Fichas
Symbol
Fichas del conjunto (28)
- 1What does symbolic language include?- metaphors
- similes
- signs
- myths - 2What does a symbol do?points to the concept that they are conveying and participates in some way the meaning of the concept
- 3What can symbols be like?pictorial, abstract, verbal or active (e.g. baptism)
- 4Who fathers this theory?Paul Tillich (1886-1965)
- 5From an extract of his book "the nature of religious language" what does he explain?How symbol can be used to speak meaningfully of God
- 6How can we think of this extract (as modified by Mrs Steele)?As 5 steps
- 7What is step 1?is it a sign or symbol?
a sign simply points to something
a symbol goes beyond that and participates in the thing (e.g. poppy and remembrance day) - 8What example does Tillich give to explain a symbol and a sign?he says a symbol is like a flag which conveys nationalism/patriotism, it is more than a sign that conveys informations
he says a sign is like words and it is possible to talk purely of signs - 9What does he say about the words used in poetical and liturgical language?for centuries they have gone past simply pointing to a meaning, they participate in the reality that they represent and therefore the language is symbolic
- 10What is step 2?the function of symbols:
He says they open up levels of reality and the soul
they grow out of a collective unconscious and cannot be invented unless the collective unconscious embrace it
he says symbols can die - 11What is step 3?The nature of religious symbols:
they do the same as symbols i.e. open up hidden level of reality.
they open up the ultimate reality (the holy)
he warns against confusing the symbols of the holy with the holy itself. - 12What is step 4?Transcendent and Immanent levels:
everything we say bout God is symbolic about from saying he is the ultimate reality.
We do not have a choice but to symbolise when talking about God
Claims qualities and acts of God cannot be taken literally - 13What is step 5?The Truth of Religious Symbols :
he identifies positives and negatives
symbols only die if the situation in which they are used changes; "their truth us their adequacy to the religious situation in which they are created, and their inadequacy to another situation is their untruth" - 14What conclusion can we draw from this?religion is ambiguous and every religious symbol may become idolatrous, it may elevate itself to ultimate validity although nothing is ultimate itself, no religious doctrine and no religious ritual may be"
- 15What does he say about the Christian Cross?the cross identifies for the believer the death of Jesus, but does more, it participates in it by bringing to the believers consciousness what Jesus' death signifies
e.g. - 16What can be said about symbols on a universal scale?The theory is good because symbols are universal/can be universalised
- 17What does it remind us of when talking about God?The danger of anthropomorphising God
- 18What does this theory capture?the mystery and transcendence of God by taking a symbolic view of religious statements
- 19What does this overcomerevelatory problems of the Bible
- 20Why is this theory good?it is accessible for all religions and so is a pluralist theory
- 21What can be said about the non-literal nature of symbols?if they are not literally true what value do they have? How would a fundamentalist Christian react?
- 22What can symbols become the focus of?Worship. they can become trivialised and their original meaning lost e.g. the creation story
- 23How does John Macquarrie criticise Tillich?(he advocates symbolism) but suggests that there is no difference between a symbol and a sign. e.g. the clouds are a sign of rain, they are sign and symbol we cannot differentiate
- 24What does MacQuarrie propose instead?the existential response: whereby he said that symbols and signs link to human existence e.g. water cleanses us so water is often used symbolically to be seen as cleaning
similarity of relation: which is basically the use of analogy - 25How does Hick criticise symbol?says the idea of participation isn't clear and argues there isn't much difference between a symbol and a sign
- 26How does William Alston criticise symbol?argues that symbols are meaningless because we don't know whether they are true or not
- 27How does Paul Edwards criticise symbol?argues that symbols are meaningless because they cannot be verified or falsified
- 28How does Randall criticise symbol?argues against the idea that religious symbols are cognitive, he thinks they are non-cognitive and non-representative.
e.g. he sees music cannot be expressed in any other way. But for Randall God is not a transcendent reality rather an intellectual symbol for what we think we need
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- Religous Language Fichas sobre Symbol, creado por Zoe Bone el 09/01/2017.
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- Zoe Bone
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