September/October 2004

THE RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE NEWSLETTER
Volume 5, Issue 5 -- September/October 2004
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The Religious Language Newsletter is written and published every other month by Suzette Haden Elgin, Ph.D. (linguistics), from the Ozark Center for Language Studies (OCLS), PO Box 1137, Huntsville, AR 72740-1137 USA; e-mail OCLS@madisoncounty.net. It's available by e-mail only, in plain text, and is free to members of the Lovingkindness Network; thanks to generous donations, all issues are posted at http://www.forlovingkindness.org. To join the network and receive its newsletter, send $5.00 (annual dues for each calendar year) to OCLS; please be sure to include your e-mail address with your check, money order, or credit card information. (Supporting Memberships are $15.00.) Donations to Lovingkindness are tax-deductible. For more information, to request a free sample issue, or to cancel the newsletter, please e-mail OCLS@madisoncounty.net.
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IN THIS ISSUE: Editor's Note; Network Input; About the Language of Hymns; Quotes & Comments; BookNotes; Cyberspace; Announcement

EDITOR'S NOTE

To my astonishment, it's already September, which means that it's time for me to remind you that newsletter renewals are due before the end of December 2004. Early renewals are a big help to me in managing the list, and would be welcome as always; thank you. Thank you also for all the fine materials that you've been sending me. And my special thanks to all who sent donations to support Lovingkindness; I'm grateful for your help.

NETWORK INPUT

1. From Elizabeth Barrette....

"One thing that fascinates me about religious language is the difference between positive ('Thou shalt X.') and negative ('Thou shalt not Y.') instructions to members of a religion. ... The funny thing is, I see the shalt-not type of instruction quoted more than the shalt type. Is it because humans are generally negative-minded, so that's what we think of? Because we're generally pesky, so we need to be told not to misbehave? Or simply because we find the positive side of things too daunting to live up to? I'm not sure. It's an intriguing puzzle."

**Maybe it's easier to be specific and terse and quotable with the negatives. "Thou shalt not kill" and "Thou shalt not bear false witness" are quite clear; you know what acts are forbidden, and although it's possible to quibble about exactly what "kill" and "lie" mean there's no real problem understanding the rules. But "Honor thy father and thy mother"? There's nothing there to tell you which acts you're being commanded to carry out.

ABOUT THE LANGUAGE OF HYMNS

Recently Rebecca Haden loaned me a copy of _Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song_, by Brian Wren (whose contemporary hymns I have always admired), published in 2000 by Westminster John Knox. It's a wonderful book for anyone interested in how the words of songs that people sing in church (not as performance but as part of the congregation's worship) are put together, and I heartily recommend it. The title comes from a line attributed to Augustine of Hippo: "Whoever sings [to God, in worship], prays twice."

I especially enjoyed Chapter Nine, titled" 'To Me, to All, Thy Bowels Move': Why Do They Keep Changing the Good Old Hymns?", pp. 297-348. Which opens very effectively by comparing two pairs of lines from a hymn by Charles Wesley: the 1742 original, "To me, to all, thy bowels move,/Thy nature, and thy name is love"; and the 1893 revision, "To me, to all, thy mercies move -- Thy nature, and thy name is Love." Nothing like a perfect example to prove a difficult point.

On pages 316-320 Wren takes up "Linguistic Assumptions" and suggests that there are five interacting and overlapping linguistic theories currently in use for revising the words of hymns. He warns us that the names of these theories aren't intended to be "academically respectable," and then lays them out for us one at a time, with examples. They are: the Soothing Sounds theory -- "if it sounds nice, it must be OK"; the Ugly Truth theory -- "if the change is theologically and ideologically correct.... it doesn't matter how ugly it sounds, or how hard it is to say and sing; the Stone In The Shoe theory --"we've changed this in such a way that you won't like it and are bound to notice it"; the Construction Site theory, which considers a line of words as equivalent to a row of bricks in a wall -- if one is faulty, just take it out and put in any new brick the same size; and his own favorite -- the Invisible Mending theory, which tries to revise in such a way that the result is both faithful to the original intention _and_ singable.

