Ever notice Protestants say 'Jesus' more, and Catholics use 'Christ' more?

[flameburns623]

I was going to point out the same thing. It’s more a difference of style than of substance. I don’t think there’s a real difference going on here.

Contrariwise to Semper Fi I don’t think it is nascent Nestorianism that is plaguing Evangelical or conservative Protestantism. I think it is the desire to communicate to ordinary people without concern for being theologically precise. If they are speaking to an educated crowd and feel the need to be theologically precise they can be. Roman Catholic priests are IMHO vastly over-educated in this respect. They lose the ability to speak in plain terms about even basic theology and spend years re-learning this skill within whatever parish they might serve–IF they ever do re-learn it. Most don’t. They preach what amounts to pious-sounding gobbledygook to their flocks. Since priests aren’t taught how to speak publicly anyhow, and spend most of their time behind the pulpit saying ‘uhm’ or ‘err’ or other non-words, it’s no wonder that Catholics listen to Protestants if they want to hear decent preaching. The same problem exists with Anglican priests, in case anyone thinks I’m picking on the RCC, BTW. Both denominations need to fire their ‘homiletics’ professors and hire some folks who teach ‘preaching’.

One thing to note in passing: the term ‘Christ’ is often co-opted by the New Age and by liberalism and re-defined in theologically-vague terms. If there is any reluctance to use the term ‘Christ’ it might be in view of this issue.

 

[spiritblows]

Dear Flameburns,
I don’t know what in the world you are talking about. Many priests are excellent speakers, delivering interesting and insightful homilies. I find many evangelical preachers long-winded and often sidetracking into mere motivational speaking, personally.

Gobbledy gook? I don’t think so.

 

[ahimsaman72]

spiritblows:

ahimsa,
You say ‘lighten up’ for some unknown reason. Nobody on this thread is being condemning, as far as I know. I started it as a simple observation, kind of curious about these semantics. If you took it in an insulting or critical way, I think you are probably mistinterpreting it’s intent.

My friend, I didn’t mean to sound harsh in my post. I even used a smiley face in the post . Carol Marie had mentioned that somebody (not necessarily on this forum) had told her that it was akin to heresy, so that was what I was referring to. I wasn’t meaning my comments towards you personally but to those who make such a huge deal out of it (like calling it a heresy to refer only to the name “Jesus”. I hope you didn’t take offense.

Peace…

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

spiritblows:

I’ve noticed for a long time that Protestants, especially from non-liturgical type churches, almost always refer to our saviour as ‘Jesus’. They sound much more informal when talking about Jesus Christ. They talk about a personal relationship more.

Catholics, Orthodox, etc are more likely to use the more formal "Christ’, which seems to more emphasize the Divine aspect of Jesus Christ, at least it does to me.

If you ever watch TV preachers, you’ll never hear them say ‘Christ’. It’s always the first name ‘Jesus’ . It sounds more informal to me. Anyways, what, if anything, do you think? Is it just a cultural thing?

As with any judgement about features of populations, how one relates what one notices in the sample of the population to the frequency of what one notices in the sample depends upon the size of the sample; its geographical location; the social background of the persons in it; and so on.​

To get your answer, the sample would have to be a sufficiently representative cross-section of the USA population: and that would still tell you only about the USA, and nowhere else - except for the occasioal piece of anecdotal evidence about this or that section of a few other populations, which would be largely self-selected.

Ask a trained sociologist who is also a statistician ##

 

[BillyT92679]

I talked with an Evangelical girl at work once who told me that that it isn’t necessary to refer to Blessed Trinity, but just to Jesus. I looked at her cross-eyed. Now I love the Son with my whole heart, mind, and soul, but I don’t go out of my way to elevate Him above the Father and the Holy Spirit. I oftentimes think that some Evangelicals worship Jesus in a vacuum, giving a passing nod to the Father and not even recognize the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals of course put the emphasis on the Holy Ghost. Actually, “worship” in the Catholic sense of latria doesn’t seem to fit. I almost get the feel that some Evangelicals really don’t think Jesus is God, or don’t really care. They have such an emphasis on the Sacred Humanity of the Lord that His Sacred Divinity is seen as unimportant, or worse, “too Romanish.”

 

[BillyT92679]

How many times do you ever hear low-church Protestants refer to Jesus Christ as God? Son of God but not God the Son. I know euphemistically they mean the same thing, but still… the lack of emphasis on the Divine really bugs me.

