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ChristianeseChristianese: (kirs'ch nez') A subcultural dialect spoken by members of the Christian church, especially within, though not limited to, contemporary Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism. Christianese is characterised by the use of theological terms and clichs in every day conversation, which is very difficult to understand without any context. This limits the understanding of Christianese to those within the church, serving to exclude outsiders. Basic Christianese In its basic form, Christianese uses Biblical and theological terms and clichs to examine faith matters and experiences. Though the words are known to the speaker of the wider langauge (eg English), without an understand of the Bible or theology the listener has no context to what is being said. This can confuse, and sometimes even repel the listener. For example, a phrase like,"Washed in the blood" in a Christianese context means "forgiven because I believe in Jesus." However, without an understand of Jesus, what He did, or what His actions mean in Christian theology, this statement could sound quite disgusting. Below are a few examples of Christianese terms and what they mean. - "Washed in the blood" = Forgiven because I have faith in Jesus.
- "Blessed" = Feeling good.
- "Born Again" = Have faith in Jesus; ie Christian.
- "Saved" = Have faith in Jesus; ie Christian.
- "On fire for God" = Excited about God.
- "Sanctified" = The process of becoming more think Jesus (eg caring, loving, dedicated to God)
- "Redeemed" = Made right with God.
- "Backsliding" or "Backslider" = A noun or verb describing a Christian who seems to be losing their faith.
- "Slain in the Spirit" = An experience in which the power of God causes people to fall to the ground.
- "Walk with God" = The practise of being a Christian.
- "Signs of the times" = When current world events are seen to line up with prophecies throughout the Bible, indicating Christ's 2nd coming.
- "Mission" = Christian activites which serve the church or the community.
- "Outreach" = The process of taking the Christian message to people who are not Christians.
- "non-Christians" (sometimes "pre-Christians") = People who are not Christians.
- "Witness" or "Witnessing" = Telling someone how and why you are a Christian, generally on a one-to-one basis.
It should be noted that the fact that Christianese exists has not gone unnoticed in the church. Many church-goers, especially the younger generations, recognise that Christianese hinders Christian contact with the outside world. This realisation has led many to think about the way Christians communicate there message. Godspeak (or Counter-Christianese) The realisation that Christianese has hindered the communciation of the Christian message to the rest of the world has given rise to the development of Counter-Christianese or Godspeak. The name Godspeak is a reference to Newspeak from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as it shares the same function of reducing the vocabulary of the existing langauge (ie Basic Christianese). In this form of Christianese, obviously theological based terms like redeemed and sanctified are removed while more 'normal' sounding words like saved remain. This has the effect of making Godspeak more palatable to the listener's ear but does not always correct the underlying problem of context. Another, very noticeable, characteristic of Godspeak is that it seems to contain only one positive adjective, being "awesome". See also External links References * Using the Right Words - Insider Language Excludes People
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