On page 368, Wren says "By default or design, every hymn expresses a theological viewpoint." Not like prose theology, which has time and space to present a list of arguments, each with its own evidence and examples and summaries and so on. But (on page 369) "one way in which a hymn can do theology is to state, pithily and vividly, theological viewpoints whose claims are argued elsewhere, or to frame praise, thanksgiving, longing, lament, trust, commitment, and other God-centered responses based on such viewpoints." To which I would add only that -- because hymns scan and rhyme -- when they express some useful bit of theology you are likely to _remember_ it.

QUOTES & COMMENTS

1. Sally Lloyd sent me a copy of "Religious satire soars on 'South Park'," by Mark J. Pinsky (_Lansing State Journal_ for 6/19/04). Pinsky quotes religious writer Gerry Bowler saying that the show is "perhaps the most striking example of the peculiar places in which the media-consuming public is offered a chance to meet God," but notes that its religious content "has gone largely unnoticed by the mainstream, perhaps because few Christians watch it and because its satire is so outrageous that it isn't taken seriously." The show is a smash hit with viewers 18 to 34, drawing roughly 4 million views a week, mostly male. Topics dealt with, Pinsky say, include "the nature and purpose of God, the role of prayer, salvation, hell, the Christian missionary experience, religious broadasting, Mormonism.... and contemporary Christian music." Reverend James Martin, culture critic of _America_ magazine, labels the show "subversive" and says it "uses humor to lead people to a serious consideration of faith."

And here I am, in much the same position I was for "Joan of Arcadia"; I don't watch this show. The one and only time I watched "South Park" I was so revolted by it that I never went back. Maybe if I could get past the pottymouthing.... maybe if I could get past the violence...

2. Here is a very nice blessing, quoted on page 10 of _The Celtic Way of Prayer_, by Esther de Waal, to be said to someone who is leaving on a journey:

"And you are now going away and leaving your people and your country, dear one of my heart! Well, then, whole may you be, and well may it go with you, every way you go and every step you travel. And my own blessing go with you, and the blessing of God go with you, and the blessing of the Mary Mother go with you, every time you rise up and every time you lie down, until you lie down in sleep upon the arm of Jesus Christ of the virtues and of the blessings."

(The blessing comes from the _Carmina Gadelica_ -- six volumes of Celtic poems, prayers, songs, and blessings -- originally collected and edited by Alexander Carmichael. My thanks to Josepha Haden Chomphosy for the copy.)

3. From "Spider-Man's moral balancing act resonates with religious leaders," by Jeffrey Weiss, in the 7/10/04 _Lansing State Journal_:

"In India," Weiss writes, "a reworked version of Spider-Man will battle a traditional Hindu demon in a comic book later this year. Rabbis recognize something essentially Jewish in Spider-Man, pastors find a Christian message and imams identify the tenets of Islam." And "Smack in the emotional heart of 'Spider-Man 2' is the most famous line ever written for a comic book... 'With great power there must also come -- great responsibility.' "

4. _New Scientist_ for 3/20/04 has an excellent article on pp. 38-41, titled "Bad or Mad?", written by Sean Spence; it will repay careful reading. Spence explains that Saint Augustine divided evil into two types: "moral evil" -- evil that a human being freely chooses to do, in full awareness that it's wrong; and "natural evil," which is the bad things that seemingly just happen to us, like hurricanes and plagues. And then, on page 39, he writes:

"Neuroscience is beginning to tell us that while the cognitive planning part of the brains of severely antisocial people works normally, other neural centres do not. The findings raise a series of thorny questions. Should courts view evidence of antisocial personality traits as mitigating a violent crime? Should medical treatment supplant punishment? Should psychiatrists be complled to identify people with these mental abnormalities and incarcerate them for their own good and that of society? And, even, does moral evil exist, or is all evil 'natural' according to Saint Augustine's definition?"

