Why Are Pronouns Referring to God Not Capitalized?

It is common practice to capitalize God as a proper name for the deity. However, in many publications, including our own United Methodist Hymnal and some other publications, the pronouns used to substitute for God's name are not capitalized. This is a change from some older publications, in which pronouns for God were commonly capitalized, no matter where within the sentence they appeared. Why the change? Why are God-pronouns not capitalized today?

God, when used as a proper noun, is almost always capitalized. Some poets and writers, for reasons of content or expression, choose not to do so, however. But in our resources, the name of God is always capitalized. When we use god as a common noun, as in "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," it is not capitalized. Some writers, authors, poets, and many modern-day resources choose to use lower-case pronouns when referring back to God. Capitalizing pronouns was much more commonly done in earlier centuries and years, but the practice is changing. Different style manuals do it differently today. There is no universally agreed upon practice in publishing today. This issue was not addressed by the hymnal revision committee that worked on the present 1989 hymnal, but clearly some of the hymnal's pronouns are in lower case. In some cases, lower-case pronouns are used because the original author used lower-case pronouns. In other cases, it is a choice of editorial practices by the hymnal's committee and editors. Using lower-case pronouns is certainly not a new course for United Methodist publishing. Lower case God-pronouns are also used in The Book of Worship. The practice remains unsettled today, with some publications always capitalizing God-pronouns, others never capitalizing them, and others preserving the choice of the original author.

Dean B. McIntyre ([email protected]) is the Director of Music Resources for the Discipleship Ministries.

Editor's Note: The three major style manuals used by many publishers today — The Chicago Manual of Style, Words Into Type, and The Associated Press Style Manual — all use lower-case pronouns in referring to God. The three publishers that relate to the Discipleship Ministries — Discipleship Resources, The Upper Room, and Church School Publications — all use lower-case pronouns in referring to God. In addition, the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible uses lower-case pronouns to refer to God.