Christianese

In its basic form, Christianese uses theological and/or Biblical terms to describe matters of faith and everyday experiences as interpreted through a filter of faith and doctrine. Linda Coleman's 1980 research into Christianese notes three purposes: the ability to reinforce in-group belonging while remaining separate from outsiders; a sign to the member's degree of engagement in the worldview; and finally, its use to both display and apply the speaker's beliefs and Christian worldview, which she refers to as a worldviewlect. Christianese features "influences from the worldview appearing in nearly every area of language use."{{Sfn|Coleman|1980|pp=140-141}} New Testament scholar and theologian Marcus Borg comments that Christianese is used by Christians "to connect their religion to their life in the world".{{Cite web |last=Blake |first=John |date=31 July 2011 |title=Do you speak Christian? |url=http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/31/do-you-speak-christian/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110824021629/http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/31/do-you-speak-christian/ |archive-date=24 August 2011 |access-date=25 March 2024 |website=CNN}}

Like secret languages such as rhyming slang, evangelical Christianese relies on the hearer's ability to "reconstruct...the sequence of logical connections" to understand the meaning of an utterance.{{Sfn|Coleman|1980|p=139}} The words and phrases used are known to the speaker of the wider language (e. g. English); however, without an understanding of the passage of the Bible, issue of theology or (sometimes) specific doctrine at the forefront of the mind of the speaker, the listener may lack the context to understand what is being said. One example is the allusion to one's home as a "tent until I’m called home", referencing the biblical image of an "earthly tent" as a temporary living place before proceeding to one's eternal home. Likewise, words may be used with metaphorical meanings not immediately clear, such as "the Lord's Supper...still speaks to every circumcised ear" referring not to the physical rite of circumcision but rather the Christian hearer.{{Sfn|Coleman|1980|p=138}} Borg states, "Speaking Christian is an umbrella term for not only knowing the words, but understanding them... It's knowing the basic vocabulary, knowing the basic stories." An article published in Christianity Today comments that those unfamiliar with Christianese, lacking a reference point, may fill in the blanks with other cultural references – such as from pop culture – leading to misunderstanding.{{Cite journal |last=Martoia |first=Ron |date=Spring 2004 |title=The Language of Planet Zion |url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2004/002/3.33.html |url-status=dead |journal=Leadership Journal |volume=XXV |issue=2 |pages=33 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040626125358/http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2004/002/3.33.html |archive-date=26 June 2004 |via=Christianity Today}}

Words like just may be used more often or in different ways than typical. One linguistic analysis of online evangelical sermons by the pastor of megachurch Lifechurch.tv found an excessive use of just in phrases like "Again, let me just put it as simply as I can...", often used in order to express sincerity. The study described it as "[seemingly] unique to evangelical Christian sermons and extemporaneous prayers among insiders"; the preacher's "myriad uses of just ... demonstrate his placement in the evangelical tradition." Terms such as Christ followers, as opposed to the more traditional Christians, emphasize new Christians "[allying] themselves with a person rather than converting to an institutionalized religion."{{Cite journal |last1=Bryan |first1=Clint |last2=Albakry |first2=Mohammed |date=2016 |title='To be real honest, I'm just like you': analyzing the discourse of personalization in online sermons |journal=Text & Talk |volume=36 |issue=6 |pages=694, 699 |doi=10.1515/text-2016-0030 |s2cid=152160474}}

Megachurches and celebrity pastors have also been linked to the rise of modern Christianese by University of Sheffield linguist Valerie Hobbs, author of An Introduction to Religious Language: Exploring Theolinguistics in Contemporary Contexts. She contends that they use this language as a form of branding and discusses the overlap between Christian jargon and corporate jargon. Phrases like "making an impact" or "come on board with us" are common to both the Christian and corporate worlds. Hobbs argues that the jargon lends an appearance of authority: new terms are constantly being introduced by authoritative figures and one must understand, or pretend one understands, the meaning. In addition, there is pressure to use the correct jargon as a member of the group.{{Cite podcast |url=https://hebraicthought.org/podcast/christianese-is-like-corporate-jargon-valerie-hobbs/ |title=How 'Christianese' Is Like Corporate Jargon |website=The Biblical Mind |publisher=The King's College |last=Hobbs |first=Valerie |date=7 May 2021 |access-date=4 January 2023 |last2=Johnson |first2=Dru |archive-date=5 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105103707/https://hebraicthought.org/podcast/christianese-is-like-corporate-jargon-valerie-hobbs/ |url-status=live }}

