Analogy and symbol

Question 1

What does religious language refer to and what it the problem with it?

Answer 1

Words used to communicate ideas about faith, god and religious practices. The issue is that there is often ambiguity in its meaning, so it could undermine the faith it is referring to.

Question 2

Give three meanings of ‘god loves us.’

Answer 2

1. God’s love is the same as human love, love is being used univocally. 2. God’s love is different to human love, love is being used equivocally. 3. Human language applied to god is meaningless.

Question 3

What is the problem with univocal language?

Answer 3

Lowers god to human level and is anthropomorphic.

Question 4

What is the problem with equivocal language?

Answer 4

Doesn’t allow us to know god as it says he can’t be understood in a human context, implying he is unknowable.

Question 5

What is the via negativa view?

Answer 5

Eastern Orthodox idea that all we can say about god is what he is not, all language about him limits him as he is mystical and ineffable. The issue with this is that if god is beyond description, we end up saying nothing meaningful about him.

Question 6

What did pseudo Dionysus believe?

Answer 6

God is so vastly different to what we know that human terms serve only to limit him, instead of saying what god is, we should say what he isn’t.

Question 7

Give three benefits of via negativa

Answer 7

1. Avoids anthropomorphizing god and tries to come to an understanding of him. 2. Doesn’t limit god and allows for a mystical approach. 3. Applies to every culture and every time.

Question 8

Give three negatives of the via negativa

Answer 8

1. If god is beyond description, we end up saying nothing meaningful at all. 2. Anthony flew- all the negatives amount to nothing, so we know nothing of god. 3. It contradicts holy scriptures that describe god positively.

Question 9

What are aquinas’ thoughts on analogy?

Answer 9

Since god created the universe, there must be a link between his attributes and human attributes. The attributes are being used as analogies.

Question 10

What is the analogy of proportion?

Answer 10

‘The baker is good’ and ‘the bread is good’ give the same quality to two different things, by establishing what good means in terms of the bread, we can understand something of what it means in terms of the baker. If we can understand what good means for humans, we can understand something of what it means for god.

Question 11

What is the analogy of attribution?

Answer 11

Dogs can love, but in an inferior way to humans- we can make an upward analogy from canine to human love. For god, we can make an upward analogy from human love to god’s love. ‘A human father loves in a way appropriate to human fathers and god loves in a way appropriate to god.’

Question 12

Give two criticisms of analogy

Answer 12

1. It can be used to prove god is bad, he has what it takes to produce badness in humans. 2. To work, the language we use must be univocal, equivocal and based on factual observation, there must be something in common between human goodness and god’s goodness, but if goodness in god and humans is understood univocally, we have gained nothing.

Question 13

Give three more criticisms of analogy

Answer 13

1. Tells us nothing new about god as it’s based on things already in existence. 2. Picks some qualities- does god have evil qualities? 3. To work, we have to believe that god created the world and made us in his likeness.

Question 14

How does Swinburne explain analogy?

Answer 14

The wave particle duality of light. Light can be described as both a wave and a particle, in both cases we are stretching the meaning of wave and particle. In the same way, we stretch the meaning of love when talking of god, yet it remains in contact with its original meaning.

Question 15

Is Swinburne successful?

Answer 15

Doesn’t go much farther then aquinas, only serves to show that we can and do use analogical language to refer to god.

Question 16

What did Tillich believe about levels of reality?

Answer 16

There are levels of reality beyond the empirical and these can be partly understood using symbolic language.

Question 17

What are signs?

Answer 17

Arbitrary representations of something that become associated with the thing they represent, eg. A blue light is the sign of a police car, but the color blue does not carry any meaning of this kind.

Question 18

What are symbols?

Answer 18

They participate in the reality to which they point. Eg. A flag participates in the power of the country it represents as it evokes feelings of pride.

Question 19

How can symbols open up deeper levels of reality?

Answer 19

These levels would have otherwise have been closed and they open dimensions of the soul that correspond to said levels. For example, we may try to account for a work of art via explanation, but this fails to account for the impact it makes.

Question 20

Who influenced Tillich?

Answer 20

Otto, in his idea of the holy, he spoke of god as numinous, an object outside the self and the soul’s sense of awe and mystery. Tillich thought that symbols pointed to this holy dimension of reality.

Question 21

In what two ways can god be understood according to Tillich?

Answer 21

1. Non symbolically as being itself. 2. Symbolically as a person. If you encounter the holy, you encounter god as being itself.

Question 22

What is god as being itself?

Answer 22

Cognitive, to talk of him as a person uses person symbolically to denote being itself. God can only be referred to symbolically as his is too powerful to simply be equated to a human.

Question 23

What is humanity’s ultimate concern?

Answer 23

To encounter god as being itself, this is the real focus of human life and is expressed in concepts like redemption, salvation etc. faith can’t be expressed cognitively as it relates to a non empirical reality.

Question 24

Give three criticisms of Tillich

Answer 24

1. The idea that a ‘symbol participates in the reality to which is points’ is unclear, how does a flag participate in the power of a monarch? 2. Hick and Macquarrie argue that there is no difference between signs and symbols, a cloud is both a sign and symbol of rain. 3. Alston- symbols are meaningless as we can’t know if they’re true or not.

Question 25

What is the main issue with Tillich’s view?

Answer 25

If religious language is symbolic, it is not literally true. Tillich’s thoughts center around our ‘ultimate concern’ for god, a concept driven by our own psychology, but what basis is there for believing we are describing anything beyond ourselves?

Question 26

What four main functions did Randall say religious symbols had?

Answer 26

1. Motivational- they inspire people. 2. Social- they bind people together. 3. Communicational- they express beliefs that literal language can’t. 4. Indicative- they show us visions of god.

Question 27

What is the problem with Randall’s view?

Answer 27

‘God’ has no cognitive content and has been reduced to a symbol for human values, if god is just a symbol, it tells us nothing about the being god.

Question 28

Give an example of symbolism being used

Answer 28

Divine judgment. When we think of being subject to the divine judgment of god we are using this as a symbol of the ultimate judgment that we make against ourselves. The idea of god is a symbol of self judgment when we follow the wrong path.