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| Spiritus Sanctus |
Spirit or Ghost? When I attended a Latin Mass during my time in the northeast I became used to calling the third person of the Blessed Trinity the Holy Ghost. This seemed anachronistic at the time given the use of the term Holy Spirit in my Jesuit high school and parish primary school. As I read editions of, for instance, St. Augustine or the Cappadocian Fathers that were translated prior to the 1960s I became more and more used to saying Holy Ghost even if no one else around me did.
A few years progressed and I found myself in a Greek Catholic Church and using Holy Spirit again, as they do for their liturgies. Indeed even the Russian and Greek Orthodox in the United States, who can have a strong preference for archaic language (cf. using the James Bible for readings) translate the name of the third person of the Trinity as Holy Spirit. So what gives?
In the 1960s the American bishops made a concerted effort to adopt the phrase Holy Spirit. Editions of the Scriptures, hand missals, and translations of ecclesiastical writers all began to use Holy Spirit. I recall Msgr. Fulton Sheen, in one talk given around 1962, remarking "the Holy Spirit—or Holy Ghost, they are the same...."
The Rad Trad does see some merit in the use of the term Holy Ghost, as it is odd and might force others to think of the Paraclete as something other than a sensation or a mystical feeling, which is what spirit often means today. Regardless, I use Spirit now to avoid sounding too 1950s. Some might, I think, might say Ghost as part of an effort to preserve pre-Conciliar American Catholic culture. Yet I found in England an equal proportion of traditionalists say Holy Ghost as in America.
Other languages do not have this strange problem!
I attend an FSSP parish. That said, I say "Holy Ghost." I also say "Peking," "Bombay," and "Moslem."
ReplyDeleteNo quarter to the modernists. None.
Do you say Londonderry or Derry?
DeleteDo you say "aitch," or "haitch?"
ReplyDeleteHoly Ghost I was taught as a child.
ReplyDeleteHoly Ghost I am very comfortable with.
Holy Ghost is what I say and Pray.
I would like to know how the members of this forum recite The Lord's Prayer in English.
DeleteIt's immaterial to me and I don't care whether one says one or the other.
ReplyDeleteFor me, personally, "Holy Ghost" conjures up childhood memories of decrepit and lazy SSPX Low Masses while "Holy Spirit" is what my Greek Catholic church uses.
So, I'm going Holy Spirit but I won't judge anyone who uses Holy Ghost. I will slam anyone, though, who calls me a "modernist" for my choice.
FYI, I agree with Jon's geographic terms. I'd also like to add "Rhodesia", "Cappadocia", "Constantinople", "Mesopotamia", "Dutch Guiana", and "The Republic of Texas".
Taiwan or Formosa?
ReplyDeleteThe Kingdom of Middag
DeleteAlthough either English term could be used to translate the Greek πνεῦμα -ατος τό or the Latin Spiritus -us, it could be argued that the term ghost is more idoneous for denoting the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, because it more strongly connotes personhood than does the more broadly applicable term spirit. It is interesting to note that Douay-Rheims and King James translations both use the expression 'Holy Ghost', but not exclusively. A few passages even include one and the other expression in the same sentence, e.g., Luke 4:1 and John 1:33.
ReplyDeleteI am of the opinion that words of Old English derivation are better suited to liturgical and ecclesiastical use than those of Latin derivation. The great Dr Fortescue complained of a tendency among Roman Catholicks, even of his day, who made persistent and ill-informed recourse to such words as cotta, zuchetto, bugia, etc where English words were more appropriate. Woe unto him who says "Mass of the Pre-Sanctified," instead of "Liturgy of the Afore-Hallowed Gifts!"
ReplyDelete"Ghost" comes from the German "geist," while "spirit" comes from the Latin "spiritus." Both mean basically the same thing. I prefer accentuating our language's German heritage whenever possible, so I stick with "Holy Ghost" unless I need the other form to properly rhyme in a hymn.
ReplyDeleteI would add my pennyworth to the esteemed commentors above and say 'Geist' is far more powerful in English than 'Spirit'. The late Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh was very keen on using 'Holy Ghost' and in his day services in English followed very much the language of the BCP. Sadly missed.
ReplyDeleteIn Mt 14:26 and Mk 6:49 the apostles are frightened that they see a "ghost" (Gk. phantasma). Via French we have in English 'phantom.' There was a semantic shift in English around the 14th c. that saw the use of 'ghost' that also meant "phantom." I think we need consistency in our language, especially when it comes to biblical and liturgical translations. While I don't have a problem with using Holy Ghost to refer to the Pnevma Hagios or the Spiritus Sanctus, I think we should be careful to the real linguistic problem of semantic shift. I jokingly tell my friends who use "Holy Ghost" exclusively that they should also become comfortable with using "gay'" to translate 'felix,' o felix culpa Adae!
ReplyDeleteYou bring an interesting thought to my mind:
Delete"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Phantom..."
Why not?
I'm thinking of a superhero...
DeleteThis one?
Deletehttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7OJKNGMjzc4/TvS1oG2EyjI/AAAAAAAAAPU/Jld-Cl1O4Uc/s1600/The+Phantom+Sample+2011+color.jpg
Yes, but perhaps depicting the Holy Phantom in this manner might violate certain canons forbidding the depiction of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity in human form.
DeleteExcellent!
DeleteMaybe we can enforce the point for God the Father as well...
To render the phantasma meaning of ghost one could use spook, specter or (if you don't mind scottish) wraith. This would free ghost for the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity.
ReplyDelete