 

[Reuben_J]

carol marie:

Interesting thread… as a convert I can honestly say that I never use the term “Christ” - it’s always Jesus.

To take it a step further… I don’t really think about God the Father - (Oh, not that I don’t think about Him at all) it’s just that when I’m praying, it’s all about Jesus… He is who I picture listening to my prayers. I pray in the name of all three of course - but it’s Jesus I feel KNOWS me… loves me, mediates for me.

I suppose it’s wrong to seperate them like that… ?

No, it’s not wrong. You are not against the other two persons of the Trinity. It’s as if we are making a big deal about all this. But this is lovely for a change - talking about how we address our God. He doesn’t mind and He does not get angry. The grace is upon us as we know Him more and more by calling on His name. Thus, I say, it’s good for you that you can identify with Jesus in that manner.

Remembering that Jesus and the Father are one, and that you can go to the Father through the Son, I’d say it’s perfectly alright you should focus on Jesus. There are many ways of praying, and surely yours is a good one of them!

Hey, for the girl with the baby - bless you and that baby too. Let us know when the baby will come, will ya? Do you know that babies are gifts from God? They are.

May I pray this blessing upon you both. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.(2 Cor 13:14).

 

[scylla]

Most Evangelicals whereI live have a good relationship with Jesus and really stress their love for Him. So they are constantly talking about Him by calling Him by name.

Catholics do have a more formal way of worship as others have said, which is way different from the Calvary Chapel enviroment with the band up front and preacher. I think that leads to a little different approach to addressing God.

I have certainly heard them refer to God the Father also, but I believe it is just a cultural thing an effect of worship style and environment. Now my brother who is part of a pretty extreme fundamentalist church is a little different story.

Even if I lead us in a prayer at a formal dinner, like on Thanksgiving, if I finish the prayer “through Christ our Lord Amen” He will say out loud “In Jesus name Amen” He even has done it when I have said “through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen” as I was trying to make the family more united in our prayer. He is pretty biased against the Church though, hopefully as time goes by he will open up and we can talk about it more. I think in this case it is a case of bias and it is just stressed in some Fundamentalist Churches, this is just my own personal experience.

God Bless
Scylla

 

[YinYangMom]

scylla:

Now my brother who is part of a pretty extreme fundamentalist church is a little different story.

Even if I lead us in a prayer at a formal dinner, like on Thanksgiving, if I finish the prayer “through Christ our Lord Amen” He will say out loud “In Jesus name Amen” He even has done it when I have said “through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen” as I was trying to make the family more united in our prayer. He is pretty biased against the Church though, hopefully as time goes by he will open up and we can talk about it more. I think in this case it is a case of bias and it is just stressed in some Fundamentalist Churches, this is just my own personal experience.

God Bless
Scylla

This thread has proven most interesting. How curious is that reaction from your brother, similar to the one from my ex-coworker. I really just don’t know what to make of it when I encounter such obvious indications of a difference.

 

[spiritblows]

scylla:

Most Evangelicals whereI live have a good relationship with Jesus and really stress their love for Him. So they are constantly talking about Him by calling Him by name.

Catholics do have a more formal way of worship as others have said, which is way different from the Calvary Chapel enviroment with the band up front and preacher. I think that leads to a little different approach to addressing God.

I have certainly heard them refer to God the Father also, but I believe it is just a cultural thing an effect of worship style and environment. Now my brother who is part of a pretty extreme fundamentalist church is a little different story.

Even if I lead us in a prayer at a formal dinner, like on Thanksgiving, if I finish the prayer “through Christ our Lord Amen” He will say out loud “In Jesus name Amen” He even has done it when I have said “through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen” as I was trying to make the family more united in our prayer. He is pretty biased against the Church though, hopefully as time goes by he will open up and we can talk about it more. I think in this case it is a case of bias and it is just stressed in some Fundamentalist Churches, this is just my own personal experience.

God Bless
Scylla

Yes, I think this is interesting as well. This wording differerence is purely cultural semantics, in my estimation. And, your brother is a contrarian. Hopefully, he’ll chill out one of these days, but it’s probably an old habit, hard to break.

 

[tjmiller]

Interesting observations!

Growing up protestant, I’m sure I said “Jesus” more often than “Christ” - merely in the sense that I would use someone’s first name more often than his last name.

