Without Metaphor, No Saving God: Theology after Cognitive Linguistics
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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.
ISBN
9789042930193
Publication Date
2014
Publisher
Peeters Publishers
City
Leuven
Disciplines
Religion
Comments
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
OVERVIEW BY CHAPTER
Part One: The Hypothesis
CHAPTER 1: MAPPING THE HYPOTHESIS
CHAPTER 2: HOW EMBODIED MIND CHANGES THE RELIGIOUS AND
THEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE
CHAPTER 3: NEW MAPS FOR OLD
CHAPTER 4: DIFFERENT MAPS?
CHAPTER 5: REMAPPING CONCEPTUAL SPACE
CHAPTER 6: MAPPING & GOD
Part Two: Further Elaborations of the Hypothesis
CHAPTER 7: ANALOGY AS TECTONIC MAPPING IN AQUINAS
CHAPTER 8: THE CROSS BETWEEN ANALOGY & METAPHOR: AN
ECUMENICAL POSSIBILITY
Part Three: Applications
CHAPTER 9: HOW TECTONIC THEOLOGICAL MAPPING CHANGES THE
COGNITIVE LANDSCAPE: THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF
RELIGION
CHAPTER 10: GOD IS NOT A METAPHOR: ELIZABETH JOHNSON &
THE AMERICAN BISHOPS
CHAPTER 11: THE GOD DISTINCTION & THE NEW ATHEISTS
CHAPTER 12: SAVING GOD: SHEEHAN’S ATHEOLOGICAL READING OF
CHAPTER 13: THE CLASH OF CHRISTOLOGICAL SYMBOLS: ROGER
HAIGHT & THE VATICAN
Conclusion
CHAPTER 14: STRANGE FRUIT: STAPLE OF CHRISTIAN DISCLOSURE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ILLUSTRATIONS
INDEX