How neat…I just read about this subject in our church bulletin last week. The word ghost originally meant the living essence of a person, and that meaning hangs on in the phrase “give up the ghost”. In the 20th century the popular understanding of the word shifted to that of the dead and the paranormal, so to avoid confusion the Church gradually switched from “Holy Ghost” to “Holy Spirit”.
How neat…I just read about this subject in our church bulletin last week. The word ghost originally meant the living essence of a person, and that meaning hangs on in the phrase “give up the ghost”. In the 20th century the popular understanding of the word shifted to that of the dead and the paranormal, so to avoid confusion the Church gradually switched from “Holy Ghost” to “Holy Spirit”.