Capitalizing words referring to God and Heaven?

  • Thread starter Thread starter normdplume
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
N

normdplume

Guest
Following is a sentence taken from a story I’m writing. I’m wondering whether to use capitalization of all words referring to God and Heaven. Many Christian sites/posts do so, but the Bible does not. It strikes me as awkward, especially here where there are so many:
Code:
Father, just as You received Your perfect Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, into Heaven, I beseech You now in His name to lift this curse from John.
Thoughts?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Father, just as you received your perfect son, our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

Capitalize words you use instead of the name --so, for instance, if you did not have “Jesus Christ” in the sentence, you would capitalize ‘son.’

When in doubt, lowercase. 🙂
 
Capitalization of the proper nouns is both traditional and respectful but not a hard and fast rule with a number of them which are not personages. I don’t always do it but that’s 'cause I’m lazy. 😉 Heaven, for instance, or even catholic and protestant need not be capitalized unless one is referring directly to a specific branch within them. The best rule I have found as a writer is to capitalize anything that can be construed as personal names or titles.
 
Also, capitalization of pronouns has its origins in Protestantism, so if the story is Catholic, you’re safer with lower case.
 
What’s in the style guide for the publisher you’re submitting to?

If you’re not submitting it to a publisher, you can do whatever you want.
 
The capitalization of the H in Him is mainly a Protestant thing, not popular at all in Catholic circles.

The orthography I would use would be:

Father, just as you received your perfect Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, into Heaven, I beseech you now in his name to lift this curse from John.
 
It’s meant for a Christian audience, but primarily for Catholics. I’ll leave out caps on pronouns.

Thank you, all.
 
I always capitalize “He”, “Him” etc when referring to God or other holy persons. Imo it’s more respectful.
 
I vote capitalize words referring to God and Jesus. As far as capital H in heaven I probably wouldn’t have gone that far.

God Bless
 
The style guide for your publisher really is your guide – Associate Press, the Catholic News Service and the Chicago Manual of Style, for example, do not capitalize these pronouns.
 
I thought of it as being part of his title (Our Lord and Savior). No?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top