Talk:Holy Scripture
I know we all have to be careful about inflicting our pet peeves on others, but I felt compelled to change "faith document" to "document about faith." It really grates on me whenever I hear "faith" used as an adjective. It always strikes me that this is a sorry product of the ecumenical movement. Faith is always faith in something... not just a generic descriptor. Moreover every tradition is a faith-tradition... I hope you can see what I mean.
- "Faith document" is the wording of our dean here (Archpriest Michael Dahulich), who teaches in our Scripture Department and uses that in his introduction to all of his classes, and he's not an ecumenist by any means. "Document about faith" doesn't express the same thing, because part of the idea is that the Bible is not merely about faith, but it is an object of faith and an expression of it. I don't think "document about faith" quite does the same thing. I could probably be convinced to settle for "document of faith," though.
- I also don't think there's any worry about people taking the article to refer to a generic faith but rather the Orthodox Christian faith. Your argument regarding faith always being faith in something (with which I agree) leading to not using the phrase "faith document" might also lead one to believe that one should never refer solely to "faith," but rather always use it with a prepositional phrase, e.g., "faith in Christ." I don't think that's warranted, though. The Scriptures and Fathers often refer to "faith" without explicitly specifying the object of faith. Just in terms of usage, though, nouns can be used in an adjectival form (e.g., "car tire") without necessarily evacuating them of their specific contextual meaning.
- Oh, also -- I reverted your edit not because of this discussion, but because it read "It is about document." I assumed you must have made an accidental mistake there.
- --Rdr. Andrew 10:25, 12 Jan 2005 (CST)
