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I've seen the classic "that" vs "which" debate. However, I'm unsure about which to use in the case of joining a clause with "and". For instance, in Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship Lesslie Newbigin states:

This is a culture that responds to the Christian story by asking "how can we know that it is true?" There is a long tradition of Christian theology that goes under the name "apologetics" and that seeks to respond to this question and to demonstrate the "reasonableness of Christianity."

I'm wondering if the "... and that ..." in the second sentence could be replaced with "... which ..." and which should be preferred, if any.

J Troyer
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1 Answers1

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My reading is that it could be replaced by "which", but that it would be a stylistic choice rather than a matter of correct grammar. Both of the clauses joined by "and" are integrated relative clauses, so they could take either "that" or "which".

My strictly personal reaction is to prefer "that" in the second clause because of the parallelism with the first.

MacA
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