4D RL as Non-Cognitive and Symbolic

Question 1

What was Paul Tillich’s book called?

Answer 1

• Dynamics of Faith

Question 2

At a basic level, what did Tillich argue?

Answer 2

• That faith is the stage of being ultimately concerned
- Maslow: talked about a hierarchy of needs e.g. food, shelter, warmth
- Tillich: stated that we have spiritual concerns e.g. cognitive, aesthetic, social, political
• “Man’s ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically”
• “The language of faith is the language of symbols”

Question 3

According to Tillich, what are the six characteristics of symbols?

Answer 3

1) Point to something
2) Participate in the reality to which they point
3) Open up levels of reality that are otherwise closed to us
4) Cannot be produced intentionally - they grow out of the unconcsious
5) Unlock dimensions of our soul that correspond to dimensions of reality
6) They grow and die - they grow when the situation is ripe

Question 4

Tillich: “Why can [man’s ultimate concern] not be expressed directly and properly?”

Answer 4

• “Everything which is a matter of unconditional concern is made into a God.
• “If the nation is someone’s ultimate concern, the name of the nation becomes a sacred name and the nation receives divine qualities which far surpass the reality and functioning of the nation.
• “The nation then stands for for and symbolises the true and ultimate, but in an idolatrous way.”

Question 5

According to Tillich, what is God?

Answer 5

• A fundamental symbol of ultimate concern

* Entirely non-cognitive and evokes a response at the deepest emotional level

Question 6

What does Tillich say that symbols of faith are closely linked to?

Answer 6

• Myth

Question 7

What did John Randall want to explore?

Answer 7

• How religious language carries meaning and knowledge and how this form of communication differed/similar to other disciplines e.g. science

Question 8

Give three characteristics of symbols according to Randall.

Answer 8

• Rich in meaning
• Interpreted in myriad ways
• Meaning can change ∵ society/priorities/understanding of ourselves changes

Question 9

What did Randall concentrate on?

Answer 9

• Communication that gives believers the greatest insights into common belief

Question 10

According to Randall, what were the three methods of communication that give the greatest insights into common belief?

Answer 10

• Historical issues of conflict between religion and science is largely resolved
• Relationship between religion and philosophy, esp. Ancient Greeks - philosophy = central in recog. twin pillars of faith + reason
• Natural science, esp. post-Enlightenment; it reveals the workings of the world/universe; these developments of rational thought are no threat to religion; r. ideas of Middle Ages needed to develop alongside discoveries brought from science

Question 11

According to Randall, what is key to understanding what it means to be religious?

Answer 11

• Religious experience

- It is a common form of symbolic language representing the things that give people their identity

Question 12

According to Randall, what is the role of worship, prayer and ritual?

Answer 12

• Unify people
• Give people a shared identity
• Give people a common vision

Question 13

According to Randall, how is religion not independent of man’s secular knowledge?

Answer 13

• It demands “careful observation and description, explanation, reflective understanding and intelligent criticism”

Question 14

How does Randall show that all religious beliefs are mythology?

Answer 14

• Religious symbols do not hold truth of factual statements or empirical sciences or any other realist-based rational discipline
• The coherence theory of truth accepts anti-realism in regard to theological propositions

Question 15

Finish this quote by Randall: “All ideas of God […] are”…

Answer 15

• “without exception religious symbols […] they perform what is primarily a religious function. They are employed in religious experience, and serve to carry on the religious life. They are techniques, instruments, in terms of which ritual and the other religious arts are conducted.”

Question 16

What does Randall say that religion gives humans?

Answer 16

• Valuable insight into what it means to exist as a being within the universe
• He did not believe that r. provided additional truths about the world/man/God, but led to an enhanced view of the experience of existence
• “It is like art […] furnishes no supplementary truth, but it does open whole worlds to be explored.”

Question 17

According to Randall, what is the primary function of religious symbols?

Answer 17

• To be a revelation of truth

- They are complex to articulate. He acknowledged his work with Tillich in developing the function

Question 18

How does Randall distinguish between a sign and a symbol?

Answer 18

• Sign
- Provokes the same human response as another thing for which it could stand as a kind of surrogate or substitute
- “it stands for something other than itself: it is always a sign of something else.”
• Symbol:
- Not representative. Provokes the same human response from those that see or use it
- Does not stand for something other than itself
- “function in various ways in both intellectual and the practical life.”

