Religious Language

Question 1

Wittgenstein - Via Negativa/apophatic way

Answer 1

‘Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must remain silent.’

Question 2

What is Ayer’s quote which criticises F.H. Bradley’s quote?

Answer 2

‘The Absolute enters into, but is itself incapable of evolution and progress.’ F. H. Bradley
‘an utterance which has no literal significance even for himself.’ Ayer

Question 3

Flew - falsification

Answer 3

‘God dies the death of a thousand qualifications.’

Question 4

Flew - bliks

Answer 4

‘If Hare’s religion really is a blik… then surely he is not a Christian at all.’
If statement not cognitive amounts to ‘dialectical dud-cheques’.

Question 5

Hick - analogy doesn’t tell us what God’s perfect attributes are like

Answer 5

‘the doctrine of analogy provides a framework for certain limited statements about God.’

Question 6

Pseudo-Dionysius - Via Negativa

Answer 6

God is nameless yet ‘has the names of everything that is.’

Question 7

Maimonides - Via Negativa

Answer 7

‘He who affirms attributes of God… unconsciously loses his belief in God.’

Question 8

St Paul - God as ‘Being itself’ (Tillich)

Answer 8

‘In Him we live and move and have our being.’

Question 9

What does univocal mean?

Answer 9

Same word same meaning

Question 10

What does equivocal mean?

Answer 10

Same word different meaning in different situations

Question 11

What is the kataphatic way?

Answer 11

‘Affirmation’ - using positive terms to describe God.

Question 12

What is the apophatic way?

Answer 12

‘To deny’ - denial of positive description of God

THE VIA NEGATIVA

Question 13

Via Negativa - God in burning bush

Answer 13

‘I am who I am’