Dear Geist,

Is it necessary to capitalize “he,” “his” and so on when referring to God? I know it's traditional to capitalize them in pious texts, but what about other writing? In my novel-in-progress, fictional characters talk informally about God in dialogue. Does a character's religion make a difference? If I capitalize these pronouns, does it call more or less attention to a passage?

Dear Roni,

(4th edition), that is the convention familiar to most readers and writers “both inside and outside the church.”

While we're on the subject, we'll mention that other common terms and expressions including "God" are lowercased: oh my god, good god, godforsaken, godmother and so on.