Religious Language- Via Negativa, Analogy, Symbol Flashcards
What way is the Via Negativa?
Apophatic way.
What is Via Negativa in philosophical terminology?
Talking about what something is not.
Who said that “God is beyond our understanding, therefore we cannot talk about what God is”?
Pseudo-Dyonisus.
What is God beyond in terms of the Via Negativa?
Beyond every assertion.
What does Pseudo-Dyonisus point out?
Knowing God by knowing nothing. Trying to understand God is not only pointless but also counterproductive as it separates us from God.
How is our desire to know God similar to that of Adam and Eve’s disobedience?
Adam and Eve wanted to become closer to God by eating the apple, however this pushed them out of the Garden of Eden.
What is a strength of the Via Negativa approach?
It is true to God’s transcendence and otherness. Almost all theologians agree on God’s transcendence.
What is a weakness of the Via Negativa approach?
The Bible describes God in positive terms. There are descriptions of God as “having a face” or “walking” in the Garden of Eden.
How can the biblical weakness of the Via Negativa approach be argued?
Dismissed as metaphorical language.
In what way does John describe God? (Positively or negatively).
Positively; “God is love” and “God is spirit”.
What is Maimomide’s ship?
Maimonides argued for the Via Negativa. He illustrated a ship; imagine someone who knows something called a ship exists, but doesn’t know exactly what the name applies to.. Maimonides runs through ten persons using examples of negative language that the ship is not (it is not a sphere, flat, property, etc.)
Who argues against Maimonide’s ship example?
Brian Davies.
What does Brian Davies say about Maimonide’s ship?
Negative language only allows us to gain knowledge in “special cases” like when we know exactly what possibilities there are for a thing.
E.g. we know a person is not left handed or ambidextrous, we know they are right handed.
What is a strength of the Via Negativa vs Aquinas on everyday Christian meaning?
Helps Christians not to have mistaken view of God- he is often imagined in hum terms, sometimes due to religious art.
What does Aquinas say about the Via Negativa?
Negative language is not what people want to say when talking about God. -Religious language you hear in worship and the Bible is not consistent with Via Negativa.
What does the cataphatic way mean?
Speaking about God in positive terms.
What is Univicol Language?
When words have one meaning e.g. saying God is loving, the word “loving” means the same as when saying humans are loving.
Why does Aquinas say the standard cataphatic approaches fail?
Because they use Univicol Language- God is beyond our understanding, we can’t apply the same word to God as we do for humans because God is a transcendent being. We CAN understand the word when it is applied to humans but we CAN’T understand God therefore we CANNOT use the same word for God.
What is the opposite cataphatic approach?
Accepting that words have a completely different meaning when applied to God than when applied to humans, this is Equivocal Language.
What is an example of Equivocal Language?
When saying God is loving, the word “loving” has a different meaning to saying humans are loving.
Why does Equivocal Language fail?
We don’t know what God is, we would know know the word is when applied to God- it would be meaningless.
What does Genesis say about not being different to God?
We are made in his image and likeness.
What is Aquinas’ middle ground between the cataphatic approaches?
We are like God- we are analogous to God.
What is the analogy of attribution?
Aquinas believes we can tell something about the creator of a thing by looking at what it causes- we can attribute qualities to the creator of a thing that are analogous to qualities of its creation.
What illustration did Aquinas use for the analogy of attribution?
Seeing the urine of a bull is healthy, which we can conclude (therefore meaningfully say) the bull has an analogous quality of health, even if we cannot see the bull.
What did the illustration of the bull symbolise?
We humans have qualities like power, love& knowledge so we can conclude (therefore meaningfully say) our creator has qualities like power, love& knowledge that are analogous to our own.
What is the analogy of proportion?
Different beings have have a quality that are different degrees of proportion depending on their being. God is the greatest being therefore has qualities to a greater proportion than humans.
