Replacement Definitions
Skye Jethani
January 1, 2006
My daughter will never eat Spam. Sometime between my childhood and hers, the canned pseudo-ham product became an unwanted e-mail ad. Likewise, "surfing" involves a mouse, and she'll experience "hotspots" long before menopause. The exponential expansion of technologies means that "English is probably changing faster than any other language," notes linguist Alan Firth. But the overnight creation and redefinition of English words (I just discovered my cell phone might be blue-jacked) has traditionalists alarmed. Prince Charles, for example, has launched a campaign to preserve "English English." With restrained royal indignation, the prince says, "People tend to invent all sorts of nouns and verbs and make words that shouldn't be. I think we have to be a bit careful, otherwise the whole thing can get rather a mess." To make his case, perhaps he should start a blog. For decades church leaders have sought to make the language of faith more accessible to those outside the church. Terms once common to Christians have fallen out of use, and new phrases emerge. The worship service has become a celebration. The church building a campus. And, the authoritative sermon is now a helpful talk. We've reevaluated the usefulness of many words, but are we now in danger of creating a royal mess? Few may lament the loss of cumbersome theological terms like propitiation, but what about words like grace, disciple, and even love. Philosopher Dallas Willard is concerned. "The really good language of the Bible has been compromised," he told a group in Chicago recently. "People assume they understand the meaning of words we use all the time, but they really don't." Simple theological words like salvation and disciple have, according to Willard, been hijacked ... Dallas Willard's New Dictionary
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