Religious Language Flashcards
What are the two main questions to ask about religious language?
How can we accurately talk about God? Is religious language meaningful/less?
Which scholars use the Apophatic Way?
Gregory of Nissa, Moses Maimonides, Pseudo-Dionysius, Meister Eckhart
Which scholars use the Cataphatic Way?
Ignatius of Loyola, Francis of Assisi, Aquinas and Tillich
What is another name for the Apophatic Way?
The Via Negativa
What is another name for the Cataphatic Way?
The Via Positiva
Which scholar criticised Maimonides example of the ship?
Brian Davies
What problem does the Apophatic Way avoid?
Anthropomorphising God
What two types of Analogy does Aquinas support?
Analogy of Attribution and Analogy of Proportion
What example does Aquinas use of Analogy of Attribution?
The bull’s urine is healthy, therefore the bull is healthy
What example does Davies use for Analogy of Attribution?
The bread is good because the baker is good
What example is used for Analogy of Proportion?
The child pianist compared to a concert pianist
What example does Von Hugel use for Analogy of Proportion?
Comparing the faithfulness of a dog with a human
What is Ramsey’s modern theory of Analogy called?
Models and Qualifiers
Which scholar suggest religious language is symbolic?
Paul Tillich
What is a sign according to Tillich?
Points towards something outside of itself
What is a symbol according to Tillich?
points towards and participates in that to which it points
What does Tillich call God?
The ground of being
Give another name for the Vienna Circle
The Logical Positivists
What theory did the Vienna Circle support?
The (Strong) Verification Principle
What language was meaningful according to the Strong Verification Principle?
Verified by actual experience or is a tautology
Give an example of a tautology
The round circle
What did the Vienna Circle conclude about religious language?
It was meaningless
What examples did Swinburne use to criticise the verification principle?
All ravens are black; the toys in the cupboard
What is Ayer’s book called?
Language, Truth and Logic
What theory did Ayer support?
The Weak Verification Principle
What did Ayer change about the original Verification Principle?
Statements are meaningful if they can be verified in principle
What theory from Hick can be used to challenge the Verification Principle?
Eschatological Verification
Which scholar first adopted the Falsification Principle?
Karl Popper
What is the debate about religious language and the falsification principle?
The University Debate
Which scholars were involved in the falsification debate?
Flew, Hare and Mitchell
What does Flew say about religious statements?
They die the death of a thousand qualifications
What parable does Flew use?
The explorers in the jungle
What does Hare suggest all religious believers have?
Blicks
What example does Hare use?
The student who thinks all the university professors are out to kill him
What example does Mitchell use?
The stranger and the resistence fighter
What is Mitchell’s point about believers?
They are aware of problems but don’t allow them to destroy their faith
Name Wittgenstein’s theory about religious language
Langauge Games
What is another phrase for a language game?
A form of life
Why is univocal lanaguage of no use when talking about God?
The word means the same thing when applied to humans ans God e.g. love or goodness which anthropomorphises God
Why is equivocal language of no use when talking about God?
We don’t know what a word means when it is used to talk about God which leads to agnosticism
What is cognitive language?
Statements that are factual, can be true or false
What is non-cognitive language?
Statements that are not about facts, are not subject to being true or false e.g. poetry
Which scholar would want to use religious language cognitively?
Aquinas (any Cataphatic way)
Which scholar could be used to argue that religious language is non-cognitive?
Wittgenstein
