To criticize or to be critical originally meant to be discerning. Or to judge. Both criticize and judge are examples of words with a connotation gone off the rails in popular perception. Another? On the phone I said to a call center worker, "I appreciate your argument, but I'm not interested." She replied, "I'm not arguing with you!" I countered, "You're giving me your opinion. That is an argument."
Maybe I've spent too much time in too many academic venues. Ya think so? Oh, who knows.
In any case, you might show me a scripture commentary and I might remark, "That's the form critical one." Or "That commentary is redaction critical." There's nothing negative about ventures into higher scriptural criticism—just the opposite, as they dig into origins, contexts, editions, glosses, omissions, additions, interpretations, so we can better understand God's communication with humanity, comprehend more fully God's presence and actions in history.
Nuances aside, "criticize" generally isn't a positive word for us, probably because we have too much experience with opinions of others that rip apart our ventures, look for flaws and mistakes, sometimes attempt to denigrate our best attempts and in the process make us feel less worthy.
Some individuals work as professional critics. Professional means they get paid to write and publish opinions and reviews of books, music, visual arts, theatre, food, etc.. Many of us enjoy critiquing those topics; some have gained followings on their blog, substack, or other social media.
How about you?
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