Over my 16 years as a Catholic, I notice - now that you bring it up - that I don’t say “Jesus” or “Christ” either one, very often at all. It seems that I prefer to say “the Lord”. I think that I say “Jesus” only when referring to the historical events described in the Gospels!

Maybe this means that I have a more transcendent, pneumatic Christological spirituality? And that I fixate on the Divinity of Christ more than on His humanity? (However, when circumstances require an explicit distinction between the Persons of the Trinity, it seems that I most often say “Christ”.)

This might make a good Poll!

 

[Semper_Fi_1]

flameburns623:

I was going to point out the same thing. It’s more a difference of style than of substance. I don’t think there’s a real difference going on here.

Contrariwise to Semper Fi I don’t think it is nascent Nestorianism that is plaguing Evangelical or conservative Protestantism. I think it is the desire to communicate to ordinary people without concern for being theologically precise. If they are speaking to an educated crowd and feel the need to be theologically precise they can be. Roman Catholic priests are IMHO vastly over-educated in this respect. They lose the ability to speak in plain terms about even basic theology and spend years re-learning this skill within whatever parish they might serve–IF they ever do re-learn it. Most don’t. They preach what amounts to pious-sounding gobbledygook to their flocks. Since priests aren’t taught how to speak publicly anyhow, and spend most of their time behind the pulpit saying ‘uhm’ or ‘err’ or other non-words, it’s no wonder that Catholics listen to Protestants if they want to hear decent preaching. The same problem exists with Anglican priests, in case anyone thinks I’m picking on the RCC, BTW. Both denominations need to fire their ‘homiletics’ professors and hire some folks who teach ‘preaching’.

One thing to note in passing: the term ‘Christ’ is often co-opted by the New Age and by liberalism and re-defined in theologically-vague terms. If there is any reluctance to use the term ‘Christ’ it might be in view of this issue.

I say this from personal experience… most protestants I know separate Jesus’ divinity from his humanity. Jesus is God & Man, period. I’m not sure how much education you need to understand that, or get the point across. I also think you haven’t heard very many Catholic sermons, because the ones I’ve been to are usually hard hitting, down to earth sermons. Now, I’ve been in Baptist churches where the pastor would go out of his way to single out the fact that I’m Catholic, or be talking about something such as ‘being saved’ specifically because he knew I was going to be there that night & talking about hellfire & damnation. If that’s not longwinded I don’t know what is. Try not to paint with such a broad brush. I think that because so many Evangelicals emphasize a ‘personal relationship with Jesus’, is where a lot of them may get confused. This is just my guess, but that’s what I’ve learned while talking to many protestants. By the way, how can you say most don’t? How many Catholic churches have you been into and how many Catholic priests have you personally known? You can’t possibly say ‘most’… not even being Catholic.

 

[BeluvdLily]

Jabronie:

Actually, Protestants pronounce it, “JAAAAY-sus”. Sorry, that wasn’t very nice at all. :bigyikes:

I think it basically comes down to the fact that more tradional Christians (Catholics, Orthodox, some Lutherans, etc.) tend to focus more on either the Trinity, or God the Father. We’ll treat things a little more…subserviant. Using the title, Christ, instead of Jesus.

It seems to me that since Protestants will focus more on their own personal relationship with Jesus, they’ll use His name instead of His title.

In other words, Catholics embrace the whole “Family” idea where Protestants look more for the one-on-one relationship.

Being raised Protestant and just now in RCIA I definitely say Jesus. I guess it’s just what I’m used to. I love Him and feel so close to Him and Jesus just seems natural to me.

The thing is, having southern roots and being around southerners, sometimes it does come out JAYSUS! This gives my British husband no end of amusement but whether it comes out Jesus or Jaysus, I still love Him!

Amie

 

[LtTony]

Given the fact that Protestants generally are avid Bible readers, it simply become ingrained in them to use only his first name “Jesus” when praying to him or speaking about him. That’s not to say that Catholics don’t read their Bibles, but given the high pedestal given reading the Bible in Protestant life it would be natural for protestants to refer to him only by “Jesus”.

Just my observation of others and myself as a Baptist.

Peace…

Good thread. I have wondered about this for some time since I often attend my wife’s fundie church. They “ask this in the name of Jesus,” rather than the more formal “we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.” The above explanation makes sense to me.

