Conor, Dillan and Elliot.

What is a symbol?

• Pattern or object • May be pictorial, abstract, verbal or active• Cross in Christianity• They embody some aspect of sacred reality• Non rational level• Expresses something about the ultimate• Cognitive statement

Representational

• Relationship between 2 things• Traffic light • Nothing in the word red means stop

Presentational

• Presentational symbols help make sense of sacred ideas

• Hinduism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity• Hinduism – darshan • Eastern Orthodox Christianity – icons

Facilities With Symbols

• Words can not adequately describe God • Partiality negative• ‘God is good’, symbolic rather than literal• Symbols like the arts, work on a deep and

powerful level

Difficulties With Symbols

• Focus of worship and the object of veneration• Trivialised and their original meaning lost• Out-dated• ‘It is necessary to rediscover the questions to

which the Christian symbols are the answers in a way which is understandable to our time.’

Verification

• Only meaningful if they can verified by the senses: strong and generally associated with the Viena Circle

• Strong – applied to anything that can be verified conclusively by observation and experience

• Weak – shown to be probable by observation and experience