Lower case spelling for God pronouns

[JulianN]

Oh please. I am so privileged that I am receiving God. That is what is important, not who brings God to me. He’s GOD. He’ll take care of Himself. Perhaps I will elect to make more errors that creep you out since your need to call me out on the carpet over such a thing creeps me out.

[Edited] the Catholic News Service guidelines (CNS is part of the USCCB) call for the pronouns for God to be lower-case. As well as the word “church”, unless it is part of the proper name of a church.

 

[happymommy]

Actually, to take this completely off-topic … the Catholic News Service guidelines (CNS is part of the USCCB) call for the pronouns for God to be lower-case. As well as the word “church”, unless it is part of the proper name of a church.

I don’t think I could write God, and be talking about the one true God, and use lower-case. Same as for using He and Him, when writing about God. Why would they want that?

 

[Jean_Anthony]

new thread

 

[Eucharisted]

I can understand why people use lower-case spelling for the divine pronouns, since it’s easier and dosen’t hold the weight of being too Catholic, but on the other hand, using upper-case spelling for the divine pronouns makes it easier to distinguish them from the human pronouns, it makes you remember God is great (at least for me), and it is a sign of respect for the Most High. Plus, we shouldn’t be afraid to show respect to God, even if it means our credibility in news will be questioned. The truth always prevails!

 

[happymommy]

I was raised Protestant and we always used upper case for God, He and Him. It’s out of respect. When I see god, I think of other god’s, pagen or something else, not the one true God.

 

[Corki]

[Edited] the Catholic News Service guidelines (CNS is part of the USCCB) call for the pronouns for God to be lower-case. As well as the word “church”, unless it is part of the proper name of a church.

… not gonna do it.

But since I don’t plan on submitting anything to CNS for publication, I won’t worry about it either.

 

[SomeCatholicGuy]

[Edited] the Catholic News Service guidelines (CNS is part of the USCCB) call for the pronouns for God to be lower-case. As well as the word “church”, unless it is part of the proper name of a church.

Personally, I have always used uppercase when referring to God pronouns, and will continue to do so. Not sure why they would specifically want to use lowercase. Seems rather odd to me.

 

[JulianN]

Originally, I was just responding to a quote on another thread that was critical of someone else using lower case pronouns for the divine. They stated that the English language called for the pronouns to be upper-case.

Personally, I find the upper-case pronouns distract me from the text-- I find them neither more nor less reverent.

 

[bpbasilphx]

Using upper-case pronouns for God is actually a relatively recent usage.

In both the KJV and D-R, such pronouns are in lower case.

This is also the practice in liturgical Latin, Greek, and Slavonic.

In pre-Nikonian orthography, even divine names are in lower case if they are not the initial word of a sentence.

In the introductory essay to the KJV “From the translators to the reader,” is asked, “Is the Kingdom of God now become words and syllables?” I can as well as, “Is the Kingdom of God now a matter of capitalization?”

 

[Digitonomy]

Using upper-case pronouns for God is actually a relatively recent usage.

In both the KJV and D-R, such pronouns are in lower case.

We have discussed this before, and while there may be recent Catholic scriptural translations that capitalize pronouns, it appears to be a Protestant innovation from the late 18th Century. The first Bible I could find that used such capitalization was published in 1802.

 

[Yellow_Belle]

Personally, I find the upper-case pronouns distract me from the text-- I find them neither more nor less reverent.

I agree, although I do make an effort to use them on CAF because I know that it matters to many posters here. That said, I have noticed that in the documents on the Vatican website www.vatican.va lower-case personal pronouns are used in reference to God (he, his love, his mercy, his will etc)

 

[ncjohn]

When I was in Catholic school back in the 50’s we were taught to capitalize the pronouns. I know it changed some time after that but I continue to do so from habit as well as my own sense of reverence, though I certainly don’t have any judgments whatsoever about what anyone else does in this regard.

 

[Aramis]

When I was in Catholic school back in the 50’s we were taught to capitalize the pronouns. I know it changed some time after that but I continue to do so from habit as well as my own sense of reverence, though I certainly don’t have any judgments whatsoever about what anyone else does in this regard.

I was taught that in Public schools in the 70’s and 80’s…

 

[EasterJoy]

In any event, the invention was Puritan, not Roman Catholic. Returning to the original English usage where pronouns referring to God were not capitalized does not betray a lack of piety.

I have seen documents on official websites of the Vatican and various dioceses that use both, presumably based on the era in which the document was published. Not using the upper case is the more recent usage, but it is obviously one approved by the Church.

IMHO, the main thing is to be charitable towards both usages, not making any gross assumptions about why a writer chooses one or the other.

 

[graceandglory]

I was raised Protestant and we always used upper case for God, He and Him. It’s out of respect. When I see god, I think of other god’s, pagen or something else, not the one true God.

We will still spell God with a capital G, because it is a proper noun, not a pronoun.

he and his and him are what is no longer capitalized according to cns.

I can’t do it.
I think the Orthodox Jewish have a good sense of the holiness of Our Lord’s name, in that they continue the Old Testament tradition of never writing His whole name, and in print will only write G-d.

That is why JHVH and YHWH are spelled thus, I think.
Correct me if I’m wrong. And didn’t Pope Benedict say this year that we are no longer to utter the word Y_HW_H, out of respect for God’s Holy Name?

 

[Digitonomy]

The first Bible I could find that used such capitalization was published in 1802.

Sorry, my mistake - it’s been more than four years since I researched this - the first Bible I could find that used capitalization of divine pronouns was published in 1902, so the practice probably dates from the late 19th Century.

 

[EasterJoy]

That is why JHVH and YHWH are spelled thus, I think.
Correct me if I’m wrong. And didn’t Pope Benedict say this year that we are no longer to utter the word Y_HW_H, out of respect for God’s Holy Name?

I don’t know of any Jews who pronounce the word spelled yad-hey-vav-hey in Hebrew. The custom is to substitute “Adonai”, instead, which is translated in English Bibles as LORD.

 

[JulianN]

I don’t know of any Jews who pronounce the word spelled yad-hey-vav-hey in Hebrew. The custom is to substitute “Adonai”, instead, which is translated in English Bibles as LORD.

I could be mistaken, (often I am ) but I believe the papal prohibition about the name YHWH was confined to liturgical situations.

 

[SomeCatholicGuy]

I’m actually leaning towards the same difference between “Catholic” and “catholic.” The word “catholic” was used when there was only one universal Christian faith, but when Martin Luther came along, the word “Catholic” was used to denote the RCC. I believe it is probably what happened here, as well. Before other religions came into public consciousness in the West, the word “god” was used to mean only the Christian God. After the introduction of Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc., perhaps it was capitalized to differentiate it from other gods. Anyway, just my own guess.

 

[Aramis]

I’m actually leaning towards the same difference between “Catholic” and “catholic.” The word “catholic” was used when there was only one universal Christian faith, but when Martin Luther came along, the word “Catholic” was used to denote the RCC. I believe it is probably what happened here, as well. Before other religions came into public consciousness in the West, the word “god” was used to mean only the Christian God. After the introduction of Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc., perhaps it was capitalized to differentiate it from other gods. Anyway, just my own guess.

It was about that time that capitalization became normative anyway… in the 1400s and before, many things were written in all one case (upper or lower).