Religious language debate

Question 1

Religious language

Answer 1

-Language we use to talk about God and discuss God, it is debated if such language can be cognitively meaningful-describe something actually in existence,

Question 1

Univocal language

Answer 1

Univocal: The idea that religious language is ordinary language, it is literally true, words are used with the same meaning as everyday language, e.g the statement God is all loving means God is literally all loving and his love is the same as human love.

-Anthropromorphic, reduces Gods attributes to a human level-human centric way of looking at God, limits him
+Easy to qualify and understand and gain true knowledge of God.

Question 2

Equivocal language

Answer 2

The idea that religious language uses ordindary language to convey a hidden, deeper meaning, e.g God loves but not in the way we love

-Doesn’t allow us to comprehend God

Question 3

Via Negativa

Answer 3

holds that God can be known yet not
described, we can use language to describe what God is not, as God is beyond the limits of human language,

Question 4

Analogy

Answer 4

Aquinas suggests that religious language is analogical, it is able to convey similarities between human predicates and God even if they are not the exact same, human language and attributes are comparible to God.

-Uses the theory of analogical predication and attribution to show how religious language is meaningful and can be analogical

Question 5

Analogy of attribution:

Answer 5

-God created the world thus his attributes or predicates are reflected in the world but in a higher proportion than humans, we can infer attributes about God by looking at things in the world

attributes like goodness in the world are comparible to the attributes of God as he made the attributes thus religious language is analogic.

-Creation is Good so we can infer Goodness is an attribute of God as he is the cause of all good things

Question 6

Analogy of proportion.

Answer 6

Predicates are proportional to the nature of God-We can compare things in the world to the attributes of God but these attributes are applied at a higher proportion proportionate to God’s infinite, all mighty nature.

-God loves and is all loving but in a way higher than humans, he is the most loving proportionate to his nature, he loves but in a higher way to humans, proportionate to his higher nature,

-Predictes in the world are able to be compared or attributed to God but in proportion to his higher nature making us able to understand Gods nature.

Question 7

Strengths of analogy

Answer 7

+Avoids problems with univocal language, it doesn’t limit Gods nature and is in allignment with his attributes, allows us to gain knowledge of God without limiting him

Question 8

Limitations of analogy

Answer 8

-Picks some qualities but not others, Goodness but not evilness-based on theology-can’t give a meaningful understanding

-Debated if God created the universe at all so we cannot gain understanding of him

-Limited understanding because as humans we cant fully understand the extent to which predicates are applied