Religious language Part 1 Flashcards
What is Via negativa (apophatic way)?
the only way to talk about God is in a negative way e.g. “God is NOT evil”.
-To use human language to describe God would limit our understanding of him. He should be spoken in a negative way as it is less limiting.
What does Pseudo-Dionysis argue about via negative?
via negative is the only in which we can speak truthfully about God is via negativa because God is beyond all human understanding and imagination.
What does Moses Maimonides say about via negativa?
the best way to show an accurate understand of the nature of God was to explain what God is not e.g. the ship one negative doesn’t help you know but after 10 negatives u get close to understanding.He says this is the same with God
What does Brian Davies criticises Maimonides and his ‘ship’ example?
“only saying something is not gives no indication of what it actually is and if one can only say what God is not, one cannot understand him at all”
Strengths Via Negativa?
-It expresses the mystery and transcendence of God. Via negativa respects the idea that God is more than we think of. IT seems true that simple descriptions which speaking God in a positive way cannot capture God mystery.
-Another strength is that you don’t have to worry about the problem of using inadequate human language to describe God, or putting God on the same level as humans because using human language limits the power of his nature.
-Also it avoids the interpretation issues of using positive language, when using statements to describe God you do not have to understand the language used just that God is not that. It is easier to understand.
Weaknesses Via Negativa?
-One weakness of the via negativa approach is that it goes against reporting of religious experiences. When you have a religious experience you normally say positive things rather than negative things because what they have experienced is a good thing.
-The via negativa approach can be seen as a logical contradiction, asking for a description of what God is and saying that he is not something is not a description.
-It does not reflect how religious people speak about God, normally religious people speak about God normally religious people describe God in the most uplifting way.Religious people are the closest to God and therefore we should go with their opinion
-is that it leads to a limited understanding of God, it is too vague.
What is Via Positiva (Cataphatic way)?
1)Analogy
2)Symbolism
What is Analogical?
-Find a way to make a positive claim about Gods that avoid the worries
Aquinas day about Religious language?
Aquinas says religious such as ‘God is love’ the word love is an ordinary word, but is not being used in a way identical to it’s ordinary sense. It is being used analogically. This happens a lot in language; e.g. smooth floor, smooth move, smooth pass. The same word is used but all each means different things.
What is Univocal?
Same word used slightly different but means the same thing e.g. cricket bat,table tennis bat
What is Equivocal?
same words have a totally different context e.g. Top set,Won first set
Aquinas divided analogies into two main types?
Analogy of attribution
Analogy of proportionality
What is Analogy of attribution?
where there is a casual relationship between two things being described. E.g. A healthy diet is healthy because it causes good health. So, to say God loves us, we are partly saying that God is the cause or source of love).
What is Analogy of Proportionality?
where the words mean the same thing - but to a different degree or amount e.g. a three year old is clever, Einstein is clever. So, saying God loves us is going to mean something greater than when humans love each other.
Strengths of Analogical?
- Jesus used analogical language in order to portray God’s message.
- Ramsey says we can use ordinary words but qualify them by adding perfect.
- If this works, it avoids the criticism of Via Negativa that we drag God down to our level if we use our words to describe him
- Aquinas says perhaps what we say about God will never be precise as we can’t remove all mystery from God.
