The Philosophy of Religious Language

This text provides a lively introduction to the developments in philosophy of language in this century, and to the way these have impinged upon religious language. Included is the relevance of analytical philosophy of language, but the text also covers important historical debates about religious language that have had increasing impact upon biblical studies and theology.

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xiii

1 Introduction 1

The Linguistic Turn in Philosophy 4

The Linguistic Turn in Religion 6

Philosophical Foundations 8

2 Historical Approaches to Religious Language 14

Three Traditional Ways 15

The negative way 16

The Univocal way 20

The Analogical way 23

The Universal Controversy 29

Literal and Allegorical Exegesis 31

3 The Falsification Challenge 37

The Early Wittgenstein 37

Logical Positivism 42

The Falsification Challenge 47

4 Language Game 59

The Later Wittgenstein 59

Religious Language as Noncognitive 67

Wittgenstein on religion 67

Wittgensteinian fideism 69

Religious Language as Cognitive 72

John Wisdom 73

Ian T. Ramsey 74

Ian Crombie 78

Speech-act Theory 79

Austin 80

McClendon and Smith 82

5 Hermeneutical Philosophy 87

From Religious to General Hermeneutics 87

Ontological Hermeneutics 90

Critical Hermeneutics 96

Ricoeur and Critical Hermeneutics 100

Reader-response Theory 107

6 Metaphor, Symbol and Analogy 112

Metaphor as Ornamental 113

Metaphor as Cognitive 114

Symbol and Analogy 122

Metaphor in Exegesis 127

Metaphor in Theology 129

7 Narrative Theology 134

The Chicago School 135

The Yale School 139

Hans Frei 140

George Lindbeck 145

Ronald Thiemann 150

The California School 154

James Wm McClendon Jr 154

Michael Goldberg 155

Terrence Tilley 159

8 Structuralism and Poststructuralism 163

Structuralism 163

De Saussure’s influence on Structuralism 163

Structuralist thinkers 166

Critique 171

Structuralism in Religious Studies 173

Ricoeur 174

Thiselton 175

Patte 177

Crossan and Via 178

Poststructuralism 180

Derrida 181

Foucault 184

Critique 186

Poststructuralism in Religious Studies 188

9 Conclusion: A Changing Paradigm 193

Reducing the Contrasts 194

A Changing Paradigm 197

Religious Language and Truth 201

Notes 206

Recommended Reading 246

Index 251

"This is an excellent critical survey of the modern philosophy of language in general, and of religious language in particular, deftly set against the background of its traditional forerunners. It is readable, colourful, and richly informative, without being simplistic or sweeping in its descriptions and judgements." Steven Kings, Reviews in Religion and Theology

"Dan Stiver offers, for "tose coming to these topics for the first time", a useful map to an academic (sub)discipline called philosophy of religious language." Brian Davies, Anglican Theological Review

Dan Stiver is Associate Professor of Religious Philosophy at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville. This new text provides a lively introduction to the remarkable developments in philosophy of language in this century, and to the way these developments have impinged upon religious language, particularly Christian discourse.

Most treatments of this subject focus on the relevance of analytical philosophy of language with its verificational and functional phases. These important movements are included, but this text also covers historical debates about religious language along with several other contemporary movements that have had increasing impact upon biblical studies and theology, such as hermeneutical philosophy, philosophy of metaphor, narrative, structuralism, and poststructuralism.

The Philosophy of Religious Language focuses on exposition of the different approaches, with attention upon central thinkers and texts. In each case, however, the philosophy of language is also connected with its major appropriation in religious studies. Since one cannot exactly keep these approaches distinct, places of cross-fertilization and reaction are indicated, with the intent of providing an expanding conversation as the book progresses.