negative, analogical and symbolic

• Ways of Speaking to God:

  • God is good, God is a judge, God is love etc ---> what does this actually mean - it may not have any meaning, love could be seen as an umbrella term
  • language is created by humans and understood through our own perceptions (mind) and experience (physical world)
  • language can be seen as a human creation - different languages
• Human language limits God


  Aquinas
• Symbol


  word or other kind of representation used to stand for something else and to shed light on its meaning
• Analogy 


  comparison made between one thing and another in an effort to aid understanding
• Equivocal language


  words that mean different things when used in different contexts
• Univocal Language


  words that mean the same thing when used in different contexts
• Cataphatic way (via positiva)

  range of ways of speaking about God and theological ideas using only terms that say what God is
• Apophatic way (via negativa)


  way of speaking about God and theological ideas using only terms that say what God is not
• Truth Claim 


  statement that asserts that something is factually true
• Agnosticism 


  view that there is insufficient evidence for God, or the view that God cannot be known
• Cognitive language


  expresses facts and knowledge
• Non-cognitive language


  expresses things which we could never know.
• Critics of religion might emphasise the non-cognitive nature of religious language.
• Analogical Language:


  relate words - used in a similar way
• In a univocal way, Why would Aquinas have an issue with the phrase "God as good"?


  Suggests that God is good in the same way as people and this can't be the case as God is perfect and humans are not.
• In a equivocal way, Why would Aquinas have an issue with the phrase "God as good"?


  Suggests God is good in a completely different way to us, however this would make God unknowable to us
• Why did Aquinas believe analogy could be used to describe God?

  • analogy - act of describing one thing by comparing it to another thing we already know
  • Aquinas believed that God should be thought of analogically - involves making comparisons with God in order to describe his nature
  • saying God is good is saying that God is good in a similar way to humans being good
• What are the two types of analogy used by Aquinas to describe God?


  Analogy of attribution and Analogy of proportionality
• Analogy of proposition:

  • Aquinas thought that we can use terms such as loving and faithful when describing God.
  • BUT - we have to recognise that God's love and faithfulness etc are infinitely vaster scales to that of a human
  • When talking about goodness, Aquinas was not talking about moral goodness - used the word 'good' to refer to the way in which something lives up to what it should be
  • e.g. a dogs faithfulness is less than a humans faithfulness which is overall less than God's faithfullness
• Analogy of attribution:

  • we can use the world to deduce that God is good
  • medicine and urine being healthy
  • different types of healthy
  • similar meaning but different
• Examples of univocal language


  airport, car, mat, tree, unicycle, heterosexual
• Equivocal language examples:


  mouse, web, nut, record, blue
• Analogical language examples:


  computer virus

  flu virus

  computer back up

  police back up

  smooth sailing

  smooth talking
• Cataphatic Way (Via positivia)

  • Aquinas rejected univocal language as it made God too small and does not convey his greatness and or mystery
  • AQUINAS THEREFORE REJECTS Via Positivia
• Thomas Aquinas and Via Negativa:

  • helps define something by saying what it is not
  • by reducing the possibilities of what something could be, you gain an understanding of what it could be
  • can ONLY describe God by stating what it is not
  • using words such as perfect to describe god we do by way of negation- we understand perfection as lacking nothing
• This is the ultimate in human knowledge of God: to know what we do not know him

  Aquinas on Via Negativa
• What is the translation of via negativa


  by the way of negation
• Pseudo Dionysuis and via negativa:

  • what the idea is associated with
  • only way we can talk about God because He is beyond all being and knowledge
  • God is a mystery because he is the perfect and unique cause of all things
  • positive terms - makes God seem too small
  • people genuinely seeking God to understand God should stop being described in positive terms
• Moses Maimoides and Via Negativa:

  • human language is useful in defining, explaining and distinguishing in the finite world
  • only way to describe the attributes of God is in negative terms
  • coming to an understanding of what God is not, they move closer to approaching what he is
  • closer to the knowledge and comprehension of God through negative attributes
  • those who state attributes of God don't just lack sufficient knowledge concerning the creator, but they also unconsciously lose their belief of God
• “there is no speaking of it, nor name nor knowledge of it. Darkness and light, error and truth – it is none of these. It is beyond assertion and denial


  Pseudo-Dionysius
• Symbolic language 


  language is symbolic in that we use words to represent things. A lot of language - both religious and non-religious - is metaphorical or symbolic rather than literal
• Examples of symbolic language rather literal in every day life:

  • I'm dying for a cup of tea
  • a deer in the headlights
  • its raining cats and dogs
  • no flies on you
• Examples of symbolic language rather than literal in a religious sense:

  • carry your cross
  • God is my rock
  • poem -- Footprints
• In the line "God is my Rock" it uses symbolic language to show that God is supportive, security and aid in serious situations. Symbolic language is a shortcut
• Symbols and Flags:

  • a symbol participates in the object represented
  • sign becomes a symbol when it becomes associated with the thing it represents
  • opens up levels of reality which otherwise would be closed to us
• Symbols can be used to convey meaning:

  • impact our feeling and emotion
  • power to evoke participation
  • may motivate us
  • make us feel a certain way
• Tillich's view on religious language:

  • 'theology of correlation' - correlation between questions raised bu philosophy, the arts and the range of worlds religions
  • biggest question is that context of the universe
  • metaphors and symbols help us to a better understanding of God
  • symbols can take us beyond the world available to our senses into the internal reality
  • language uses is accessible to us - points towards an ultimate reality which is God
  • religious language is more like a poem than a prose
  • means of coming to terms with the meaning of human existence
• Tillich's view on religious language: cont'd

  • symbol of Jesus Christ to unlock some of the mystery of the relation between the physical and the spiritual
  • people rarely use language that is not symbolic - symbols only work within particular times and places
  • critical of traditional ways of understanding God
  • we think of God as an existing being instead of a symbolic being
• Ramsey, Model and Qualifiers:

  • 20th version of the idea of speaking of God analogically -- Ian Ramsey
  • tried to explain the wy in which religious language could usefully describe God by using terms models and qualifiers
  • we can use models when speaking of God
  • e.g. 'perfectly loving'
• What was the name of Ian Ramsey's book and when was it released?


  Religious Language 1957