Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
religious language - Coggle Diagram
religious language
RL AS A SYMBOLIC
-
-
-
-
-
-
STRENGTHS; permits use of one literal statement about what is meant by god without need for meaphsycial concepts, reflects what is known through religious experience and so helps us understand what is meant by sin salvation etc - from subconious not conscious mind
WEAKNESSES; not clear, many of the important things people say about god come from rational though of philosophers
-
-
VIA NEGATIVA
-
-
characteristics of human father not mirrored exactly in god but can be meaningfully projected onto him
Pseudo-dionysius developed the VIA NEG to emphases god as completely beyond human understanding + no lang used could limit him
-
-
-
EVALUATION OF ANALOGY
WEAKNESSES; same approach could argue negative lang about god, what can be said is limited as god is unknowable
STRENGTHS; uses observable experience = makes lang cognitive, encourages believer to push beyond the limited meaning of goodness
VIA NEGATIVA
-
gods total otherness = god can't be explained in terms what would be used of anything in the universe
-
STRENGTHS; avoids making god a thing, avoids andropomorphism
WEAKNESSES; most people only want to say positive things about god, may only be understood by mystics and by saying ones experience cannot be desired it may mean it was a product of the mind