Abstract

What do we mean when we talk about "God?" Does this term actually refer to anything in our experience? This book opens up significant new approaches to one of the most important problems confronting theology and the philosophy of religion, namely, the problem of "God-language." Current philosophical concerns over language have intensified the difficulty of talking about God: The necessity of formally proving the "meaningfulness" of statements about God has led to theological dead ends on the one hand and a retreat to mysticism or irrationality on the other. This book moves the discussion of God-language to a new plane, arguing that God-language cannnot be understood within a traditional "theistic" framework. Instead, a "grammar" of God-language must be identified, and in doing this Jennings reaches a fresh view of language, one that is applicable to all religions and all human experience--the religious as well as the secular.