Reverential capitalization

The rules of English spelling are a mess, and so are its rules for capitalization. It’s so simple in German: Capitalize the first letter of a sentence and all nouns. Period. Punkt! (Actually, not exactly Punkt! You also capitalize formal second-person pronouns and then there’s adjectives derived from geographical place-names ending in “-er.” But that’s about it for German.)

English capitalization rules, on the other hand, are delightfully labyrinthine, supremely inconsistent and forever changing. We are supposed to capitalize proper names, but what exactly is a proper name? I am writing this on vacation in Northwest Michigan, or is it northwest Michigan? I am a member of the Presbyterian Church and the church universal. Or should it be the universal Church? I am a catholic Christian, but not a Catholic Christian. And most curiously, the only English pronoun referring to human beings that we capitalize is the first-person singular – “I.” (There may be a sermon here.)

And then there’s that most theological of English capitalization questions – “reverential capitalization.” Everyone (except, I suppose, e.e. cummings) agrees that “God” should be capitalized, even though it’s not really a proper name for the Divine Being. Yet “gods” in the plural is never capitalized, surely a cultural monotheistic prejudice. Until rather recently, it was customary to capitalize pronouns that refer to God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit. This has not always been universal practice, however. The first editions of King James Version of the Bible did not capitalize divine pronouns. But in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, it became common practice to capitalize divine pronouns as a way to show respect for God. Today, both “The Chicago Manual of Style” and the “Associated Press Stylebook” proscribe reverential capitalization, while the U.S. Government Printing Office prescribes it.

For all this inconsistency, capitalization has several purposes in most languages, English included. It reminds a reader where a sentence begins. It can offer some clarity to the reader about proper names as opposed to more generic nominal references – catholic and Catholic, for instance. Historically, it has also been a way to show respect in the written word. Many languages capitalize forms of second person pronouns, an orthographic display of respect to the person you are addressing in the written word. Reverential capitalization is a way of embedding regard, reverence and even awe for God in the written word. This is the principal reason I have taken to capitalizing pronouns and descriptive adjectives and nouns referring to the Transcendent One. The other reason I’ve started to do so is just to be contrary – contrary to a culture that is less and less likely to be in awe of anything, God included.

Most Sundays, the church I serve reads a psalm responsively in worship; usually we use one of the lectionary selections for the day as the Call to Worship. So with reverential capitalization, the opening verses of the magisterial Psalm 145 looks like this in the Sunday bulletin:

“I will extol You, my God and King,
and bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You,
and praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised:
God’s greatness is unsearchable.”

There is something appropriately reverential throughout this psalm with You capitalized repeatedly. (But all who know this psalm well will recognize that in the NRSV the last half of the third verse actually reads: “His greatness is unsearchable.” Male pronouns for God are another question for another day, a dilemma more fraught than capitalization.)