty called “I Wonder What the Catholics are Doing Tonight” in U.S. Catholic. This letter also appeared in abridged form with other letters under the heading, “You May Be Right: A Conversation with Our Readers,” in U.S. Catholic (Sept. 1987): 42. Look at McD to see whether this is appropriate way of doing this entry. McD splits it into 2 entries. Can also look at the Ong card xerox to see about this.

1988

“Before Textuality: Orality and Interpretation.” Oral Tradition 3.3 (1988): 259-69. Rpt in FC3 215-25.

“A Comment on ‘Arguing About Literacy.'” College English 50.6 (Oct. 1988): 700-01. A comment on Patricia Bizzell’s article in College English 50.2 (Feb. 1988): 141-53, with a brief response by Bizzell, 701-02.

“The New Rhetoric.” Commonweal 9 Sept. 1988: 450. A letter solicited by editors of Commonweal, written in response to Francis DeBernardo’s “Engaging Words: The Bishops Get Their Message Across” in Commonweal 3 June 1988: 338-40.

“Correspondence: To the Editor.” MLA Newsletter 20.1 (Spring 1988). Response to a statement in Jonathan Culler’s “Comparative Literature and the Pieties.” Profession 86: 30-32.

1989

“On Business, Computers, and the ‘Harmony of the Spheres.'” Insight 9 Feb. 1989: 5. Excerpted from a speech, “Business Ethics in a Digital World,” at the 3 Mar. 1988 initiation banquet for the St. Louis U Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma. Insight is an in-house newspaper of St. Louis U.

“Realizing Catholicism: Faith, Learning, and the Future.” FC1 1-10. Rpt in Faith and the Intellectual Life: Marianist Award Lectures. Ed. James L. Heft, S.M. Notre Dame: Notre Dame UP, 1996. 31-42; and in Theology Digest 37.4 (Winter 1990): 333-40. First presented as the Marianist Award Lecture at University of Dayton, Dayton, OH in 1989. Published in a booklet by the University of Dayton, p. 7-19.

“T.S. Eliot and Today’s Ecumenism.” Religion and Literature 21.2 (Summer 1989): 1-17. Rpt in FC2 211-26. In abridged form, this article was read at “T.S. Eliot: A Centennial Appraisal,” a conference held at Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 30 Sept.-2 Oct. 1988.

“Thoughts on Renovation: Excerpts from Notes for a Homily Delivered by Fr. Walter J. Ong, S.J., on October 8, 1989.” St. Francis Xavier College Church Bulletin 3 Dec. 1989.