Christianese is honestly one of the strangest things about being a christian to me; the way we can communicate amongst other christians in imagery and language that would make absolutely zero sense to an 'outsider' is completely bizzare.
Now, before I go on saying how weird it is, I have to say I'm guilty of speaking in it. Probably fairly often. But that still doesn't make it any less weird.
So, on the way home from seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D (I could write an entirely new and lengthy post on how incredible this movie is, but I won't) my dad used the phrase "if the Lord should tarry." Now, as a christian, this didn't sound too weird and most christians would probably agree with me. But as an American, it sounds like a foreign language. Honestly, "if the Lord should tarry?" What on earth does that even mean? We never use the word 'tarry'.
"Hey, if Bill should tarry we may not be able to start the meeting on time..."
Never... never in the history of the American businessman has this phrase been uttered inside an office. And, if it had been, it would never have been followed by:
"Hmm, this is true. Let's hope for a hedge of protection around his vehicle with the traffic and all..."
Christians (we) are weird. Hedges don't keep anything out of anything, they provide zero protection. Perhaps if you're an ant you might have some protection from a hedge, but that's about it. Tim Hawkins already bashed hedges to death though, so I won't talk about them long.
Anyway, if anyone has any other interesting Christianese lingo they'd like to post as a comment, I want to hear it!
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How about "traveling mercies" or "travel mercies" people quote that one like it's in the Bible.
ReplyDeleteIt can be odd when people speak all King James-y, especially when you just get that sense that they are intentionally trying to sound more religious for the reaction it will get, like everyone around them will think they are so holy.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the desperate desire to sound "regular" when talking about Christian faith can get weird too. I remember in college when a friend walked up and I asked him where he was coming from and he said "oh, I was just hanging out with God." That just sounded like he was trying so hard to avoid saying "I was praying." Plus, all the connotations of "hanging out" don't quite mix with the reality of private prayer - so without intention or confrontation, like he was sharing a soda and watching Family Guy with God.
Where it gets serious for me is when Christians, in an effort to avoid Christianese, get to the point where they just won't use certain words because they worry too much about what others (non-believers or nominal Christians) might think. They will try to find synonyms for words like sin, repentance, sacrifice, atonement, holiness, salvation - words used to express central realities in the Christian faith that sound Christianese because they have nearly no use outside of Christian theology and are therefore rarely if ever heard outside. There really aren't any non-Christianese synonyms for these words so they are inescapable and necessary to our speaking as Christians, and gloriously so. I get worried and sad when I see trends in the church where people are trying so hard to avoid sounding Christianese that they drop the rich language of our tradition that expresses the ultimate mystery of all reality - our salvation through substitution and participation in Jesus Christ, his descent into sin and death to raise us up to communion with him. This is Christianese at its most indispensable. Yes it sounds odd to those outside the church, and also yes we ought to avoid being needlessly odd and thus build barriers to the faith for those outside, but there is also an inescapable oddness in Jesus Christ himself, his incarnation and cross, that we dare not try to soften for those outside. That oddness, which will necessarily be reflected in the odd language we use to tell them about Christ, must confront them and us - we must not even try to diminish it - so that it can do its work revealing the utter oddness of our sinful hearts, laying them open to Christ so he can heal them. Then, it is the hollow and meaningless talk of the world that will sound odd.
Mr. Nigh! Haven't heard from you in a while, haha. But wow, I totally agree with what you said here. There definitely is the line where "christianese" is the only way to communicate a particular idea, and I'm certainly not saying this should be done away with. I'm just more entertained by the more "unimportant" phrases, if you will. Phrases that aren't necessarily scriptural but that Christians just say because it sounds nice.
ReplyDeleteI really like your comments though, thanks for the feedback. Good to hear from you!