Without metaphor, no saving God
Subtitle: theology after cognitive linguistics
By: by Robert Masson
Series: Studies in philosophical theology -- 54; Studies in philosophical theology -- 54.
Publisher: Peeters; Peeters Publishers
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Leuven, Belgium
Language: eng
Number of pages: 331
ISBN-13: 9789042930193
Subjects: Theologie; Metapher; Kognitive Linguistik; Metaphor; Religious aspects
Description: "Studies of conceptual and neural mapping in cognitive linguistics, while posing a fundamental challenge for religious belief, also suggest new ways of understanding how people conceptualize God and make theological inferences. This book, inspired by that research and attentive to the distinctive insights of Christian theology, elaborates an innovative explanation of God-talk, better able to credibly address confusion and controversies that trouble the church, academic theology, and broader culture. The first part analyzes both cognitive linguistics' challenge to standard theological depictions of metaphorical, analogous, symbolic, and literal language, and the discipline's promise for providing a more satisfactory account. The second half examines six case studies to illustrate how clarifying the conceptual mapping in God-talk and theological inferences provides a powerful tool for advancing religious understanding. The illustrations include the hypothesis that religion is an epiphenomenon of evolution, the so-called "new atheism," Black theology, and controversies between theologians and Church authorities."--Page 4 of cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-323) and index.
Table of contents: title: Part One. The hypothesis. Mapping the hypothesis; title: How embodied mind changes the religious and theological landscape; title: New maps for old; title: Different maps?; title: Remapping conceptual space; title: Mapping & God; title: Part Two. Further elaborations of the hypothesis. Analogy as tectonic mapping in Aquinas; title: The cross between analogy & metaphor : an ecumenical possibility; title: Part Three. Applications. How tectonic theological mapping changes the cognitive landscape : the cognitive science of religion; title: God is not a metaphor : Elizabeth Johnson & the American bishops; title: The God distinction & the new atheists; title: Saving God : Sheehan's atheological reading of Jesus & Rahner; title: The clash of Christological symbols : Roger Haight & the Vatican; title: Conclusion. Strange fruit : staple of Christian disclosure.