Description
Language is an important identity marker. The language, or languages you use in your life, may shape the way you experience the world: the words and phrases you pick out reveal emotions, desires and allegiances. It is through language, amongst others, that many people encounter God, and come to know a personal relationship with Him. In this paper, I argue that it is through people’s linguistic practices we can come to know the role God plays in their life. Words, phrases, different language varieties, and especially, sociolinguistic reflections on them, convey how an individual’s image of God and the relationship with God changes and shifts in their lived faith. In particular, I discuss the role that multilingualism plays in the lived theology of Christians. In many parts of the West, we are used to only needing one, at most two languages to communicate with each other. In the Global South, linguistic variety abounds to the point that people are able to speak, and need to be able to speak, many more languages in their daily lives. Lingua francas, in particular English, serve as neutral intermediaries to facilitate communication. Yet no language is neutral but carries with it many cultural complexities. In a community, using one language might eliminate linguistic barriers, but it reduces communication to limited ethnic and cultural expressions. For multilingual individuals, the range of cultural expressions that they have access to through their languages allows them to mould their religious expression to reflect the way they view God. Drawing from stories of believers in The Netherlands with different linguistic backgrounds, I show how language(s), and sociolinguistic reflections on language(s), can be used for the study of lived faith.| Period | 23 May 2024 |
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| Event title | European Academy of Religion, 2024: Panel: Intercultural theological perspectives on God in lived religion |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 7 |
| Location | Palermo, ItalyShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |
Keywords
- Sociolinguistics
- Linguistic Ethnography
- Lived Theology
- Multilingualism