TY - JOUR
PY - 2009
SN - 2035-357X
T1 - The problem of Religious Language: What can we Learn from Twelfthcentury Discussions?
JO - PARADIGMI
DA - 11/15/2009 12:00:00 AM
DO - 10.3280/PARA2009-003010
UR - http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/Scheda_rivista.aspx?idArticolo=37616
AU - Ashworth, E. Jennifer
SP - 141
EP - 152
IS - 3
VL -
LA - EN
AB - The Problem of Religious Language: What can we Learn from Twelfth-century Discussions? - This paper discusses a recent book by Luisa Valente, Logique et théologie: Les écoles parisiennes entre 1150 et 1220, in which she gives a rich account of how twelfth and early thirteenth-century Parisian theologians attempted to solve the problems of religious language by appeal to the notions of propriety and translatio. Words had a proper signification when used in accordance with their original meaning, whereas translatio involved a semantic shift from the proper sense to a new extended sense. However, words used in this way were equivocal, and towards the end of the period theologians tried to save the univocity of at least some of the words we apply to both God and creatures. Their efforts form the background to the new thirteenth-century theory of analogy, a theory to which some contemporary philosophers of religion have returned.
Key words: Analogy, Equivocation, Religious language, Signification, Translatio, Univocation.
PB - FrancoAngeli
ER -