Theme 4: Letter D – Language as non-cognitive and symbolic

Spec Check

AO1 – Knowledge and Understanding AO2 – Analysis and Evaluation

D: Religious language as non-cognitive and symbolic: • Functions of symbols (John Randall); God as

that which concerns us ultimately (Paul Tillich).

• Challenges including whether a symbol is adequate or gives the right insights.

• A consideration of how these two views (Randall/Tillich) can be used to help understand religious teachings.

• Whether symbolic language can be agreed as having adequate meaning as a form of language.

• How far the works of Randall and Tillich provide a suitable counter-challenge to Logical Positivism.

What is a Symbol?

• Some philosophers and theologians argue that it is possible to talk about God and understand him through symbolic religious language.

• Religious symbols may be pictorial, actions, words, objects.

• They are a powerful way to communicate faith and beliefs.

What is a Symbol?

• TASK: With your partner identify as many symbols as you can. These can be religious or non-religious symbols

• Did you get?...

Symbols Challenge

Christian Cross

• Jesus’ sacrifice

•Atonement

•Redemption

• Salvation

• Eternal life

•God’s love for humanity

Sikh Khanda• Double edged sword = Divine

Knowledge. Its sharp edges cleaving Truth from Falsehood.

• Circle (chakar) = without a beginning or and end - perfection of God who is eternal.

• Two curved swords (Kirpans) = The twin concepts of Meeri and Peeri - Temporal and Spiritual authority They emphasize the equal emphasis that a Sikh must place on spiritual aspirations as well as obligations to society.

Symbols Challenge

Christian symbol

• Agnus Dei – Latin for ‘Lamb of God’.

• Jesus = sacrificial lamb taking the sins of the world.

• Standing with a banner, the lamb represents the risen Christ triumphant over death.

Symbols Challenge

Swastika

• Commonly used in Hinduism and Buddhism

• From the Sanskrit ‘svastika’ – literally ‘it is good’.

• Represents eternity (particularly of Brahman)

Symbols Challenge

Kippah – hat worn by men/boys in Judaism

• The head is the nearest part of the body to God

•Reminds Jews that God is more important than them and must always be respected.

Symbols Challenge

Believers’ Baptism (Christianity)

• Cleansing from sin

• New life / new creation

• By that baptism into his death we were buried with him, in order that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, so also might we set out on a new life. (Romans 6:4)

Symbols Challenge

• Salah

• Islamic prayer

Symbols Challenge

John Randall – Functions of Symbol

• 1899-1980

• American philosopher

• Friend and colleague of Paul Tillich – although there are substantial differences between their views on religious language as symbolic.

• Ideas on symbols found in ‘The Role of Knowledge in Western Religion’

• Task: Read pages 121-123 of your EDUQAS textbook and answer the following questions in full sentences:

• 1. What did Randall concentrate specifically on in his research on symbols to see how religious language functions as a vehicle for conveying knowledge?

• 2. Which two worlds did Randall believe had a common purpose?

• 3. What did Randall identify as key to understanding what it means to be religious?

• 4. What consequences does religious experience have?

• 5. A shared set of values translated quite literally into a _____?

• 6. Randall believed that all religious beliefs were what?

• 7. Randall knew that symbols didn’t have empirical truth behind them, so what sort of truth do they have?

• 8. What is the clear primary role of religious symbols according to Randall?

• 9. What is the function of a symbol for Randall?

• 10. Distinguish between secular and religious symbols for Randall

• 11. Which philosopher’s ideas were Randall's ideas influenced by?

John Randall – Functions of Symbol

• 1. What did Randall concentrate specifically on in his research on symbols to see how religious language functions as a vehicle for conveying knowledge?

• A. The forms of communication within a religion that gives believers the greatest insight into their commonly held beliefs

• 2. Which two worlds did Randall believe had a common purpose?

• A. The world of natural science and the world of natural Theology – both are trying to reveal the workings of the world

• 3. What did Randall identify as key to understanding what it means to be religious?

• A. Religious Experience

• 4. What consequences do religious experiences have?

• A. They unite people together, from tribes to city-states

• 5. A shared set of values translated quite literally into a _____?

• A. A common form of language

John Randall – Functions of Symbol

• 6. Randall believed that all religious beliefs were what?

• A. Mythology – symbolic

• 7. Randall knew that symbols didn’t have empirical truth behind them, so what sort of truth do they have?

• A. Anti-real truths. Non-Cognitive truths.

• 8. What is the clear primary role of religious symbols according to Randall?