Archaic words and meanings may be used, or used in ways unfamiliar to modern speakers.{{Sfn|Bruehler|2018|p=22}}{{Cite thesis |last=Leiter |first=Sarah |title=Christianese: A sociolinguistic analysis of the evangelical dialect of American English |date=2013 |access-date=4 January 2023 |degree=Honors |publisher=Emory University |url=https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/1544bp39d |archive-date=6 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230506211600/https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/1544bp39d |url-status=live }} Russian Orthodox Christians, for example, may use the archaic {{Lang|ru-latn|zhelaiu mnogaia i blagaia leta}} {{Gloss|I wish you many and happy years}}, with its archaic terminology and grammatical features, rather than the modern {{Lang|ru-latn|zhelaiu mnogo schastlivykh let}} {{Gloss|I wish you many happy years}}, stemming from Church Slavonic, the church's liturgical language.{{Cite book |last=Sibgatullina |first=Gulnaz |title=Languages of Islam and Christianity in Post-Soviet Russia |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-42644-3 |series=Studies in Slavic and general linguistics |volume=46 |location=Leiden; Boston |chapter=Introduction}}

Coleman states that passive voice and euphemisms may be used to emphasize God's action rather than one's own actions, due to the theological emphasis on depravity. "I/We ministered to them" may be considered unacceptable, in favor of "I was enabled to minister to him in some small way"; phrases such as "I feel/felt led to do X", rather than "I decided to do X", emphasize God as the agent.{{Sfn|Coleman|1980|p=134-135}} In connection with phrases such as "to have fellowship with [another Christian]", "the Evangelical avoids claiming to have performed a specific good action. In other words, 'have fellowship with' is a euphemism. It is, furthermore, a euphemism for something which most non-Evangelicals have no hesitancy about claiming responsibility for, since the broader culture would not perceive such a claim as an unwarranted boast."{{Sfn|Coleman|1980|p=133}}

Coleman wrote:

{{Blockquote|text=From what we have seen, then, it appears that a good deal of the Evangelical grammar, if we can call it that, seems designed to avoid reference to human beings as primary agents and to introduce God as the moving force behind all good actions. This is what we should expect, of course: the Evangelical needs to be able to talk about events in a way that members of the broader society generally do not, since the Evangelical is trying to reference two levels of reality which impinge on each other.|author=Linda Coleman|title=The language of "Born-Again" Christianity}}

Others, however, have since argued for a more nuanced view of God as agent in Christianese, contending that a part of such language competence is to know when to refer to God actively or passively, which often occurs in different topic categories such as "action", "plan", or "blessing" vs. "belief", "surrender", or "conversion", respectively.{{Sfn|Bruehler|2018|p=113-114}}

Words may also take on different functions in Christianese as part of functional shift, including the formation of the noun fellowshipping and the verb to disciple.{{Sfn|Bruehler|2018|p=22}}

Christian terminology can be used to display in-group belonging: "[Christians] use coded Christian terms like verbal passports – flashing them gains you admittance to certain Christian communities." Historian of religion Bill J. Leonard states that for American politicians, speaking "Christian" is a necessity in order to win elections: politicians may use coded Christianese to appeal to voters. He notes that Abraham Lincoln was critiqued for not using enough "conversionistic" language.

While avoiding explicit references to Jesus or Christ, US President George W. Bush was known to use Christian figures of speech. In his 2003 State of the Union address, for example, he referred to the "wonder-working power – in the goodness, and idealism, and faith of the American people", a reference recognizable to many evangelical Christians from the hymn "There is Power in the Blood". Leonard argues this is coded language intended to appeal to Christian voters; Bush's speechwriter Michael Gerson, however, contends it is "our culture".{{Cite news |last=Goodstein |first=Laurie |date=9 February 2003 |title=The Nation; A President Puts His Faith in Providence |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/weekinreview/the-nation-a-president-puts-his-faith-in-providence.html |access-date=25 March 2024 |work=The New York Times}}

