Religious Terms
The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style has a comprehensive list of what religious terms should be capitalized. Here are a few examples:
* Bible and Scripture are capitalized, but biblical and scriptural are not. Similarly, capitalize the Almighty but not almighty God.
* Lowercase the apostles, the apostle Paul, Paul the apostle, and apostolic, but capitalize Paul’s title Apostle to the Gentiles and John’s the Beloved Apostle.
* Only capitalize the word Bible in phrases like “Bible study” and “vacation Bible school.”
* Noah’s ark and the ark of the covenant are lowercased.
* Lowercase baby in “the baby Jesus” and child in “the Christ child.”
* Lowercase body in “the body of Christ,” whether referring to the church or Jesus’ physical form.
Kathy Ide is a published author, ghostwriter, and freelance editor. She speaks at writers’ conferences, teaches online writing and editing courses, and mentors new writers. She’s the founder and coordinator of The Christian PEN: Proofreaders and Editors Network (www.TheChristianPEN.com) and the Christian Editor Network (www.ChristianEditor.com). Learn more at www.KathyIde.com.
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I was confused by the conflicting rules above. One says to capitalize Bible. But then another says only to capitalize it in some phrases. When we refer to the Bible, I assume it's capitalized, but when we refer to a book being a writer's bible it isn't.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what this rule means specifically: Only capitalize the word Bible in phrases like “Bible study” and “vacation Bible school.”
Thanks for the helpful posts!
When Bible is a noun and we mean the Holy Book (and not the bible of baseball trivia), we cap it. When it's an adjective (biblical) we don't: The biblical story of David is inspirational.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the capitalization of the word "Gospel"?
ReplyDeleteWe cap gospel when it's the Gospel of John or one of the other three, but when we speak about the gospel truth or use the word in any other phrase, the rule is the same as Bible and biblical.
ReplyDeleteI spent most of my life teaching in Free Gospel Bible Institute. It is a Bible School, and it makes me cringe to write it as Bible school. I refer to Bible School frequently in a book I am writing. Is it really a hard rule to lower case "school"?
ReplyDeleteYou'd capitalize the actual name of the school: "Free Gospel Bible Institute." But when referring to "a Bible school" or "the Bible school," it's generic, so you would need to lowercase the word "school."
ReplyDeleteWonderful site! Where have you been most of my life!
ReplyDelete