Religious language

Question 1

Bernard Williams

Answer 1

Doesn’t think it’s possible to gain theological understanding of God using language regardless of approach

Question 2

Buddhists texts

Answer 2

Apophatic way used to try and convey central beliefs

Question 3

Ramsay

Answer 3

• Models and qualifiers
• Can be used to not belittle God while using a conceivable reference point

Question 4

Rudolph Otto

Answer 4

Criticises analogy because language should convey the otherness of God, not disguise it

Question 5

Flew

Answer 5

• If we describe God using all negative attributes (eg. soundless, incorporeal, invisible), then you get very little difference between our definition of God and nothingness
• God then gets argues out of existence by ‘a thousand qualifications’

Question 6

Ignatius of Loyola

Answer 6

• Cataphatic way advocate
• Encouraged people to visualise Jesus’ Gospel stories to gain closeness with Jesus

Question 7

St Francis

Answer 7

• Cataphatic way advocate
• God is to be known through creation and beauty of the natural world

Question 8

Gregory of Nyssa

Answer 8

Spiritual life involves going from darkness into light and then back into darkness when you realise how wholely different God is from you

Question 9

“The Cloud of Unknowing”

Answer 9

• Unknown mystic
• True knowledge of God found when a person forgets everything they think they know about God

Question 10

Meister Eckhart

Answer 10

• True enlightenment only happens when you’ve left all human lang/concepts
• Lang hinders true knowledge of God