Is <body> <title>Have a Nice Church! by Peter Toon

Have a Nice Church!

by Peter Toon

When I pick up my mail and when I buy some groceries each morning, I am told to “have a nice day.” Then all day I hear about “nice” things, people and events.

Apparently the word nice has been increasingly used since the eighteenth century (with an acceleration in the recent past) to mean “agreeable” and “acceptable” and “pleasant” and “kind” and “attractive” and much else. This is significant since its earlier meaning (from nescius, “ignorant”) was nothing like the modern meaning.

THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:


Print &
Online Subscription

Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!

Online
Subscription

Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!

bulk subscriptions

Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.

Transactions will be processed on a secure server.


more from the online archives

25.3—May/Jun 2012

The Soul of Liberty

Calls for Freedom, Democracy & Secularism End Up with None of the Above by Hunter Baker

27.5—Sept/Oct 2014

Food for Thought

on Growing Vegetables as a Primer in Moral Philosophy by Rachel Lu

16.10—December 2003

Calculating Christmas

on the Story Behind December 25 by William J. Tighe

calling all readers

Please Donate

"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand

"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor

Support Touchstone

00