Capitalization

[archangel527]

Am having an ongoing discussion with someone regarding the word "sacrament." AP says not to capitalize unless for a "sacramental rite that commemorates the life of Jesus Christ or signifies a belief in his presence..." (p 2009, 247). It continues to say that the rest of the sacraments should be lowercase. Ex: "sacrament of penance" instead of "Sacrament of Penance." However, I've seen it both ways.

Does anyone know a hard and fast rule on this? Also, I would appreciate a good reference for capitalization. It's hard to know what to trust online these days.

Thanks!

:)

[Teresa Schmedding]

You're right on AP. The way I tend to remember it is that sacrament is pretty much lowercase since you don't often say Sacrament of Holy Communion -- you'd just say Holy Communion and you wouldn't use Holy Communion generically.

Of course, if you're in Catholic school, the rule would be to capitalize everything Holy.

So the hard and fast rule would all depend on whose style you're following....

[editer]

So the hard and fast rule would all depend on whose style you're following....

This. You'll never find a hard rule -- one that everyone everywhere follows -- about style. So if your publication doesn't have its own style guide or follow one of the established ones, you and your colleagues will have to figure it out yourselves, drawing on the publication's preferences in comparable situations.

IMHO, when in doubt you can rarely go wrong following AP. The Chicago Manual is also a good go-to. For me, one factor would also be whether such capitalization would seem as if we were a religious publication, and whether that was desirable or not.

But frankly I wouldn't spend too much time on it; it likely doesn't make much difference. As a colleague once said, toss a coin and get on with your life.

[Gerri Berendzen]

If you're looking for a style resource to follow other than AP on this topic, you might try the Religion Newswriters Association stylebook at http://www.religionwriters.com/tools-resources/religionstylebook.

Their take on the subject is:

sacrament: A Christian rite than confers grace and serves as a visible form of it. The Orthodox, Roman Catholic and certain Episcopal churches believe there are seven sacraments: Eucharist or communion, baptism, confirmation, penance (often called confession), anointing of the ill, marriage and ordination (holy orders). Most Protestant churches recognize only two sacraments, baptism and communion. Lowercase sacrament, but capitalize when using the proper names for sacramental rites that commemorate the life of Christ or signify a belief in his presence, such as the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion and Holy Eucharist. Lowercase the other sacraments.

I take that to mean you always lowercase the word sacrament under their style.

Editer is right — different sources don't always agree on what style rules should be. If you don't agree with AP, a publication can always set a house style.

[csmount]

Editer is right — different sources don't always agree on what style rules should be. If you don't agree with AP, a publication can always set a house style.

Amen, Gerri.