Religious languages Lynch Flashcards
Apophatic way
- A way of speaking about God by using terms of saying what God isn’t.
- E.g. God is not evil.
Cataphatic way
- A range of ways speaking about God and theological ideas using only terms that say what God is.
- E.g. God is all loving.
Univocal language
- Words that mean the same thing when used in different contexts.
- For example, tree.
Equivocal language
- Words that mean different things when used in different contexts.
- For example, fast.
Truth claim
- A statement that asserts something that is factually true.
- E.g. boiling point of water is 100C.
Psudo-Dionysius
Argues that the apophatic way is the only way we can truthfully speak about God because God is beyond human understanding and imagination.
Aquinas
Believes that the best way to describe God is by using analogy.
Maimonides
Supports the via negative as it gives people a closer understanding of what God is without limiting God in their thought.
2 types of analogy
- Analogy of proportion.
- Analogy of attribution.
Karl Barth
Analogy is mistaken. After the Fall humans’ ability to reason became corrupted by original sin. This means it is dangerous for humans to use reason to know anything about God.
Ferre
Analogy is useful as it enables us to tell words about God without our pretending that we have understood there full meaning.
Brummer - analogy of proportion.
Analogy of proportion fails as it claims that a being has a quality to a certain degree relative to its nature. Human love is to human nature as divine love is to divine nature. As we don’t know God’s nature, we can’t say in what way God is loving.
Brummer - analogy of attribution.
Attribution can tell us God is the source of human qualities, but can not tell us in what way God has those qualities.