Question 19

What does Randall say that scientific symbols do?

Answer 19

• As they are cognitive, they provide factual knowledge about the empirical world

Question 20

What does Randall say about artistic/religious symbol?

Answer 20

• They are non-cognitive, and engender an emotional response.
• No empirical knowledge is gained

Question 21

What word, beginning with ‘m’, does Randall say that religious symbols are?

Answer 21

• Motivators

• They lead those influenced to forms of action
• Responses are shared due to the nature of the symbol and identity of the community that share it
• Able to communicate qualitative/shared experiences, but are often difficult to put into words
• Power of the symbol evokes feelings of shared experience

Question 22

According to Randall, there is a parallel between religious symbols and what?

Answer 22

• Platonic ideas

• Rather than telling us something, they make us see it; it is not otherwise apparent
• Instruments of revelation about power as possibilities in the world

Question 23

Give a challenge to symbolic language that Randall recognises.

Answer 23

• It is inherently non-cognitive

• Does not provide empirical or objective knowledge
• At odds with conclusions of Vienna Circle + subsequent logical positivists
• It is not verifiable, falsifiable, analytic, synthetic, or mathematical ∴ meaningless

Question 24

Give a challenge to symbolic language that Tillich recognises.

Answer 24

• Tillich recognises that symbols change over time - non-static (but this did not deter him from believing that symbolic lang. = meaningful)
• Others: if the meaning of a symbol changes, you are also altering the association of that symbol from the cultures it is linked to.
- What insight can a symbol provide if its meaning changes over time?
- How adequate is it at providing the necessary spiritual insight if the context of the symbol changes
- E.g. Swastika: formerly a symbol of universal peace, perverted into a symbol of hatred

Question 25

What was Paul Edwards’ criticism of Tillich’s work?

Answer 25

• Criticises his work as ‘philosophical confusion’
• Noted that Tillich recognises in ‘Systematic Theology’ the inability to express in literal terms anything meaningful about God
• Tillich said that “using a certain word metaphorically is tantamount to admitting that […] he does not mean what he says.” ∴ Edwards says that this undermines Tillich’s attempt to say anything meaningful about religion
• Edwards: “the logical positivists nevertheless deserve great credit helping to call to attention certain features of many sentences commonly called metaphysical.”

Question 26

Give a challenge to the Bible regarding symbolic language.

Answer 26

• It can be seen to be too symbolic in certain places. It is difficult to separate the factual from the symbolic language. Much of Augustine’s work relies on the Fall, but this could have been symbolic

Question 27

What did neither Randall nor Tillich claim to have?

Answer 27

• A theological ‘rosetta stone’

* Instead, they showed how symbols can help us gain insight into the world of religion

Question 28

How can Randall’s views be used to help understand religious teachings?

Answer 28

• His views were that r. beliefs were not to be understood in a literal sense: “They are imaginative and figurative ways of conceiving the relations of men and their ideals to the nature of things and to its religious dimension”
• The non-cog. structure makes more intellectual sense to the “reflective man”
• By understanding symbols, we are led to a greater understanding of r. beliefs and their associated teachings

Question 29

How can Tillich’s views be used to help understand religious teachings?

Answer 29

• By participating in the reality to which the symbol pointed, the symbol illuminates the meaning of the object or idea that it represents; it provides insight that would not have been possible through any other means
• “If faith calls God ‘almighty’, it uses the human exp. of power in order to symbolise the content of its infinite concern, but it does not describe the highest being who can do as he pleases.”
• As ideas are expressed symbolically, they are interpreted by those that participate in them ∴ accept them for what they are, leading the believer to their ultimate concern

Question 30

Why were neither Randall’s nor Tillich’s views universally accepted?

Answer 30

• Some find the idea that r. beliefs + teachings as purely non-cog./symbolic to be offensive as it suggests that they have no basis in objective reality
• R. teachings depict reality as it really is

Question 31

What does Randall identify as the four functions of symbols?

Answer 31

• Arousing the emotions and bringing about action in direct response to the symbol
• Provide a common focal point for a community to centre around
• Able to communicate experiences in a way that normal linguistic functions are unable to
• Provide the evocative experience of the world that is often described as ‘awe’