Religion historian Crawford Gribben relates cultural historian Paul S. Boyer's description of the Christian meaning behind examples of Bush's phrasing:

{{blockquote|...when George W. Bush ('our born-again president') describes his foreign-policy objective in theological terms as a 'global struggle against 'evildoers',' and when he 'casts Saddam Hussein as a demonic, quasi-supernatural figure who could unleash 'a day of horror like none we have ever known',' he was 'not only playing upon our still-raw memories of 9/11. He is also invoking a powerful and ancient apocalyptic vocabulary that for millions of prophecy believers conveys a specific and thrilling message of an approaching end – not just of Saddam, but of human history as we know it.{{Cite book |last=Gribben |first=Crawford |title=Evangelical Millennialism in the Trans-Atlantic World, 1500–2000 |date=2011 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-30461-1 |location=Basingstoke |chapter=The Dominance of Evangelical Millennialism, 1970–2000}}}}

While lacking fluency in Christianese at the time of his 2016 campaign,{{Cite news |last=Weiland |first=Noah |date=19 January 2017 |title=Paula White, Trump's Spiritual Adviser, Says He Has 'a Hunger for God' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/trumps-pastor-paula-white.html |access-date=25 March 2024 |work=The New York Times}} US President Donald Trump's use of Christianese, and Christian nationalist language, has increased significantly.{{Cite web |last=Carless |first=Will |date=7 March 2024 |title=As Trump support merges with Christian nationalism, experts warn of extremist risks |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/03/07/trump-christian-nationalism-extremist-threat/72869355007/ |access-date=25 March 2024 |website=USA TODAY}} In analyzing 448 presidential speeches from the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt to Trump, researcher Ceri Hughes has found that Trump's use of Christian terminology surpasses all other presidents studied, climbing dramatically after his first inauguration.{{Cite web |last=Hughes |first=Ceri |date=13 October 2020 |title=Appealing to evangelicals, Trump uses religious words and references to God at a higher rate than previous presidents |url=http://theconversation.com/appealing-to-evangelicals-trump-uses-religious-words-and-references-to-god-at-a-higher-rate-than-previous-presidents-146816 |access-date=25 March 2024 |website=The Conversation}}{{Cite journal |last=Hughes |first=Ceri |date=29 January 2019 |title=The God Card: Strategic Employment of Religious Language in U.S. Presidential Discourse |url=https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8484 |journal=International Journal of Communication |volume=13 |pages=22 |issn=1932-8036}}

Religion scholar Elizabeth McAlister notes an increasing use of "evangelical tropes and cues" supporting American military activity along with increasing spiritual warfare imagery and militaristic rhetoric in evangelicalism;{{Cite journal |last=McAlister |first=Elizabeth |date=2016-01-02 |title=The militarization of prayer in America: White and Native American spiritual warfare |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20566093.2016.1085239 |journal=Journal of Religious and Political Practice |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=114–130 |doi=10.1080/20566093.2016.1085239 |issn=2056-6093}} E. Janet Warren argues that the term spiritual warfare has lost its original sense – as an insightful new biblical metaphor – in modern evangelicalism.{{Cite journal |last=Warren |first=E. Janet |date=2012 |title='Spiritual Warfare': A Dead Metaphor? |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/pent/21/2/article-p278_6.xml |journal=Journal of Pentecostal Theology |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=278–297 |doi=10.1163/17455251-02102007 |issn=0966-7369|url-access=subscription }}

In the book Apostles of Rock: the Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music, author Jay Howard comments on a move towards exhortational, "scripture lesson" themes in contemporary Christian music, in which Christianese became more common:

{{Blockquote|text=Lyrics were soon overflowing with phrases and references all but incomprehensible outside of an evangelical framework. With lines such as 'If you die before you die {{sic|than}} when you die you won't die,' Benny Hester's 'If You Die Before You Die,' Kenny Mark's 'Soul Reviver', Dan Peek's 'Doer of the Word', Mylon LeFevre and Broken Heart's 'Love God, Hate Sin,' the Michael Card-penned Amy Grant hit 'El Shaddai,' and numerous others proved to be highly appealing affirmations to evangelicals while being largely unintelligible and/or terribly trite to non-Christians.{{Cite book |last=Howard |first=Jay R. |url=https://archive.org/details/apostlesofrocksp0000howa_l0u6/ |title=Apostles of Rock: the Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music |date=1999 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=9780813148052 |location=Lexington |pages=66–68 |access-date=2024-08-11 |url-access=registration |via=Archive.org}}}}

