Religious Language Flashcards

1
Q

Via positiva/cataphatic

A

A way of speaking about God that focuses on what God is

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2
Q

Via negativa/apophatic

A

A way of speaking about God using only terms that say what God is not

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3
Q

Agnosticism

A

The view that God cannot be known, we are unable to experience or know about God- God may or may not exist

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4
Q

Univocal language

A

Words that mean the same thing when used in different contexts

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5
Q

Equivocal language

A

Words that mean different things when used in different contexts

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6
Q

Who came up with models and qualifiers?

A

Ian Ramsey- Bishop of Durham

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7
Q

What are models?

A

Familiar qualities we use to speak of God. We understand them in a human sense so use them to speak of what we have discerned about gods nature

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8
Q

What are qualifiers?

A

We quantify the model with the extent of the quality, e.g. God is all loving

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9
Q

Who came up with signs and symbols?

A

Tillich

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10
Q

What are signs?

A

Language or images which represent one chosen thing. it does not matter what the sign is as long as there is an agreed meaning

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11
Q

What are symbols?

A

Language or images which convey meaning which is often shared but is subjective to the individual looking at it

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12
Q

What is tillich’s view of God and how is it different to the abrahamic view of God?

A

Tillich’s view:
* God is being or existence itself. God is life
* Words like omniscience and omnibenevolence only symbollically descrabe our own desire of what we want God to be like
* Forms of worship symbolically reflect our own desires of wanting a relationship with God
* ‘God’ is a notion which symbolically represents our desire for a being who is concerned with and loves us

Abrahamic view:
* God is the creator of all things
* Words like omniscience, omnibenevolence, describe God’s qualities
* God should be worshipped
* God exists

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13
Q

What are the problems with symbolic language?

A
  • symbols can change meaning
  • they can be equivocal
  • can be misused
  • they are interpreted differently
  • influenced by language and culture
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14
Q

What did Hick argue Tillich does?

A

Tillich over emphasises the artistic mature of religion and forgets that religion can have factual elements rather than simply symbols supposed to evoke emotion

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15
Q

Why did Moses Maimonides support Apophatic language?

A
  • God is a transcendent being
  • human reason & language is too limited to grasp the full being of God
  • we should either ‘stay silent’ & not talk about God or only use apophatic language to make statements about what we know God is not
    any positive statements put limits on the true nature of God
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16
Q

Why does Pseudo-Dionysius support apophatic language?

A
  • God is beyond the realms of human understanding and conception. We will never be able to accurately think of God let alone use human lang to describe hime
  • using language is for those ‘less intelligent’ and unable to experience God
17
Q

What are aquinas’ two analogies?

A
  1. analogy of attribution
  2. analogy of proportionality
18
Q

What is Aquinas’ analogy of attribution?

A
  • where there is a casual (cause-al) relationship between two things
  • if there is love in the world we can attribute God as the cause
19
Q

What is Aquinas’ analogy of proportionality?

A
  • telling us about the proportion of a characteristic
  • God’s love is in far greater proportion to human love
20
Q

A-priori

A

Knowledge through logic abd reason

21
Q

A-posteriori

A

Knowledge through experience

22
Q

Empirical

A

Avaliable to be experienced by the five senses

23
Q

Analogy

A

A comparison made between on thing and another in an effort to aid understanding

24
Q

Falsification

A

Providing evidence to determinethat something is false

25
Q

Verification

A

Providing evidence to determine that something is true

26
Q

Logical positivism

A

A movement that claimed that assertions have to be capable of being tested empirically if they are to be meaningful

27
Q

Synthetic statement definition

A

Something proven by experience

28
Q

Analytic statements definition

A

Something that can be true by definition

29
Q

Weak verification

A

A statement that could be verified if one can give the empirical evidence that could verify it

29
Q

Strong verification

A

A statement that can be verified if it has empirical evidence that can be percieved at the time of the statement

30
Q

Relgious language definition

A

the spiritual connection to God it inspires through symbolic participation in the being of God

31
Q

What is a defining predicate?

A

a characteristic or quality that is essential to the definition of something