Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost?
Is Holy Ghost More Authentically Catholic, or more Traditional than Holy Spirit? Is one more/less Correct to use?
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This debate is growing in regularity—is it a Holy Spirit or a Holy Ghost? This is an ongoing debate across Christian circles, not just between Catholics. I’ll let the video do most of the talking here, but I did want to offer a few additional thoughts.
It is not wrong to say Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, but I personally consider it much less precise to say Holy Ghost—I explain it in the video. So depending on how important precise language is to you, that could mean that saying ‘Holy Ghost’ is technically incorrect because it’s imprecise. That still doesn’t make it morally wrong, though.
The use of Holy Ghost in place of Holy Spirit is a stylistic choice, and it is rooted in culture, not theology. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong, or immoral, it only means that there is really nothing objective to it. If someone prefers to say ‘Holy Ghost’, that is, as far as I can tell, a subjective choice of style.
Because there’s nothing objective behind the use of ‘Holy Ghost’ I think it’s false and flawed to call it more authentically Catholic. But I continue to assert that it is not wrong to say Holy Ghost. But there can be something wrong about it.
I like old things, particularly when they’re better, or more useful than the new things that replaced them. If I think a dated/old/classical word or phrase is better than the new, then I’ll use the older word/phrase. I think some people prefer Holy Ghost to Holy Spirit not as a matter of habit, but as a matter of choice. They usually didn’t grow up using ‘Holy Ghost’, but made a choice to begin to use it. Some people do that because it’s an old phrase that brings the back in time. That’s not always a bad thing. In fact I think it can be beautiful way to stay grounded. But for some people I have found that the use of ‘Holy Ghost’ is just pretentious or vain and there’s nothing authentic about it.
