The Tug-of-War
for the Meaning of Reason
Christian words disappear from the Oxford dictionaries. A publicity stunt? Probably, but not only…

by John waters

Frequently nowadays, scares develop about the alleged marginalization of Christianity in Western culture. The latest example is a controversy arising because words associated with Christianity have been removed from an Oxford University Press children’s dictionary in English. The deleted words include abbey, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, and vicar.
The reaction among Christians has been outrage at this new insult to Christ.
It is not simply religious words that have been removed from the dictionary, however. Also eliminated are a range of words describing the natural world, including “moss” and “fern.” Perhaps Christ is more insulted by this than by the removal of the concept of  a nunnery?
Vineeta Gupta, responsible for children’s dictionaries at Oxford University Press, sought to justify these developments to the UK’s Daily Telegraph: “When you look back at older versions of dictionaries, there were lots of examples of flowers for instance,” Gupta said. “That was because many children lived in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons. Nowadays, the environment has changed. People don’t go to church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism, which is why some words such as ‘Pentecost’ or ‘Whitsun’ would have been in 20 years ago, but not now.”
Usually, such controversies appear to be premeditated as opportunities for publicity. Nonetheless, such absurdities represent an extreme provocation for many who follow Christ.  Their immediate response is to be afraid, here perhaps foreseeing their children being slowly starved of knowledge of Christ and the natural world.
Undoubtedly, those responsible for such trends harbor some hostility toward Christianity. But perhaps these intermittent controversies signal something quite different from what Christians think.
After all, the resonance of the name of Christ in our culture predates the existence of the Oxford University Press by some considerable time, as does the natural world by even longer.
Those advocating such changes proffer a version of reason to justify their actions. But the charism of Fr. Giussani teaches us that reason extends farther than its definition in the modern vocabulary.
Perhaps such provocations themselves communicate the fear of a generation which, having grown with a false concept of reason, now finds itself, near the end of its time, having to justify its lifelong anti-beliefs in the face of the infinite mystery that awaits.
We are witnessing a tug-of-war in our cultures, and the principal significance of these controversies is the rope along which the struggle is conducted.
But must Christians fight such absurdities? Will the natural world disappear because it is no longer mentioned in a dictionary? Christ smiles at this idea and laughs out loud that British children may no longer be allowed to know the word ‘‘bishop.’’