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.
*Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences, (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1948), pp. 148-149, 152, 158, 163.