This is a very difficult issue. For any human behavior that society disapproves of, the choice of whether to perceive it as a sin or an illness or a deliberate criminal act determines the consequences of that behavior, from the most trivial expressions of disapproval through mild social sanctions all the way to the imposition of the death penalty. It's not just a philosophical question; it matters desperately.

5. You've probably read _Mere Christianity_, by C.S. Lewis; you may have read it more than once. I just want to make two comments about it here, and offer a brief quote. First: It serves as a flawless example of what it's like to be a woman and read endless pages of religious language that is allegedly "generic." The constant drumbeat of "men, man, mankind, he, him, his, father, son, brother" is so overwhelming that -- if you're female -- you have to keep reminding yourself that Lewis does in fact intend to include you in what he's saying. It's not easy, and it requires mental gymnastics. (To find out how it feels, a male reader only needs to switch the gendered words on two or three consecutive pages and read them.) Second: The book contains a large collection of religious metaphors. Lewis is highly skilled with metaphors as explanations; even those that are, through no fault of his, a bit dated, are well done. Two brief examples:

"God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn... " (page 54)

"If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn." (page 148)

6. From "Tales Seldom Told: Pagan fiction comes of age," by Barbara Fisher (pp. 43-46, __PanGaia_ for 8-10/04), on page 44:

"Ironically, the two novels that have most influenced the course of Neo-Paganism in the United States were written by non-Pagan authors. Robert Heinlein's _Stranger in a Strange Land_ inspired the creation of The Church of All Worlds_, while Marion Zimmer Bradley's _The Mists of Avalon_ continues to draw untold numbers of female seekers to the Goddess community. Yet, Heinlein was most likely agnostic and Bradley, though believed by many to be Pagan, was actually a Gnostic Christian."

It looks to me as though Pagan fiction is in roughly the same stage that Christian fiction was in a decade ago; like Fisher, I suspect that a growing demand for quality control on both writing and production is going to transform the genre over the next few years. _PanGaia's_ website is at http://www.pangaia.com.

7. While we're talking about religious fiction, I want to say a quick word about _Shadowmancer_, the fantasy novel by G. P. Taylor that's being touted everywhere as "the Christian Harry Potter book." (Diana Cook gifted me with a copy after I said in the July/August issue that I'd like to read it; thank you, Diana.) The Fall 2004 catalogue from Crossings gives it a full page, with breathlessly-approving quotes in big black type -- comparing it to Tolkien, for example -- and an equally breathless description.

I wasn't expecting _The Lord of the Rings_, but I was expecting more than I found. I had to fight my way through _Shadowmancer_ with pick and shovel; nothing but the need to be able to discuss it in this newsletter could have forced me to read it all the way through. It struck me as the literary equivalent of the innocent person who goes to prison because some law enforcement unit is desperate for a conviction -- a "Christian Harry Potter book" was perceived as desperately needed, and here was this book, already written.... That's the best I can say for it. Now my opinion doesn't mean a great deal; it's not unusual for me to find some bestselling book so badly written that I absolutely cannot read it. Maybe I'm entirely wrong. I would be interested in your input about _Shadowmancer_.

8. Thanks to Frances Green for "The Pop Prophets," by David Gates, on pp. 45-52 of the 5/24/04 _Newsweek_. Gates reports that the Left Behind books (by Jenkins and LaHaye) are now outselling both Stephen King and John Grisham, and that the books are a favorite with the troops in Iraq. Two items particularly caught my eye.

On page 49, after talking to Jenkins: "It was in _Glorious Appearing_ that the going got tough. How should the Savior talk? 'Am I going to have him be colloquial?' There's the potential for sacrilege... (He chose to stick close to Scripture.)"

And on page 50, about the character Chloe: "Chloe's big deal is, how does this sound like a loving God? People disappear, planes crash, people die ... There is indication in the prophecies that God will harden some people's hearts. I don't get it myself; I don't understand how that fits in with God's plan." Gates tells us that this bothers Jenkins as well, and quotes him as follows: "One of the toughest things I deal with is that there are some evangelicals, with familiar faces, who seem to _like_ that part of it. You know, 'We're right, you're wrong, that's what the Bible says, someday you're going to kneel and admit it.' That should break our hearts."

