Is God multilingual? Language ideologies and lived theology in a multilingual church network

Abstract

This article explores the intersection of language ideologies and lived theology, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a multilingual transnational Christian church network in the Netherlands. The findings reveal that believers shape their language ideologies through their lived theology, but that these ideologies may come into conflict with one another. In the church, multilingualism is celebrated as a theological ideal of an inclusive global church: an ideology rooted in biblical descriptions of heaven as a place where people from “every nation, tribe, people and language” meet. At the same time, English, the main language of the church network, emerged as a lingua divina  – a godly language fostering transnational Christian connection. Yet the use of English also created inequalities among those with various levels of proficiency. Moreover, many Dutch participants presented Dutch as an inauthentic language, describing a mismatch between their experience of God and the religious meanings they associated with Dutch. However, they also sought to reclaim Dutch as a meaningful language for religious life, drawing on the belief that faith is most authentically expressed in one’s “heart language”. This study demonstrates the value of examining lived theology to trace how language ideologies are negotiated and justified in everyday religious life.