 

[deb1]

flameburns623:

I was going to point out the same thing. It’s more a difference of style than of substance. I don’t think there’s a real difference going on here.

Contrariwise to Semper Fi I don’t think it is nascent Nestorianism that is plaguing Evangelical or conservative Protestantism. I think it is the desire to communicate to ordinary people without concern for being theologically precise. If they are speaking to an educated crowd and feel the need to be theologically precise they can be. Roman Catholic priests are IMHO vastly over-educated in this respect. They lose the ability to speak in plain terms about even basic theology and spend years re-learning this skill within whatever parish they might serve–IF they ever do re-learn it. Most don’t. They preach what amounts to pious-sounding gobbledygook to their flocks. Since priests aren’t taught how to speak publicly anyhow, and spend most of their time behind the pulpit saying ‘uhm’ or ‘err’ or other non-words, it’s no wonder that Catholics listen to Protestants if they want to hear decent preaching. The same problem exists with Anglican priests, in case anyone thinks I’m picking on the RCC, BTW. Both denominations need to fire their ‘homiletics’ professors and hire some folks who teach ‘preaching’.

One thing to note in passing: the term ‘Christ’ is often co-opted by the New Age and by liberalism and re-defined in theologically-vague terms. If there is any reluctance to use the term ‘Christ’ it might be in view of this issue.

There are Protestant Pastor’s who preach poorely just as there are Catholic Priests who do so. My priest is an excellent speaker in my opinion, but he is does not give fire and brimstone type homilies. Most of his sermons are directed at the already saved and speak on how to live our Christian life. I appreciate this.

 

[Mickey]

flameburns623:

Roman Catholic priests are IMHO vastly over-educated in this respect. They lose the ability to speak in plain terms about even basic theology and spend years re-learning this skill within whatever parish they might serve–IF they ever do re-learn it. Most don’t. They preach what amounts to pious-sounding gobbledygook to their flocks.

In my experience, this is an inaccurate statement. We should refrain from sweeping generalizations.

 

[ahimsaman72]

LtTony:

Good thread. I have wondered about this for some time since I often attend my wife’s fundie church. They “ask this in the name of Jesus,” rather than the more formal “we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.” The above explanation makes sense to me.

Thanks. I was hoping someone else would see it this way instead of assuming all protestants purposely left out the title of Jesus (the Christ).

When you read the New Testament you read about Jesus healing people, speaking to people, etc. The authors didn’t constantly refer to him as Jesus Christ the Lord. Why should they? When Jesus healed someone, the phrase was, “and Jesus healed the leper”, not “and Jesus Christ the Lord healed the leper”. When you read the Bible often, it becomes very natural to refer to him as the authors of the Bible refer to him. That was my experience as a non-Catholic.

Peace…

 

[Mickey]

ahimsaman72:

Thanks. I was hoping someone else would see it this way instead of assuming all protestants purposely left out the title of Jesus (the Christ).

When you read the New Testament you read about Jesus healing people, speaking to people, etc. The authors didn’t constantly refer to him as Jesus Christ the Lord. Why should they? When Jesus healed someone, the phrase was, “and Jesus healed the leper”, not “and Jesus Christ the Lord healed the leper”. When you read the Bible often, it becomes very natural to refer to him as the authors of the Bible refer to him. That was my experience as a non-Catholic.

Peace…

Good point my friend!

 

[ahimsaman72]

Mickey:

Good point my friend!

Hello dear friend. Hope your holidays were good!

Peace to you…

 

[Evan]

ahimsaman72:

Given the fact that Protestants generally are avid Bible readers, it simply become ingrained in them to use only his first name “Jesus” when praying to him or speaking about him.

I know if you spend time reading the epistles that ‘Lord Jesus Christ’, ‘Christ Jesus’, ‘Jesus Christ’ etc are everywhere. A single Jesus is found but many times so is a single Christ.

I would not use the bible as a reason for the difference. Only in the Gospels do we find ‘Jesus’ consistently refered to without titles.

For example, Romans Chapter 1 begins
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

Which he had promised before, by his prophets, in the holy scriptures,

Concerning his Son, who was made to him of the seed of David, according to the flesh,

Who was predestinated the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead:

By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith, in all nations, for his name:

Among whom are you also the called of Jesus Christ:

To all that are at Rome, the beloved of God, called to be saints. Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, I give thanks to my God, through Jesus Christ, for you all: because your faith is spoken of in the whole world.