RL1

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

‘cloud of unknowing'

go beyond realms of sense perception and rationality

beyond a posteriori and a priori

Moses Maimonides

12C Jewish philosopher

example of ship

e.g. not plant/ sphere/ pointed

• RL only evocative of a > real experience of divine

Brian Davies

VN

• criticising Mainmonides

• ‘only saying what something is not gives no indication of what it actually is, and if one can only say what God is not, one cannot understand him at all’

• “wardrobe or coffin”

Support VN

• William James: ineffability

• even Dionysius: begins with VP then progresses to VN (final stage)

• Anselm OA used both -ve and +ve terms

Against VN

• WR Inge: denying any description of God → anihilation of God

• e.g. to say white opp to black unhelpful to someone who has never seen white

• Antony Flew: little diff between our definition of God and our definition of nothigness

• Bible uses +ve terms, and JC

  • Bible uese human lang but are guided by God’s wisdom in form of HS

• x Maimonides

  • for process of elimination, need to know all possibilities to begin with

VP (cataphatic way)

• Aquinas

• via eminentia

  • e.g. our love for God = eminent = partial and flawed/ pale shadow

• analogy → ‘gradation to be found in things’

  • levels of goodness

• e.g. smoothness of wine vs floor

analogy of proportion

Hick - pet dog vs man that is faithful

God exemplifies each quality in its ultimate/ divine form

our attributes = pale reflection of God’s attributes

analogy of attribution

e.g. bull urine

causal relationship

God = cause of all good things in humanity

God = good, wise and loving in essence, everything else good, wise, loving bc participates in essence of God

Ian Ramsey

models e.g. loving + qualifiers e.g. everlasting/ perfectly

models anchor ideas about God within our own experience

qualifier point us in right direction

Pro analogy

• McQuarrie: ‘seems to give us assurance’, ‘give some insight into the mystery of Being’

• Hick: incarnation means some statements can be made about God, Jesus’ use of analogy in Prodigal Son

• Rudolf Otto: ‘otherness’ → ‘mysterium tremendum et fascinans’ (a fearful and fascinating mystery)

  • Divine has 3 qualities

    • mystery

    • God = being of ultimate importance

    • attractive and dangerous

  • numinous

• Jesus analogies → Good Samaritan (neighbourliness)

Cons of analogy

• Karl Barth: can only know things thru revelation

• J Don Scotus: too vague

• doesn’t work when looking ‘upwards’ - Hick into infinity

• anthropomorphic, GOd is unique

• how do we know how much greater God is

Symbol

• Rowan Williams: “not a process of encrustation”

• “object” that “points” and “participates” Erika Dinker von-Schubert

• Michael Novak: like arrows in the dark which are shot towards God but fall back to earth before they reach God

• Psalm ‘the Lord is my shepherd’

Problems with symbol

• Archbishop of Canterbury “religious decoration”

  • “might as well hang an electric chair around your neck”

• Anglican Church the Most Rev Justin Welby

  • “a cross that has no weight is not worth carrying”

• Salie McFague: should be switched to mother and friend

  • patriarchal roots

• Paul Edwards: doesn’t convey factual knowledge

Paul Tillich

• “being-itself”

  • cannot be source of all being if is being too

• “our ultimate concern”

• symbols unlock “dimensions and elements of our soul”

• subtle modes of communication which belong to high-level modes of discourse

• “grow when the situation is ripe for them and they die when the situation changes”

• e.g. flag

Against Tillich

• William Alston: removing RL of substantive content

• John Hick: ‘factual vacuum’

  • vague

• e.g. analogy better as extension of meaning, rather than inventive creation

Pro Tillich

• C Vardy:

  • express ultimate reality

  • God present in symbols

  • (e.g. JC as lamb of God)

  • Bible

  • invites discussion and interpretation

• Randall: provokes emotional response

  • calls ppl to action

• Ramsey: requires ppl to learn new RL

xTillich

loss of facts

William Alston

• doctrines e.g. salvation, heaven, hell lose meaning if merely symbolic

• doesn’t account for cognitive element of RE

Hick

x Tillich

vague

Hick

• how precisely does flag participate in a nation

• unclear if religious symbol participates in God in same way flag participates in country

• if God created everything, entire natural world already participates in God

• never explains how religious symbol participates in God any diff to rock, tree, cloud

via negativa/ apophatic way

• human lang finite and imperfect

• limits, human standards

• misrepresent and damage

• e.g. God is love → human ideas

  • actually should be God is not evil

• too small

• e.g. invisible, immortal, inaccessible, timeless, incorporeal