• A. They provide a function- a revelation of truth

• 9. What is the function of a symbol for Randall?

• A. They are a vehicle for intellectually and practical

• 10. Distinguish between secular and religious symbols for Randall

• A. Secular symbols = cognitive and provide practical information. Religious Symbols = Non-Cognitive and motivators

• 11. Which philosopher’s ideas were Randall's ideas influenced by?

• A. Plato’s. The idea that symbols are instruments of revelation and help us see something that was not otherwise apparent.

John Randall – Functions of Symbol

• Religious Language, for Randall, is not essentially language about ‘knowledge’. Its aims and functions are not to furnish people with ‘truth’ in an empirical sense.

• “Religious beliefs, though far indeed from being “meaningless”, do not possess what is ordinarily meant by cognitive value.”

• Religion expresses whatever people feel deeply.

• “We can assume that all religious beliefs without exception are ‘mythology’. That is, they are all religious ‘symbols’.”

• “If such symbols can be said to possess any kind of ‘truth’, they certainly do not possess the literal truth of the factual statements of the descriptive sciences or of common sense…”

• All ideas of God, like all other religious beliefs, are without exception religious symbols. They are employed in religious experience and serve to carry on the religious life.

• Like Tillich, Randall distinguishes between signs symbols. But, for Randall, a symbol is in no sense representative; it does not stand for or take the place of anything other than itself.

• Rather, it does something in its own right; it provokes a characteristic response in people. Symbols are revelations, a way in which people can approach the Divine and live a religious life in any meaningful sense

John Randall – Functions of Symbol

• To summarise …

Symbols express value rather than impart knowledge.

John Randall – Functions of Symbol

Paul Tillich – God as ‘The Ultimate concern’

• 1886-1965

• Christian philosopher and theologian

• Dynamics of Faith

• Systematic Theology

Paul Tillich – Six Characteristics of Symbol

• Tillich saw faith a the state of being ultimately concerned

• Faith is part of a ‘spiritual hierarchy’ of needs

• TASK: Read page 12 and 13 of your workbook. Identify the 6 characteristics of symbols and write these into the ‘wheel’ of symbol characteristics on page 14

• 1. Symbols point beyond themselves to something else

• 2. Symbols participate in the reality of that to which they point

• 3. Symbols open up levels of reality that are otherwise closed to us

• 4. Symbols unlock dimensions and elements of our soul

• 5. Symbols cannot be produced intentionally

• 6. Symbols, like living beings, grow and die

• TASK: Read the passage from ‘Dynamics of Faith’ on page 125 of your EDUQAS textbook. Make notes

Paul Tillich – Six Characteristics of Symbol

• To summarise….

• The language of symbol is the language of power. Any talk about God is symbolic language of human’s ‘ultimate concern’. They are non-cognitive and provoke a response. The language of faith is the symbol.

Paul Tillich – God as ‘The Ultimate concern’

Challenge to Symbol – Symbols aren’t Adequate or Don’t Give an Insight• Symbols don’t offer any empirical knowledge. They don’t meet the

criteria of the Vienna Circle

• Paul Edwards states that symbols are a ‘philosophical confusion’ and claims that Tillich doesn’t tell us what he does mean about God, only what he doesn’t mean

• Symbols change over time which causes confusion and undermines their meaningfulness. What insight can they really provide?

Symbols Change Over Time

Symbols Change Over Time

Can Randall and Tillich’s views be used to help understand religious teachings?• TASK:

• Read the 7 paragraphs on pages 126-127 of your EDUQAS textbook

• Make a key bullet point to summarise each paragraph

• We will share our 7 bullet points as a group

• Class feedback / notes

Can Randall and Tillich’s views be used to help understand religious teachings?

AO1 Consolidation

• Complete Lean Learning Sheet ‘D’ in your workbooks

AO2 – Are Symbols Adequate?

• Do you think that symbols are an adequate form of religious language?

ARE ADEQUATE AREN’T ADEQUATE

AO2 – Do Randall and Tillich Provide a Suitable Counter-Challenge to Logical Positivism?

DO DON’T

• Meaning doesn’t have to be cognitive • Non-Cognitive language expresses emotions and

meaning and what reality means to them• Non-cognitive language can work as

communication about beliefs (Randall)• The world of natural science and natural theology

has a common purpose (Randall)• Symbols participate in that to which they point

(Tillich)• Both Tillich and Randall have a very different

approach

• You can’t verify a symbol • Symbols aren’t synthetic / analytical /

mathematical • As symbols are non-empirical they can be

misinterpreted whereas empirical facts are unchageable