APAD: Born again

Meaning:

   Christians who affirm their renewed and strengthened commitment to their

   religion are called `born again'. To be born again is to be `born of the

   spirit'; the first birth being the physical birth of the flesh.

 

Background:

   From the Bible, John 3.3 (King James Version):

 

     Jesus answered and said ... Except a man be born again, he cannot see the

     kingdom of God.

 

   The term began to be used in the 1960s to give a specific name to those who

   renewed their faith. The earliest printed reference I can find to `born

   again' in this sense is from the Reno Evening Gazette, October 1914:

 

     "It [Christian Science] gives man the opportunity of being born again."

 

   The first that specifically mentions `born again Christians' is the Decatur

   Evening Herald (Illinois), December 1928:

 

     "I knew I had the new desires that a born-again Christian acquires."

 

   By the 1980s the term was well enough established in the language for it to

   begin appearing in modified forms in jokes (always a good measure of

   linguistic acceptance). In 1981, at the start of the Wimbledon Tennis

   Tournament, and after Bjorn Borg had won five consecutive titles there, The

   Times published an article assessing his chances with the headline `Bjorn

   Again?'. Since then an Abba tribute band has also adopted `Bjorn Again' as

   their name.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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Wow. Bjorn again. Got to love etymology!

 

Christians do not have monopoly on being reborn and, for some, reinventing self

throughout life is a necessity. They start with a model, they strive, achieve,

doubt, languish, discover new strength, and grow out of their suffering, like a

snake sloughing off its old skin.