Christianese (or Christianeze) refers to the contained terms and jargon used within many of the branches and denominations of Christianity as a functional system of religious terminology.
[1] It is characterized by the use in everyday conversation of certain words, theological terms, puns and catchphrases, in ways that may be only comprehensible within the context of a particular Christian sect or denomination.
"[4] New Testament scholar and theologian Marcus Borg comments that Christianese is used by Christians "to connect their religion to their life in the world".
[5] Like secret languages such as rhyming slang, evangelical Christianese relies on the hearer's ability to "reconstruct...the sequence of logical connections" to understand the meaning of an utterance.
One linguistic analysis of online evangelical sermons by the pastor of megachurch Lifechurch.tv found an excessive use of just in phrases like "Again, let me just put it as simply as I can...", often used in order to express sincerity.
"[10] Megachurches and celebrity pastors have also been linked to the rise of modern Christianese by University of Sheffield linguist Valerie Hobbs, author of An Introduction to Religious Language: Exploring Theolinguistics in Contemporary Contexts.
This is what we should expect, of course: the Evangelical needs to be able to talk about events in a way that members of the broader society generally do not, since the Evangelical is trying to reference two levels of reality which impinge on each other.Others, however, have since argued for a more nuanced view of God as agent in Christianese, contending that a part of such language competence is to know when to refer to God actively or passively, which often occurs in different topic categories such as "action", "plan", or "blessing" vs. "belief", "surrender", or "conversion", respectively.
Leonard argues this is coded language intended to appeal to Christian voters; Bush's speechwriter Michael Gerson, however, contends it is "our culture".
[22] In the book Apostles of Rock: the Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music, author Jay Howard comments on a move towards exhortational, "scripture lesson" themes in contemporary Christian music, in which Christianese became more common: Lyrics were soon overflowing with phrases and references all but incomprehensible outside of an evangelical framework.
The article "Unlearning 'Christianese'" in Canadian Mennonite makes the comparison to legalese, "which has its place and purpose, but is confusing and meaningless to people who aren't lawyers."
The author addresses the perceived clichéd nature of Christianese and urges readers to use more thoughtfulness and clarity when discussing faith.
[24] An article in Relevant magazine listed several "Christianese relationship cliches" to avoid such as "I'm guarding my heart", stating, "People often use these phrases without really even knowing what it is they are trying to say.
", urging readers to reconsider Christianese as it "only alienates people outside of the Christian community and makes us seem like even more of a members-only culture.
[27] Christian writer Dean Merrill's book Damage Control: How to Stop Making Jesus Look Bad argues that "Christianese mystifies, overwhelms, antagonizes and manipulates those who don't hold similar beliefs.
"[28] Bill J. Leonard argues that it can appear elitist and divisive – making the faith less accessible – which he compares to Jesus, who used stories that were understandable by the general public.