Religious Language: Negative, Analogical or Symbolic

via negativa or apophatic way

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

• supporters of the via negativa claim that in order to say things that are literally true of God, it is important to use only negative terms

• negative terms might include things like invisible, incorporeal, timeless

• this is because using positive terms of God makes God seem too small, as if God is like a human father or judge and as if God has only human wisdom or strength

• Pseudo-Dionysis lived in the 6th century and was influential in developing the via negativa

• arguing that people need to go beyond the need for understanding and enter a 'cloud of unknowing’

• Maimonides lived in the 12th century and gave the example of describing a ship by explaining what it is not to illustrate how knowledge of God could be communicated

• the via negativa can produce statements which are literally true rather than requiring intepretation

• statements made using the via negativa can be meaningful across different rimes and cultures

criticisms of via negativa/apophatic way

• it could be argued that the via negativa is not of much help to someone who knows nothing of God

• defining God in negative terms might not be very different from claiming that God is nothing at all

• the Bible uses positive terms of God, and so does Jesus in the Bible

via positiva or cataphatic way

• a range of ways of speaking about God and theological ideas using only terms that say what God is

• two of the ways in which religious believers might use positive terms to communicate ideas about God are through the use of analogy and symbol

analogy

• a comparison made between one thing and another in an effort to aid understanding. analogical language contrasts with:

• univocal language (where words are used in exactly the same way)

• equivocal language (where words have completely different meanings)

St Thomas Aquinas on analogy

• Aquinas argues that whenever we speak of God, we use analogy, whether we mean to or not

• Aquinas thought that recognising that we are using analogy helps to avoid the problems of making God too small

• Aquinas divides analogy into two kinds: analogy of attribution and analogy of proportionality

• analogy of attribution is where there is a casual relationship between the two things described. when we speak of God as loving we should remember that God is the cause of love. when we speak of God as wise, we should remember that God is the cause of wisdom

• analogy of proportionality is when the analogy relates two things that are different in proportion. we need to remember when we speak of God that his attributes are on an infinitely greater scale

• Ramsey wrote about analogy using ‘models’ and ‘qualifiers’. we can take an idea from this limited physical world and use it as a model. we can use other words such as ‘infinitely’ or ‘holy’ to indicate that the word is being applied analogically to an infinite being who will always remain beyond human comprehension

symbolism

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

• all language is symbolic in that words stand for the things they represent

• we use metaphor in many contexts to aid understanding and add vividness

• using symbolism can be a way of saying positive things about God without making God too small

• the Bible uses symbolic language of God, for example saying that ‘the Lord is my Shepherd’ (Psalm 23) or that God is a ‘father’

Paul Tillich

• Paul Tillich was a Protestant theologian of the 20th century

• he had a theology of correlation, showing the relation between the questions raised in philosophy, the arts, psychology and history, with the answers offered by theology

• Tillich argued that all religious language is symbolic

• Symbols, Tillich thought, ‘participate in’ the things to which they point

• Tillich thought that understanding religion as symbolic helps us to understand God as the ‘ground of all being’

criticisms of analogy and symbol as ways of speaking about God

• using ideas from the limited, imperfect physical world to express ideas about God might make God seem too small

• using positive terms to speak of God might wrongly suggest that human beings can come to an understanding of God

• if we use analogy and symbol knowing that the terms we use are only a partial, smaller shadow of the greatness of God, then we still do not come to a very clear understanding

• analogies and symbols require interpretation and we do not always know if we are interpreting them correctly

• some symbols can change in meaning over time or between different cultures e.g. the swastika

use of religious language

religious language can be used in many different ways, including:

• to make truth-claims

• to evoke feelings of worship

• to express emotion

• to solemnise occasions

• to pray

How effective is analogy in communicating religious ideas and beliefs?

‘Symbol is too often misleading for it to be useful in religious language’ Discuss