On Capitalization
[Cross-posted to christianity, and LonelyPilgrim as soon as it stops being foolish. And no, this is not an "intense post." Anyone can read it without being offended, unless you, like me, are offended by poor grammar.]
First post here! This is just a little bit of geekery that's been rolling around in my head for several weeks.
In the past, I was never one to capitalize pronouns that reference God (e.g. He, His, Thee). It seemed old-fashioned, excessive, and not particularly meaningful. I grew up reading the New International Version of the Bible, which does not use such embellishments, and I've come to rely on the Chicago Manual of Style as my stylistic bible, which recommends against it (see 15th edition, 8.97, 8.102).
But I have always been conscious, perhaps overconscious, of the disparity between my own style and the apparent popular usage around me. I worried that my own lack of capitalization might come across to others as irreverent, disrespectful, or sacrilegious.
Since my Redemption, I've begun capitalizing. It's not that I think God particularly cares, but if I'm going to be a good witness to other people, I feel I ought to at least show proper respect. I still hold it to be old-fashioned, excessive, and unnecessary, and it goes against all of my most deeply-ingrained principles of grammar and style, but after all God has done for me, I feel He deserves the honorifics.
This is the South, and I travel in evangelical circles, and I still imagine cold stares every time I fail to capitalize. So yes, I do it for other people. I do it so that none of my readers might find me lacking in reverence, be offended, and tune me out - not because I care what others think of me, but because my message is more important than me. Not because I am saddled with legalistic observance or wish anyone else to be - not because I feel these observances are necessary to show respect to God - but because I realize that some people do feel so, and I wish to show respect to them.
I don't believe it intellectually, but in some small way, I do do it for myself; I do feel it to be disrespectful not to capitalize, and always have. And I'm tired of wrestling with my conscience over something so silly.
But this mode of capitalization still goes against my nature. I have not been trained in it; it is not my habit; and I invariably slip up and often don't even catch my lapses even when proofreading. I've been taught as a rule to only capitalize the pronoun "I," proper nouns and adjectives, and beginnings of sentences. But in several other ways, this honorific capitalization gives my stylistic brain fits. If I'm going to do this, I should note some funny things about it. (From here on, there be grammar geekery.)
The first question is extent. How far should I take this? What I began with were the obvious "He" and "Him." Then, as I wrote, I figured that "You", "Thee", and "Thou" probably ought to be capitalized as well, since all are pronouns referring to the same entity. I decided to check the King James Version of the Bible, to see what it capitalized, only to realize that it doesn't capitalize like this at all. The New American Standard Bible I know does, but my NASB apparently perished with my car; it's been missing ever since the accident. A glance at NASB verses on BibleGateway reveals that it does in fact capitalize "You." So it follows, by the NASB usage, that any pronoun with God (in any person) as the antecedent should be capitalized. "He" and "Him" and other forms are easy, but I still find myself frequently lapsing when composing prayers in writing "You."
So in addition to the persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (what I meant when I said "in any person"), this also applies to any grammatical person - first person, second person, and third person? Second person (You) and third person (He) we have already. I guess in the first person, God has the advantage of "I" already being capitalized in English. But what about "Me" and "My"? Sure enough, in the NASB, John 21:15-17 is capitalized as "Do you love Me? . . . Tend My sheep."
The second problem is something I call, for lack of a better term, adjectival pronoun-noun agreement. I know that some nouns referring to divine concepts are typically capitalized, like the Word of God, the Creation, the Resurrection. Obviously, these are proper nouns referring to distinct things. Not just any resurrection, the Resurrection. But when writing in the mode of honorific capitalization, I tend to feel I should capitalize other words which God's capitalized pronouns modify, just because of their proximity to the pronoun. His Word, His Will, His People. Glancing through the NASB, they don't do this. It's "Tend My sheep," not "Tend My Sheep." And in other cases in which there are capitalized adjectives, the capitalization doesn't extend to words modified unless the words themselves are proper nouns. "The Christian faith," but "the Christian Church." "His sheep," but "His Resurrection." There's no such thing as "adjectival pronoun-noun agreement."
The third problem, and to me the most persistent and annoying, is that in shifting my usage to accept capitalized pronouns referring to God, I'm making exceptions to hard-and-fast rules, or essentially changing the rules. If I capitalize "His" and "He" for God, then, so my brain processes go, why shouldn't I capitalize them for other people? You don't know how many times I've caught myself doing this, especially when writing about God and humans in the same writing. In writing about St. Paul, I've started to write, "His writings," or in writing about dear friends, "Her problems." I of course know what I'm supposed to do - there's no grammatical question here - but fooling with my capitalization rules plays tricks on my brain.
What about you? I've noticed a wide diversity of modes of capitalization among my friends and other people here. Even many who aren't religious follow this mode of capitalization, presumably out of respect. How do you capitalize, and why do you capitalize the way you do?
Poll Capitalization of God's Pronouns
In any case, please comment. I'd like to hear not just the what, but the why.