religious language Flashcards
Cognitive sentence.
A sentence to which you can ask whether it is true or false.
Non-cognitive sentence.
A sentence to which you cannot ask if it is true or false.
Via negativa/apophatic way.
Stating only what God is not.
Via positivia/cataphatic way.
Stating what God is.
‘The Cloud of Unknowing’.
“The first time you seek God, you find only a darkness.”
Pseudo-Dionysius comment on language.
“We must dare not to speak, or to form any conception of the hidden.”
John Scotus Eriugena comment on language.
“His light is called darkness because of its excellence, as no creature can comprehend either what or how it is.”
Moses Maimonides on the danger of the cataphatic way.
Can anthropomorphise God.
Aquinas on religious language.
The via negativa can act as a prelude to understanding of God but as we are made in his likeness, we can understand and thus speak of God positivley.
W. R. Inge on via negativa.
Risks annihilation of God and God’s link to humans.
G. K. Chesterton and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on ‘divinisation of matter’.
Believed finding God through our material existence was part of His plan.
The cataphatic way in the bible.
Reference to God as ‘light’, ‘shepard’, ‘Father’, juror, etc.
Theosis.
Likeness and union with God.
Rowan Williams on language.
Discussion about God follows and interaction with Him and attempts to discuss a mysterious encounter.
Homoites.
Aristotle’s term for likeness.
Qualified model.
Ian Ramsey term for using human language to model something else.
Example of the qualified model.
Describing God as the First Cause uses ‘cause’ as a model to give understanding that everything comes from God but not in a normal way.
Karl Barth on Ian Ramsey’s and analogy.
We cannot approach God with language based on our experience but must first have a revelation.
Frederick Ferre.
Argues value of analogy is providing us with a rule for enabling using theological language about God if we are careful with the way we use language.
Theory of homoites.
If two things share some sort of attribute, then what will be true for one should be true for the other.
Issue of Theory of Homoites.
Question as to how much we assume when we make an analogy.
Aristotles four ways of making judgements on analogical arguments.
- strengths depends on number of similarities in the two things being compared.
- similarity exists in only identical relations and properties.
- good analogy is based on underlying common causes.
- good analogical arguments don’t need to assume aquaintence with underlying generalisations.
Doctrine of Proper Analogy.
Tries to deal with the issues surrounding language use in reference to God.
Why is Doctrine of Analogy considered ‘proper’.
Technical discussion in De Veritate on analogies considered proper.
Univocal language.
Words with identical meanings in different sentences.
Equivocal language.
The same words used with different meanings in different sentences.
Analogy of Attribution.
We can discern something about God from His creation.
Analogy of Proportion.
From a lesser object, a human, we can say that God has proportionally more of a quality.
Who identified the difference between Analogy of Attribution and Analogy of Proportion.
Thomas Cajetan.
Aquinas’ example for analogy of attribution.
Bull’s urine can be determined as healthy or unhealthy, and we can discern if the bull is healthy or unhealthy.
Vincent Brummer criticism of analogy.
It gives the appearance of saying something significant about God, but we remain as ignorant as we were before.
Sign.
Something which points to something else by convention.
Symbol.
Something which participates in that to which it points.
Issues with Tillich’s concept of symbol.
- different levels of participation.
- how do we know if symbol use is appropriate.
What Paul Tillich calls God.
“Ground of being.”
John Herman Randall Jr’s non-cognitive analysis on symbol.
Religious symbols are non-cognitive and non-representative so it is inappropriate to ask if they are true or not.
John Herman Randall Jr on religion.
Argues religion is a human activity which contributes to human culture.
John Herman Randall Jr on God.
God is our ideals, another part of our psyche, which is divine and moving.
