Religious Language (original) (raw)
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Religious Language : A New Look at an Old Problem
2005
IN WHAT FOLLOWS, I WILL BE PROPOSING A VIEW of religious language which, so far as I know, has not been advocated in any of the recent discussions of that topic. The view I shall be defending is that talk about God as exemplified in Scripture, the traditional confessions, and even theology, should be regarded as quite ordinary language. It should not, in my view, be seen as requiring some sort of extended analogy, or special symbolism unique to itself, in order to understand the possibility of its truth. This should not be taken to mean that religious language is always to be taken literally so far as its meaning is concerned. Like all other ordinary language, it employs many styles and figures of speech, and occurs in many literary forms and types. Determining the intent of its author on linguistic and historical grounds is paramount for ascertaining the correct interpretation of , such talk. But I will contend that neither its meaning nor the possibility of its truth require that ...
DIVINE ACCOMMODATION: AN ALTERNATIVE THEORY OF RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE
For a very long time it has been recognized by both Jewish and Christian thinkers that there is an important problem to be solved concerning the possibility of true predication about God. The problem centers on the apparent incompatibility of two biblical doctrines: (1) God created everything in and about the universe; (2) human language conveys truth about God.
Religious language as natural-sacred language
The article offers a different interpretation of Antony Flew's views about the problem of religious language. This interpretation shows that Flew's ideas can be perceived as a critique of belief in the content of religious statements, rather than a critique of their meaning. By interpreting his thought in this way, it is clear that Flew's approach is not new and we can find similar ideas in the history of theological thought. In connection with this interpretation, the authors analyze prevalent theories related to this problem in order to identify the principal doctrines used to find a new solution. In this regard, the new potential solution is assessed in order to complete the approach previously undertaken. The main idea is to merge two distinct and also contrasting concepts found in the literature: "natural" and "sacred". Such a merging can begin with the concept of natural language as a theory drawn from the literature on the philosophy of language. According to the principles of the philosophy of language adopted by this article, religious language is rooted in natural language, but it is distinct from other forms in that it is the customized use of natural language by the saints of a particular religion. By offering an explanation to natural language, it is possible to view saints as the ones who used natural language in order to talk about the divine sacred realm. Similar to previous thinkers who spoke about religious language, the authors offer their own analogy. This analogy is compared and contrasted with previous ones to reveal the advantages of the proposed new view of the problem of religious language. The authors propose a new type of natural language with the special characteristic of being sacred.
God in Question. Religious language and secular languages. With a Foreword by Peter Hünermann, Brixen 2014., 2014
Today’s Europe is often portrayed as a secular conti-nent. In many ways secularization and religious indif-ference characterise public life. At the same time we also observe signs of a “return to religion”. Many people set out on a deliberate search for spiritual meaning and engage seriously with religious tradi-tions. This book focuses on the dialogue between believers, searchers, and unbelievers. The authors from various European countries are mostly theologians but also representatives from the fields of religious studies, philosophy, modern art, literature, architecture, journalism, and politics. They bring different areas together in conversation and face the challenge on how the Christian message can be made intelligible and attractive to people today, and so play a positive part in the social, cultural and political shape of Europe. The quite large number of contributions is due to the aim to offer especially to emerging scholars the possibility to make themselves known to a wider public at an international level. The volume uses four languages: the original English, German, French and Italian. Each contribution is preceded by an abstract in the other languages. Foreword by Peter Hünermann
Language as a Means of Communication with God
Akropolis: Journal of Hellenic Studies
The communicative function of the language of translation, as can be seen from the examples of God's names contained in the oldest Slavic translations of a biblical nature, is an important component of understanding a whole range of liturgical texts and part of the Christian cultural identity of the believer. The need to translate biblical and liturgical texts therefore stems from the needs of believers. One desires to understand as best and as accurately as possible not only the text of the Bible but also the liturgical process itself. The liturgical process contains a number of symbols, actions, gestures and scenes reminiscent of the Divine Performance in the cosmos. In the Bible and in the Divine Liturgy, individual biblical events are constantly present. The understanding of the biblical and liturgical texts is therefore based not only on the correct use of terms but also on a reliable description of the realities. This principle is one of the starting points on which the ho...
Religious Assertions: A Linguistic Approach
2011
This article makes an attempt to understand religious<br> assertions from a linguistic perspective. The terms that are applied to <br> God in religious discourse are being used in special ways, different<br> from their use in the scientific or in the ordinary day-to-day contexts.<br> Religious assertions could be viewed as explanations, self-justified,<br> derived from authority, analogical statements, faith statements,<br> symbolic, non-cognitive and as language-games.<br> The pertinent question is whether religious utterances or<br> assertions are verifiable. Religious assertions are not verifiable in the<br> sense of being publicly verifiable, namely there being publicly agreed<br> methods of verifying them. However this does not entail that they are<br> not informative. As far as religious assertions are concerned, one<br> should concentrate more on the practical usefulness of these beliefs<br> and utt...
The Church's Language About God
Priscilla Papers, 1992
Author: Elouise Rennich Fraser Publisher: CBE International For some years now, Christians have struggled with the nature of our language about humanity. Are the nouns man and mankind or the pronouns he and him inclusive of women or not? Acknowledgement that they are not inclusive has often been difficult, and the actual switch to gender-inclusive terms has always been awkward, particularly in the beginning. Nonetheless, more and more Christians are finding inclusive language an almost automatic part of their vocabularies when speaking of human beings. But what about God? If emotions have run high over language about human begins, they have virtually exploded in the debate over language about God. Those who argue that the church must retain its predominantly masculine imagery for God and those who want to introduce into the church's vocabulary female imagery for God are in agreement at only one point: both are convinced that the integrity of Christian faith is at stake. In many circles, liberal as well as conservative, the test of orthodoxy has become the nouns and pronouns one uses in speaking of God.
Language and Religion; Linguistic Religion or Religious Language
This study is going to present whether language is at the service of religion or there is a separate category namely religious language. It aims at expanding upon this point and intends to scrutinize different viewpoints about language and religion. We established a basic framework of ground rules for discussions according to "Religious Language" written by Peter Donovan and "Religion and the Making of Society" written by Charles Davis. This argumentative topic is discussed in three main points in this study. A compendious description on the necessary facts about the epistemological and ontological aspects of language and religion has been provided in the first part. A compilation of different articles and books has been reviewed to elicit different perspectives on language and religion in relation to each other. It was done through explaining the factual and fictional, meaningful and meaningless differences in this area. The other section discusses diverse strategies used in theological texts and religious languages and their impact on the transmission of religious ideologies.