BOOKNOTES

1. _Prayers and Meditations of the Quero Apache_, by Maria Yraceburu; Bear & Company 2004; ISBN 159143024-0.

I know no better way to describe this book than to quote from the back cover, which tells us that it "explains how to establish a personal practice of doohwaa-gon'ch'ada ['entering the silence']. In addition to twenty-four prayer wheels and easy-to-follow instructions for the ritual, the book includes a rare overview of the spiritual philosophies of the Quero Apache." Like all Bear & Company products, it's well printed and well designed. It has many photographs, by Lynda Yraceburu. The book is divided into four "Spirals"; the first three, "Following the Ancestor's Tracks," "Living in the Way of the Ancestors," and "Sharing Ancestral Wisdom," have an introductory essay (perhaps a sermon) followed by sets of prayers/meditations. For example, in Spiral One the "Heron's Way of Healing" section includes this, addressed to "Little Ones of the Northwest":

"I, who have known ignorance, bigotry, and injustice, live to be a shining example of unconditional love and pure intent. The patterns I weave with my life are complex, full of intricate detail and knots. I go at my own pace, taking one stitch at a time. It is the perfect fit for my overall design. I take my lessons in stride. I accept what comes as part of Spirit's plan for my spiritual growth." (page 42)

I recommend this book, and am pleased to have had the opportunity to read and review it. But I have a wish list (three wishes) for later editions. (1) I don't know why Spiral Four ("Speaking With the Ancestor's Voice") contains only the essay; it may be that it's not appropriate -- that it has something to do with the Quero theology or its practice that I failed to understand. If no barrier of that kind exists, I would like very much to see a second edition in which that Spiral's essay is followed by materials of the same kind as the other three. (2) I would like to see an edition in which someone has put in the missing commas in the final sets of prayers/meditations, so that, for example, "I am grateful Thunderbeings of the Southwest" on page 135 reads "I am grateful, Thunderbeings of the Southwest." (3) Because there are many Quero Apache words in the text, I would like to have a page added that would give the reader a basic idea of how those words are pronounced and translated -- not for native-speaker fluency, but just enough of an idea so that you aren't constantly stumbling over the words, interrupting their flow, as you read.

2. _The Gospel according to Mary: A New Testament for Women_, by Miriam Therese Winter; Crossroad 1993; ISBN 0-8245-1174- 3. [Sent by Patricia Mathews.]

"The implicit presence of women," the author tells us on page 19, "is made explicit throughout the gospel. ... In this gospel women are prominent, not an afterthought. ... Even if it is only imaginary, it feels good for a change." Winter sets up a fictional narrative frame for her gospel on page 24, telling the reader that "the writer of _The Gospel According to Mary_ was the granddaughter of Mary the mother of John Mark, who led a house church in Jerusalem. Her name was also Mary. ... Among this first-century writer's sources were her grandmother and three other women named Mary: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene." Then on page 27 we're told that the text "was circulated surreptitiously and eventually disappeared," that it was found by a shepherd girl late in the 20th century, and that "it is reproduced here in its entirety."

This book is an interesting experiment in religious language. It doesn't follow the form of the gospels of the Bible, but is divided into sections. Some are accounts from the life of Jesus; others gather together materials of a particular kind that are separate in the Bible (parables, for example, and miracles). A number of the parables have been rewritten with women taking the roles; the parable of the prodigal son and his brother becomes a parable of the "Delinquent Daughter and Her Sister." On page 35, the biblical poem Mary speaks to Elizabeth is rewritten as praise to a female God, beginning as follows:

"My soul proclaims the power of God,
my spirit delights in Her wonderful ways,
for She has shown favor to me, a woman."

