Talking about God

Religious Language – Negative, Analogical and Symbolic

In this course, Professor Simon Oliver (University of Durham) explores negative, positive, analogical and symbolic religious language. In the first module, we consider the problem of talking about an infinite God as finite creatures. In the second module, we examine the apophatic tradition, and how negative language can provide a sense of transcendent divine attributes. In the third module, we look at the cataphatic tradition and its relationship with the apophatic. In the fourth module, we explore Aquinas’ analogy as a way of talking about God, before moving on to look at Paul Tillich on sign and symbol in the fifth module. In the sixth module, we examine further theological and philosophical implications of religious language, paying special attention to the metaphysics of ontology.

Talking about God

In this module, we locate religious language in a philosophical context, focusing in particular on (i) the nature and limits of language (ii) the distinctiveness of religious language and God-talk (iii) abstraction, classification, and comparison in ordinary language use (iv) the variation of meaning in the context of use of propositions (v) the problem of referring to God (vi) criticisms of religious language from logical positivism (v) A.J. Ayer’s verification principle (vi) the survival of religious and metaphysical language.