{{see also|Glossary of Christian terms}}

There is a standard Christian lexicon within the Catholic Church; given that Catholic terminology is dictated by the authority of the Holy See, there is a great deal more uniformity within its literature. For example, when a non-denominational Protestant refers to the End Times, he or she may be referring to the period following the Incarnation, as Catholics believe, or any number of eschatological interpretations of the Book of Revelation, the Olivet Discourse or The Sheep and the Goats. There are other "authoritative" lexicons within other Christian sects, but these lexicons are considerably less standard.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Christian jargon has been critiqued as clichéd; its potential to confuse or isolate others has also been critiqued in media, both explicitly Christian and otherwise.

The article "Unlearning 'Christianese'" in Canadian Mennonite makes the comparison to legalese, "which has its place and purpose, but is confusing and meaningless to people who aren't lawyers." The author addresses the perceived clichéd nature of Christianese and urges readers to use more thoughtfulness and clarity when discussing faith.{{Cite journal |last=Watson |first=Troy |date=15 November 2019 |title=Unlearning 'Christianese' |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2382720104 |journal=Canadian Mennonite |volume=23 |issue=21 |pages=11 |id={{ProQuest|2382720104}} |via=ProQuest}} An article in Relevant magazine listed several "Christianese relationship cliches" to avoid such as "I'm guarding my heart", stating, "People often use these phrases without really even knowing what it is they are trying to say."{{Cite web |last=Fileta |first=Debra |date=10 September 2014 |title=5 Christianese Relationship Cliches to Stop Using |url=https://relevantmagazine.com/life5/relationships/5-christianese-relationship-cliches-stop-using/ |access-date=4 January 2024 |website=RELEVANT |archive-date=5 January 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240105104525/https://relevantmagazine.com/life5/relationships/5-christianese-relationship-cliches-stop-using/ |url-status=live }} The editorial staff of Biola University's Chimes asks readers "How do you 'do life together?' What does 'praying a hedge of protection around one another' look like?", urging readers to reconsider Christianese as it "only alienates people outside of the Christian community and makes us seem like even more of a members-only culture."{{Cite news |date=28 October 2014 |title=Christians, get to the point |url=https://chimesnewspaper.com/23426/opinions/christians-get-point/ |access-date=4 January 2024 |work=Chimes |publisher=Biola University |archive-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130070936/https://chimesnewspaper.com/23426/opinions/christians-get-point/ |url-status=live }}

One Southern Baptist writer has referred to Christianese as "insider jargon they use all the time, whether they know it or not. ... This language is like a liturgy for them, but they don't understand that other people don't get it".{{Cite web |last=Mattingly |first=Terry |title=At some point, 'Christianese' may cancel out real prayers |url=https://www.knoxnews.com/story/entertainment/columnists/terry-mattingly/2017/11/12/some-point-christianese-may-cancel-out-real-prayers/848637001/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230531194744/https://www.knoxnews.com/story/entertainment/columnists/terry-mattingly/2017/11/12/some-point-christianese-may-cancel-out-real-prayers/848637001/ |archive-date=2023-05-31 |access-date=2024-01-04 |website=Knoxville News Sentinel}} Christian writer Dean Merrill's book Damage Control: How to Stop Making Jesus Look Bad argues that "Christianese mystifies, overwhelms, antagonizes and manipulates those who don't hold similar beliefs."{{Cite journal |date=12 December 2005 |title=Religion: Damage Control: How to Stop Making Jesus Look Bad |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/197104857 |journal=Publishers Weekly |volume=252 |issue=49 |id={{ProQuest|197104857}} |via=ProQuest}} Bill J. Leonard argues that it can appear elitist and divisive – making the faith less accessible – which he compares to Jesus, who used stories that were understandable by the general public. Likewise, Christianese may be interpreted quite differently: a 2017 news article noted the difference between in-group and out-group understandings of the Christian usage of thoughts and prayers.