This book doesn't work for me personally as an alternative testament for women. Not for theological reaons or theoretical ones; Professor Winter knows what she is doing, and does it well. My problem with the text is esthetic -- for me, its language is flat and dry and uninspiring. But that is just a matter of taste, like a preference for one translation of the Bible over another. I'm glad to have the book for the Lovingkindness library and am grateful to Pat Mathews for sending it along.

CYBERSPACE

1. _Jurists Bloglet_ for 8/19/04 reports that Reverend Jerry Falwell is now opening a law school at his Liberty University [see http://law.liberty.edu]; his goal is to "infiltrate the culture with men and women of God who are skilled in the legal profession." Dean Bruce Green says that the curriculum will focus on faith/law/morality connections; Green has a related blog, at http:// www.liberty.edu/Academics/Law/index.cfm?PID=5054. For an AP story, go to http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/08/18/falwell.law.school.ap/index.html.

I am astonished that Falwell would choose the word "infiltrate"....

2. _Religion Bookline_ for 8/10/04 had a brief review of Seyder Tkhines _The Forgotten Book of Common Prayer for Jewish Women_, translated and edited by Devra Kay. Kay says that today's Jewish women "who are seeking a precedent for women's prayer need look no further" than the "Yiddish prayer books for women that were popular in the mid- to late 17th century"; he says that the books (which became a cottage industry) "had no precedents in the history of Jewish prayer, since they were vernacular prayers written by and for women. "Particularly interesting is a prayer book written specifically for an unnamed pregnant woman..."

3. _Image Update_ for 7/15/04 recommends the Godspy website [at http://www.Godspy.com], described as a site devoted to Catholic commentary on popular culture:

"On Godspy you can ruminate over a Chekhov short story, snarf up an article on martyred monks in Algeria, and wash them down with a piece on Madonna's return to faith... Running parallel to each article down one side of the screen are links to related articles in publications from the Village Voice to Christianity Today, the National Catholic Register to the New York Times. Down the other side run comments posted by readers... "

4. My thanks to Elizabeth Barrette for sending a 7/30/04 story (titled "Old Norse mythology may be approved as a religion"), which says:

"Norse mythology and the worship of the old gods Odin and Thor may soon become an approved religious community in Denmark. The religious authorities have for years refused to approve the organization Forn Sidr as a religious community, but in a new statement it appears as if they might be given the go ahead. In other words, it appears as if the worship of Norse gods may once again be accepted as a religion after it was banned more than 1000 years ago." [You can read the article at http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/english/article151819.ece.]

5. Thanks to Hal Davis for a very long and intricate article (followed by equally intricate comments, some of them flames) explaining why an article about the Koran by Christoph Luxenberg (not his real name) has been banned in Pakistan. The format of the article, which is titled "Stepping out of the box to look at events," makes it difficult to talk about or summarize; I think it's best for me to just offer a quote here and refer you to the Net address -- http://www.parapundit.com/archives/001519.html. Here's the quote:

"While scriptural interpretation may seem like a remote and innocuous activity, close textual study of Jewish and Christian scripture played no small role in loosening the Church's domination on the intellectual and cultural life of Europe, and paving the way for unfettered secular thought. 'The Muslims have the benefit of hindsight of the European experience, and they know very well that once you start questioning the holy scriptures, you don't know where it will stop' ...."

6. In "Site lets you sit in on an Internet congregation" ( _The Albuquerque Tribune_ for 8/7/04), Terry Mattingly writes about a Tony Campolo sermon on the Church of Fools website, during which "Many of the faithful said 'amen,' lifted their hands or made the sign of the cross. Then Campolo froze for a moment, as an hourglass icon hovered in the Romanesque arches of the Church of Fools, the worlds' first 3-D, interactive, virtual church. This kind of thing happens when traffic jams the Internet." This is a church where 35 at a time can "sign on and create characters that stand, sit or kneel... whisper or talk to nearby worshippers, slip into the church crypt for discussions or linger at icons in prayer," while 1500 more can participate "as silent ghosts."

