ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the meeting of public and private in the general features of language. It shows how specifically political and religious language entwine them even more closely. The political vocabulary of citizenship and freedom suggests similar connections between public and private. Political language invokes both public and private life because it entails conflicting principles. Religious language in its own way, for example, links public and private, and it may substitute for political language where the latter is not spoken. Therefore, to discuss religious language and political life requires leaving the general discussion of languages and examining the languages of a particular culture. In other traditions, religious language may possibly enter on other terms. Politics and political language teach idealists, as they teach realists, the margins of their vision. Religious idealists expressly need instruction. Vibrant political language includes concepts originally peculiar to certain groups. The chapter discusses the limits of religious language in political debate.
