4.1 Religious Language: Symbol and Analogy Flashcards
What are potential problems with talking about God and religious language?
- Religious language may be meaningless as RL is not objective truth
- RL may be non- cognitive meaning logical positivists would say that it’s meaningless as it is unverifiable
- RL anthropomorphises God
Features of cognitive (realist) language
Factual statements that can be proven
e.g the king is head of the state
Features of non-cognitive (anti-realist) langauge
Deals with statements that are meant to be taken factually but are to be understood in different ways
Statements that express a religious truth within a religious community but may not be meaningful to someone outside the community
e.g ‘Jesus is the son of God’
Argument for RL
It would render a lot of what we talk about as measningless if we didn’t use non-cognitive languag; goes beyond physical experience
Argument against RL
Non-cognitive language cannot be universally understood or proven
What does Via negativa mean?
The truth about God can be discovered by speaking of ‘What God is not’
e.g not physical…
Advantages of Via Negativa
Avoids the pitfalls of using adequate human language (easier to say what God is not rather than assuming what he is)
Disadvantages of Via Negativa
Becomes atheism- to asy that God can only be spoken in negatives means denying the existence of God altogether
Fails to say anything meaningful about what God is
What is univocal language?
Languag meaning the same thing in all situations
e.g black hat, black cat, black shirt
What is equivocal language?
Language meaning different things in different situations
e.g tree bark, dog’s bark
Advantages of univocal language
Makes God accessible and understandable
We know the nature of God’s love because we understand human love
Disadvantages of univocal language
It anthropomorphises God
Advantages of equivocal language
Stresses the distincitveness of God’s qualities
Doesn’t anthropomorphise God
Disadvantages of equivocal language
It makes God so different that it is difficult/ impossible to understand God
Who comes up with analogic language?
Thomas Aquinas
What is analogic language?
Rejects univocal and equivocal language and instead offers a comparison- anaolgy
- a comparison between 2 things in which the first simpler thing is used to explain the second more complex thing
What are proportional similarities and dissimilarities?
analogy of attribution: God is the cause of all good things in humans (but God’s attributes are at a much higher level than our own)
analogy of proportion: all good qalities infinitely to God and in proportion to humans
Advantages of analogic language
Helps us understand something outside our experience
solves the problem of univocal/ equivocal language
allows us to discuss God meaningfully
Disadvantages of analogic language
we may dispute whether humans were really created in the image and likeness of God (theory of evolution)
Evil in our world also an analogy to God
the object we are drawing an analogy to (God) cannot be verified
Who uses models and qualifiers?
Ian Ramsey
What are Ian Ramsey’s model and qualifier?
Model: we know what ‘good’ means in human terms; we apply it to God- gives us a model to understand the goodness of God
qualifyer: we can adopt/ qualify model to improve our understanding by putting God’s attributes on a greater level. Adding a qualifyer ‘God is infinitely good’
Who uses symbols?
Paul Tillich
What does Tillich say about symbols?
Symbols are not signs. Both point to something beyond themselves but only symbols ‘participate’ in what they point to
e.g flag, points to a country but participates in its history and patriotism
How do symbols convey more than the factual information that they identify?
shouldn’t be interpreted literally, go beyond factual and objective information
Point to an invisible reality and participate in it
Why are symbols so powerful?
Symbols have special significance in religious tradition
Express the nature of God in terms of ‘the ground of our being’ or ‘that which concerns us ultimately’
What is a sign?
points to factual information
How do symbols convey more than the fatual information identified by signs?
a symbol ‘opens up’ levels of reality which otherwise would be closed to us
go beyond the physical, external world to what Paul Tillich calls an ‘internal reality’ which would otherwise be closed to us
4 main features of symbols
- Point to something beyond itself
- participates in what it is pointing to
- opens us levels of reality
- opens us dimensions of the soul which correspond to those aspects of reality
Why is religious language symbollic?
- RL points to an invisible metaphysical reality & participates in it
- can be metaphors, similes, signs and myths
- non-cognitive
- able to express ‘the ultimate reality’
What are the main problems with symbols?
- Truths behind symbols cannot be verified- Paul edwards
- Symbols can be inappropriate- don’t know which symbols appropriately translate the ultimate truths
- Symbols cannot point beyond themselves, can’t point outside the human experience
- symbols can be trivialised- Symbols may lose its importance
- Symbols can become the focus of worship- e.g icons
- Symbols can become outdated- ‘It is necessary to rediscover the questions to which christian symbols are the answers, in a way that is understandable to our time’- Tillich
Arguments for religious language as symbolic
- Religious language stirs strong emotions- J.H Randall:
Motivational- inspires emotion
social- binds people together
communication- can express beliefs and experiences that literal language cannot
indicative- show truths about God - Religious language conforms to archetypes- Carl Jung. particular symbols occur time and time again and are part of the human psyche, e.g the heroe’s journey
Arguments against religious language as symbolic
- John Hick’s criticism of symbols- little difference b/w a symbol and a sign
- Tillich’s view that RL is symbollic means that many religious statements are not literally true- only cognitive aspect is God’s existence but all other judgements seem to be based on subjective human judgement