The site was part of an experiment -- a pilot project running from 5/11/04 through 8/8/04 -- run by volunteers; the hope is that it will be able to stay open and will grow. And Mattingly adds that "the Church of England is poised to open a digital church of some kind." Thanks to Pat Mathews for the copy.

7. The AP story by Sarah Linn for 7/10/04 titled "christian game lets player 'smite' foes" is short, but thick with religious language. Linn tells us that the best weapon in Christian videogames is "a ball of holy energy known as a 'smite'," and that the weapons in the popular "Eternal War: Shadows of Light" include 'soul disks, Trinity blasts" and those smites again. The smite is described as "a ball of liquid holy energy that vaporizes bad guys." The story claims that the goal of Christian videogame developers is to create an alternative to games like "Grand Theft Auto" without being boring or turning players off.

But it seems to me that there's a problem here. Successfully "smiting" someone has two possible consequences. (1) The enemy vanishes or vaporizes -- which is killing, just like shooting someone with a gun is killing. Or (2) the enemy starts praying -- which seems to me to carry a message that being obliged to pray is a punishment for "losing." Am I missing something?

8. According to _Religion BookLine_ for 7/13/04, independent Christian bookstores have run into an unexpected Catch-22. Suddenly Christian fiction titles such as the Left Behind series and _Peace Like A River_ are on bestseller lists, selling in the many millions of copies. In theory, this is a good thing; in practice, it means that those titles are now being stocked by the big chains like Barnes & Noble as well as at the independents. A publisher who asked to remain anonymous said, "Maybe eight of the 10 books I read this year will be something other than religion, and I'll probably buy those at Borders or Barnes & Noble. I'm more likely to buy the two Christian books I want while I'm there than to drive to the Christian bookstore across town."

9. I did -- finally -- find time to go visit the Ship of Fools website [at http://www.shipoffools.com]; I should have done it long ago. The welcome page is headed "ShipofFools.com: the Magazine of Christian Unrest," which is significant; the day I was there the featured stories included "The Mystery Prilgrim: In a special Mystery Worshipper feature, one of our reporters takes to the Camino in Spain, and reports from four churches along the pilgrimage trail" and "Pew! What a scorcher...: In these days of feelgood faith, Steve Goddard flips open Hymns Ancient and Prehistoric to sing the praises of organised religion." Links offered in the "Recently shipped" feature included "Talking Jesus doll" and "The 12 Days of Kitschmas" and "10 things you'd hate about John Wesley" and more. There's a "Fruitcake Zone" link at the bottom of the page, and an archive link and a "Gadgets for God" link. I didn't stay long, because if I'd given in for five minutes I'm reasonably certain I'd have been there two hours, and I didn't have two hours to spare. Recommended.

10. Cyberplaces to visit.... An article on sloth titled "The Virtue of Idleness," at http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1276787,00.html, suggested by Douglas Dee; "Eco-Friendly Persuasion," by Susan Strong, at http://www.quakerearthcare.org/ecowitness/ecobulletin4-4a.html; _The Literary Spirituality Review_, at http://www.nimblespirit.com; and a document from the Pope disputing "feminist ideologies," at http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope, suggested by Barbara Riley.

ANNOUNCEMENT

I now have a blog (web log), at http://www.livejournal.com/users/ozarque. There have been no discussions of religious language there so far, but such discussions would be welcome. (We have discussed some religious science fiction.) I'd be pleased to have you visit, and to have your comments and suggestions either at the blog or by direct e-mail.

TO JOIN A NETWORK AND RECEIVE ITS NEWSLETTER: Send newsletter title, your e-mail address, and your check, money order, or credit card information (for Visa or Mastercard) to OCLS, PO Box 1137, Huntsville, AR 72740-1137 USA. The newsletters are: _The Linguistics & Science Fiction Newsletter_; _The Religious Language Newsletter_; and _The Verbal Self-Defense Newsletter_. Each $5.00 a year ($15.00 Supporting) for the six issues of the calendar year, by e-mail only, advertising-free. For more information or a free sample issue, or to cancel the newsletter, please e-mail OCLS@madisoncounty.net.

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