5-6. Religious Language

5-6. Religious Language

1. Negative, Analogical or Symbolic

   • Apophatic Way
     • Says that God is beyond our understanding and so we cannot make positive statements about Him We can only describe Him by saying what He is not For instance, the Bible has compared God to a shepherd and a rock, both of which bring to mind unhelpful ideas
     • Plotinus
       • 3rd Century Suggests that God is completely separate to the world and is unknowable through sense experience
     • Moses Maimonides
       • 12th Century He who affirms God's attributes do not have sufficient knowledge of Him, and so their claims cannot be meaningful For instance, describing God as a shepherd does not help so much as create confusing ideas
     • Pseudo-Dionysius
       • The Cloud of Unknowing (5th-6th Century) Says that God is beyond human statement and denial Every word we use in relation to God is wrong, although saying what It isn't is better
   • Cataphatic Way
     • Means speaking about God using only terms to say what He is
     • Analogy
       • A comparison made between one thing and another in an effort to aid understanding
       • Aquinas
         • Analogy of Attribution: Where there is a causal relationship between things being described, e.g. a bull's urine is healthy because it can be attributed to a bull's health; likewise, God is divine because He possesses divinity Analogy of Proportion: Where the words relate to objects which are different in proportion, e.g. speaking of a faithful dog is different to speaking of a faithful man, as they are faithful on different levels
         • Rejected Language
           • Univocal Language: Words that mean the same thing in different contexts, e.g. gynaecology Equivocal Language: Words that mean different things in different contexts, e.g. 'bat' Aquinas rejects these forms of language because they can be misinterpreted
       • Ian Ramsey
         • Religious Language (1957) Models: Adjectives which we understand through experience, such as 'righteous' and 'loving' Qualifiers: Propel adjectives to something beyond our experience, such as 'supremely' or 'perfectly' e.g. God CREATED the world EX NIHILO
     • Symbol
       • Some kind of word or representation used to stand for something and to shed light on its meaning
       • Paul Tillich
         • Dynamics of Faith (1957) Theology of Correlation: Says there is a correlation between religious symbols, such as God, and the ideas contained within them These symbols exist because we cannot otherwise express their inherent ideas Symbolic language is meaningful as it provides cognitive statements which point to a spiritual reality
       • J.H. Randall
         • Agrees that religious language is symbolic, but is non-cognitive Like art, symbolic language does not tell us anything about reality itself, though does tell us much about our human experiences
     • Brian Davies
       • Says that stating what something is not gives no actual indication of what it actually is

2. Twentieth Century Perspectives

   • Falsification Symposium
     • Antony Flew
       • Theology and Falsification Symposium (1950) Falsification Principle: Asserts that statements hold meaning if there exists evidence which can be counted against them Flew uses John Wisdom's Invisible Gardener Parable, in which two explorers come across a clearing in a jungle which one explorer believes must be regularly tended by a gardener After setting many traps to catch this silent, invisible, and intangible gardener, the Sceptic asks the Believer what remains of their original assertion Flew says that God's nature has died a 'death by a thousand qualifications'
     • R.M. Hare
       • Theology and Falsification Symposium (1950) Responded to Flew by describing non-cognitive beliefs known as 'bliks' As insignificant as they may seem, they still have some influence on a person's perceptions of reality For example, a 'lunatic' who believes that all dons want to kill him is likely to alter his perceptions, no matter how many kindly dons he meets
     • Basil Mitchell
       • Theology and Falsification Symposium (1950) Responded to Flew by arguing that a religious person may be aware of evidence against God, but they do not allow it to count decisively against For example, a Partisan is met by a Stranger who makes a strong impression on him, and refuses to renounce faith in him despite often appearing to support the enemy Said Partisan is a believer, not an observer
   • Logical Positivism
     • Movement which originated with the Vienna Circle and which claimed that assertions have to be analytically or empirically testable if they are to be meaningful Therefore, religious statements cannot be meaningful due to being non-testable
     • Karl Popper
       • The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1934) Science provides theories which are testable and falsifiable, with each theory eventually being superseded by better theories Religious language can therefore not be considered meaningful
     • A.J. Ayer
       • Language, Truth and Logic (1936) Strong Verification Principle: Conclusively verifiable through observation and experience (Second Edition: Ayer admits this has no possible application, e.g. 'Water boils at 100 degrees' is subject to change) Weak Verification Principle: Probable through observation and experience, e.g. the Sun will rise tomorrow (Second Edition: Ayer admits this is far too liberal)
   • Anti-Realism
     • Claims that a statement is true when it is coherent within a specific form of life For example, to say that the Qu'ran was dictated by an archangel would be coherently true to Islamic belief
     • Ludwig Wittgenstein
       • Philosophical Investigations (1953) Religious statements are meaningful, although only within particular contexts Much like a game has its own rules which cannot be applied to any other game, there exists linguistic communities whereby certain statements mean different things e.g. 'King' and 'Queen' have different meanings in a game of chess
       • D.Z. Phillips
         • Takes a Wittgensteinian approach and argues that religious language is a way of defining the rules of the game of religion For instance, 'God is love' is not a description of an actual being but an example of how the word 'God' is to be used
   • Myth
     • An exaggerated and idealised conception of a person or thing
     • Rudolf Bultmann
       • All religious language is myth though still has meaning, otherwise they would not be preserved by time Myths draw in readers and require responses, inspiring action; myths do not present literal truths, but deeper truths Bultmann attempted to demythologise the New Testament in an effort to expose its central message

3. Cognitivism

   • Having a factual quality which can be proven true or false, and which point to wider meaning e.g. 'Trees are green'

4. Non-Cognitivism

   • Not having a factual quality which can be proven true or false, and which do not point to wider meaning e.g. 'I love you'