religious language 1

Question 1

via negativa

Answer 1

The via negativa states that positive attributes are misleading and God is beyond all human imagination.

via negativa is the belief thatwords limit our understanding of a transcendent God - therefore instead of saying what godis,we should state what he isn’t to gain understanding

Question 2

pseudo dionysius

Answer 2

Pseudo Dionysius stated that god is ‘beyond assertion’ and ‘beyond denial

• Emphasizes ineffability and transcendence of the divine.
• Allows for a deeper sense of mystery and wonder, by avoiding imposing human limitations on the divine.

Question 3

moses maimonides

Answer 3

• moses maimonidesused the example of a ship – by describing what a shipisn’t, we get closer to understanding what a shipis
• maimonides’s ship example has been criticised because it compares God to aninanimateobject rooted in human understanding

Question 4

brian davies

Answer 4

means we don’t know if what remains is God or something else
- how can we describe what God isn’t if we haveno ideaof what he is?
- May lead to a lack of concrete understanding and specificity.

Question 5

hick criticism

Answer 5

Hick points out that it is a contradiction to say that God is beyond human comprehension, yet to say that he can be found in the Bible.

If he can be known through storytelling and symbolic language which is presented in the Bible, then he therefore is known without the use of the via negativa.

• The Bible describes God in positive terms.“God is love” and “God is spirit”.
• God even himself describes himself in positive terms: ”I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.”

Question 6

W R Inge

Answer 6

• W.R. Ingesays we cannot get rid of descriptions of god because we then lose the link between humans and the world, making worship too difficult and almost pointless

*** the via negativa is a reminder not to anthropomorphosise god but achieves this at the expense of any truly informative statements.

Question 7

aquinas analogy of attribution

Answer 7

we can attribute qualities to the creator of a thing that are analogous to those of its creation

we humans have qualities like power, love and knowledge, so we can conclude that our creator also has qualities of power, love and knowledge that are analogous to our own.

Question 8

aquinas analogy of proportion

Answer 8

God is the greatest being and thus has qualities to a greater degree of proportion than humans.
Thus we can now add to our statement that God has qualities analogous to ours that he has them in greater proportion.

Question 9

brummer criticism of aquinas

Answer 9

Brummer points out that we do not know God’s nature, so we cannot know the way in which God is loving. We are merely saying that God is not loving in the way humans are loving, but we cannot say in what way God is loving.

Attribution can tell us that God is the source of human qualities, but it cannot tell us in what way God has those qualities. However, we are merely saying that God is the source of love. Analogy does not enable us to say in what way God is loving.

Question 10

tillich

Answer 10

Tillich, on the other hand, stated that religious language is symbolic and communicates the most significant beliefs and values of human beings

1. theypoint to something beyond themselves
2. theyparticipate in that to which they point to
3. theyopen up levels of realitywhich are usually closed to us
4. theyopen up dimensions of the soul

tillich said that god was the ultimate symbol, calling him“the ground of all being”.

Question 11

strength of tillich

Answer 11

successfully captures the feature of religious meaning most important to religious believers – spiritual experience.
When a Christian looks at a crucifix or prays, there are deep spiritual feelings and experiences which can be the most significant and meaningful thing to them.
Tillich’s theory is successful then in understanding that religious language is about that sort of meaning, rather than simply reporting cold hard factual/literal content.

Question 12

paul edwards

Answer 12

Paul Edwardsargues that symbols are meaningless because theycannot be verified or falsifiedthanks to their subjective nature:“it doesn’t convey any facts”

• Enables individuals to connect with the divine through tangible representations.
• Fosters a sense of shared understanding within religious communities.
• Promotes a deeper sense of connection with religious beliefs.