Theology and Theories of Metaphor: How We Talk When We Talk about God

In theology, how language about God communicates is inseparable from what is being communicated, and the form that theological discourse takes must be part of what is considered when it is interpreted. Although analogy has been given pride of place in theology, more recent interest in metaphor, from...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Harkaway-Krieger, Kerilyn (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2024
In: Heythrop journal
Year: 2024, Volume: 65, Issue: 4, Pages: 343-359
RelBib Classification:HA Bible
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
NBC Doctrine of God
VA Philosophy
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Summary:In theology, how language about God communicates is inseparable from what is being communicated, and the form that theological discourse takes must be part of what is considered when it is interpreted. Although analogy has been given pride of place in theology, more recent interest in metaphor, from theologians, philosophers, and linguists, reveals new debates over how deeply embedded metaphor is in language, how metaphor shapes our cognition and perception, and metaphor's role in theological understanding. This article provides an overview of the relevance for theology of two recent approaches to metaphor—those of the philosopher Paul Ricoeur and the cognitive linguistic approach—and ultimately argues that the most fitting understanding of how metaphor operates theologically is to say that it is mystical, because it contains both affirmations of identity and acknowledgement of difference (between the divine and the human, the spiritual and the material).
ISSN:1468-2265
Contains:Enthalten in: Heythrop journal
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/heyj.14330