Religious language

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  • Created by: ksg97
  • Created on: 22-11-20 18:56
Univocal
The word has the exact same meaning in all contexts
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Equivocal
The word has different meanings in different contexts
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Cognitive
Factual/empirically verifiable statement
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Non-cognitive
A statement that isn't falsifiable eg. symbolic language
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Via negativa/Apophatic way
Talks about God in negative terms/says what He isn't
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Via positiva/Cataphatic way
Talks about God in positive terms/says what He is
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Analogy of attribution
From the things attributed from God it is possible to say something about God. E.g. we can say something about a painter from their painting
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Analogy of proportion
Recognises the characteristics we apply to God are proportionally greater than the way we use them or they exist in everyday human life.
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Sign
Indicator of something/points to something else
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Symbol
Conveys a message of deeper meaning than a sign
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Analytic statement
True just in their existing/meaning (true by definition). Eg. All bachelors are unmarried
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Moses Maimonides
Believed the Torah was an imperfect source for describing God as any descriptions are carried out using human language. Religious language is fundamentally equivocal (has a different meaning when it comes to God). When directly describing God's nature, 's
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Aquinas on Via Positiva
We can't say positive things about God as it limits God, due to our own limited experience and understanding. Used the term via eminentiae; we can only ever have a partial understanding. Can however make positive analogies about God as long as they are no
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Aquinas on the types of religious language
Univocal-poor, too small, can't reflect God's greatness
Equivocal-poor, to say God is great but in a completely different way to our greatness is not helpful
Analogical-a kind of best fit/compromise
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John Hick
In 'Philosophy of Religion' , he says a dog can be faithful and a man can be faithful but it is not a univocal use of the word; describing the dog as faithful is analogy of the faithfulness that a person may show to another.
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Ian Ramsey
In his 1957 book 'Religious Language', he says we have model words eg. righteous, loving that have a reference point in our lives. We however use qualifiers to not limit God eg. everlasting, perfect. We may not fully understand the terms but we are not li
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Paul Tillich
'Symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate symbol; it opens up levels of reality that are otherwise closed to us but also unlocks dimensions and elements of our soul that correspond to the dimensions and elements of reality'
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Paul Tillich (2)
To think of God as an existing being is wrong as God doesn't give us adequate answers to understand the purpose of God (existentialism). If we try to understand the 'being' of God we end up like the crucified Christ with fears and doubt. Only when we acce
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JH Randall
Symbols are non-cognitive and have no objective reality. Music and art for example can touch our emotions and have a valuable cultural function, but are simply human endeavours.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

The word has different meanings in different contexts

Back

Equivocal

Card 3

Front

Factual/empirically verifiable statement

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

A statement that isn't falsifiable eg. symbolic language

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Talks about God in negative terms/says what He isn't

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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