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Christianese

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Christian +‎ -ese.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (General Australian):(file)
  • Hyphenation: Christ‧ian‧ese

Proper noun

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Christianese

  1. (Christianity, informal, slang) The terms, catchphrases and theological jargon used by some Christians, commonly from Christian theology and influenced by popular translations of the Bible.
    • 2003, Helen K[atharine] Bond, Seth D[aniel] Kunin, Francesca Aran Murphy, editors, Religious Studies and Theology: An Introduction, New York, N.Y.: New York University Press, →ISBN, page 500:
      Anthony answered, 'Talking Christianese is being the Church. Don't you think Church matters?' Fred said, 'Not when you define the Church as a group having Christian experiences. You need someone to tell you what Christianity is before you can define a group's experiences as Christian.'
    • 2007, Dan C. Gilliam, “Friendship: A Superhero Faith”, in God Touches: Finding Faith in the Cracks and Spaces of Life, Cincinnati, Oh.: Standard Publishing, →ISBN, page 180:
      I often ran them off with my self-righteous attitude or scared them away with Christianese language []
    • 2007, Mike Minter, A Western Jesus: The Wayward Americanization of Christ and the Church, Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 8:
      Reasons for departure were simply expressed in "Christianese": "The Lord is leading us to fellowship elsewhere," "The Spirit is moving us on," and so on.

Synonyms

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Further reading

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