We have no thoughts unless they can be given shape and expression. In the past 1,000 years our thoughts have been shaped and we have found the language to express them in ways that are inseparable from the development of Christian thinking throughout the millennium.
European thought patterns have been shaped, essentially, by Plato and Aristotle. Both had been lost to Europe in the Dark Ages, but Aristotle was reintroduced to Europe by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the Dominican who remained unchallenged for generations as the pre-eminent philosopher and theologian. Plato's thoughts returned to the West two centuries later with the arrival in Italy of the Byzantine scholar, Gemistus Pletho, a Greek Orthodox theologian who attended the Council of Florence (1438-1439).
But those thoughts were given shape in language, and modern English has been shaped beyond imagination by Cranmer's translation of the Psalms in the Book of Common Prayer in the mid-16th century and by the translators of the King James Version of the Bible in the early 17th century.
Dr Richard Coggins of King's College, London, gives a striking example of how the English language has been irreversibly shaped by this translation of the Bible. Job 19: 20 concludes: "I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." The influence of the translators is so great that the expression has become a common way of describing a narrow escape. Although everyone knows teeth have no skin, no modern translations have gained such currency, despite the claims of "I have escaped with my life" (Good News Bible), "My bones stick out like teeth" (Jerusalem Bible), and even "I gnaw my upper lip with my teeth" (New English Bible).
Old Testament texts, particularly from the Psalms and the Prophets, remain well-known, thanks to Handel's Messiah. The words used by Charles Jennens, the librettist of the Messiah, came entirely from the Bible, both the Old Testament and New Testament, although at times Jennens took liberties with the text. The King James Version was the basis for all his passages except those from the Psalms, where the older translation in the Book of Common Prayer was followed. Jennens often selected Old Testament passages quoted in the New Testament rather than the New Testament passages themselves.
Laughter allows us to bear with the follies of thought and language. According to Prof Michael Screech of Oxford, the European sense of humour has been shaped by two Renaissance writers, Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) and Francois Rabelais (14951553), who left their monasteries but never abandoned their priesthood. But Dr Screech argues that their humour, which has become ours, developed out of a new interest in Aristotle and Plato in reaction to a thorough reading of the Bible. In his Laughter at the Foot of the Cross, Dr Screech forges a direct link between the "Hah-hah" of the Bible and Renaissance humour, and the "Hallelujah" that is the climax of Handel's Messiah.