Language and Faith

For a while now I’ve been interested in the place of language in faith–how important it is to say the right things, how the vocabulary you have allows you to believe different things.

But for much longer, I’ve been concerned with how faith is spoken, especially the vows we take.

“If a man . . . takes an oath to bind himself . . . he shall not violate his word” (Numbers 30:2).

Jesus said,

“Let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes,’ or ‘No, no'” (Matthew 5:37).

King Solomon wrote,

“It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:5).

It’s certainly something I still struggle with, but I’ve mostly made the jump from saying things I don’t believe to not saying much at all–next up is the step of stating what I do believe.

Christianity as a whole will have to make a similar transition as we move into a new world; just as in politics, top-down ideologies don’t cut it anymore.