@jonah Excellent. This is the part of me that most considers itself “conservative.” Similar, from Anna Kamiemska: “I’m slowly relinquishing my claims in linguistic matters, though, and I humbly return to faith and to humility, since these are word-vessels so saturated with content through ages of thought and use that to abandon them would be the act of a heedless parvenu.”
@ReaderJohn "archaic" language is also helpful in that it has a fixed point of meaning: readable & translatable. it resists the swift slang changes (revision every 20 years). ESV decided on rolling revisions to the text, so that there's 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016, and another forthcoming
@jonah Not give you homework, but… If there were one book to read to make the theological argument for traditional language in worship, what would it be?
@jonah This is the biggest issue for me. There are benefits to correcting mistranslations and changing words whose meanings have changed, but it requires a more careful restraint than anyone seems to have, and in practice the decision to allow any change just opens the floodgates.
@dwalbert The Romanian Orthodox Church, I'm told, has a good practice: every 50 years the service books are reviewed and edited as needed (No content changes, just adjustment for changes in the language). And the job is assigned to monastics NOT academics.
@JohnBrady That sounds perfect, both halves. When you wait too long to change things there’s too much pent up energy, and if monastics don’t have the discipline to make the changes with appropriate moderation, no one will.
@JohnBrady Is this the sort of thing they did with the Psalter book you recommended? Arrived in the mail the other day. Thanks again
@tinyroofnail I think it's mostly an effort to standardize usage within the OCA (Orthodox Church in America), especially in liturgical publications. There's a good intro in the book, explaining/defending their process. I've been using it regularly and like it very well.
@marmanold I am unaware of a singular good apology for it (but I am looking), but an associate forwarded me this: open.substack.com/pub/bencr...