One Christian young adult novel features a non-Christian girl's attempts to understand the Christianese used by those around her.{{Cite journal |last=Welch |first=Lynne |date=1–15 January 2010 |title=Fiction: Becca by the Book |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/235616993 |journal=The Booklist |volume=106 |issue=9/10 |page=39 |id={{ProQuest|235616993}} |via=ProQuest}}

Some Christian writers have also come up with alternative terms and phrases that are theoretically more "religion-neutral".{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}} While the effectiveness of this strategy is undetermined, there is a feeling among some Christian communicators{{Who|date=January 2024}} that this may be simply creating a condensed form of Christianese but failing to address the underlying issue of contextual understanding.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Studies on Christianese as a phenomenon, though few, date back to 1980. Academic interest has increased as Christian religious identity is a growing area of study, with language use noted in multiple studies.{{Sfn|Bruehler|2018|pp=15, 20, 33}} Among other contexts, it has been studied among preachers and American presidents.

Vitaly Voinov has examined issues regarding translation of the Bible into Tuvan for the Tuvan people and the potential cultural impacts of "Christianese" word choices.{{Cite journal |last=Voinov |first=Vitaly |date=January 2010 |title=Are Russian Brothers Really Tuvan Brothers? The Allure of Incipient Christianese in Bible Translation |url=https://diu.edu/documents/gialens/Vol4-1/Voinov-Tuvan-Brothers.pdf |journal=GIAL Electronic Notes Series |publisher=Dallas International University |volume=4 |issue=1 |access-date=4 January 2023 |archive-date=5 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105103617/https://diu.edu/documents/gialens/Vol4-1/Voinov-Tuvan-Brothers.pdf |url-status=live }}

Various lists of Christianese terms and their definitions have been published, including in newspaper articles, blogs, and the defunct website, Dictionary of Christianese.{{Cite web |title=List of Words (A-Z) |url=http://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180101070648/http://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/list-of-words-by-alphabetical |archive-date=1 January 2018 |access-date=4 January 2023 |website=Dictionary of Christianese}}{{Cite news |last=Campbell |first=Jim |date=27 October 2015 |title=A translation guide to common Christianese |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2581620937 |work=Kitsap Sun |location=Bremerton|id={{ProQuest|2581620937}} }}

The existence of Mormonese, a religolect specific to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has also been a subject of study.{{Cite journal |last=Stanley |first=Joseph A. |date=2020-12-01 |title=6. The Absence of a Religiolect Among Latter-Day Saints in Southwest Washington |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/pads/article-abstract/105/1/95/167300/6-The-Absence-of-a-Religiolect-Among-Latter-Day?redirectedFrom=PDF |journal=Publication of the American Dialect Society |volume=105 |issue=1 |pages=95–122 |doi=10.1215/00031283-8820642 |issn=0002-8207}}{{Cite journal |last=Forbush |first=Allyn |date=Winter 2023 |title=Perceptions of Mormonese: How Association with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Changes Perceptions of the Religiolect |url=https://schwa.byu.edu/files/2023/04/Winter2023_AllynForbush.pdf |journal=Schwa |issue=28 |via=Brigham Young University}}

• Code-switching
• Dialect
• Sociolect
• Shibboleth
• Lark News, Christian satirical newsletter, employing heavy Christianese for comedic effect
• Metaphorical language

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite thesis |last=Bruehler |first=Anne |title=Talking about Self, God, and Relationships: How First-year Students use Christianese to Construct Identity at a Faith-based University |date=June 2018 |access-date=4 January 2023 |degree=PhD |publisher=Lancaster University |url=https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/129815/1/2018bruehlerphd.pdf}}
• {{Cite conference |last=Coleman |first=Linda |date=1980 |title=The language of 'Born-Again' Christianity |url=https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/bls/previous_proceedings/bls6.pdf |conference=Sixth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society}}

{{wiktionary}}

• [https://cpercy.artsci.utoronto.ca/courses/6362-baker.htm Christianese: "Low" Church Jargon in Contemporary North America], a paper by Amanda Baker, submitted for ENG6362F: History & Structure of the English language II, Department of English, Dr. Percy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, 2005.
• [http://hdl.handle.net/2104/9962 Christianese: A Conversation Analysis of the Dialect of Evangelicals], honors thesis by Daniel Notman, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, 2017.

Category:Christian terminology

Category:Rhetoric

Category:Sociology of religion