6. Religious Language: Twentieth Century Perspectives

Learners will study how views of religious language have changed over time, studying a variety of approaches and views.

6.1 Content

• logical positivism
• Wittgenstein’s views on language games and forms of life
• discussion about the factual quality of religious language in the falsification symposium

6.2 Knowledge

• the impact of the verification principle on the use of religious language, with reference to:
– Ayer’s approach to verification
• how language games may permit religious language to be deemed meaningful yet not cognitive
• the varying arguments, with their associated parables, put forward in relation to theological language by:
– Flew, Hare and Mitchell in their contributions to the symposium

6.3 Issues as the basis of exam questions

Learners should have the opportunity to discuss issues related to different views of religious language, including:
• whether or not any version of the verification principle successfully renders religious language as meaningless
• whether or not any participant in the falsification symposium presented a convincing approach to the understanding of religious language
• a comparison of the ideas of Aquinas and Wittgenstein, including:
– whether a cognitive approach (such as Aquinas’s thinking on analogy) or a non-cognitive approach (such as the language games concept of Wittgenstein) present better ways of making sense of religious language
– the influence of non-cognitive approaches on the interpretation of religious texts
– how far Aquinas’ analogical view of theological language remains valuable in philosophy of religion

6.4 Suggested scholarly views, academic approaches and sources of wisdom and authority

For reference, the ideas of Ayer and Wittgenstein listed above can be found in:
• Ayer, A. J. God Talk is Evidently Nonsense
• Wittgenstein, L. Philosophical Investigations

Learners will be given credit for referring to any appropriate scholarly views, academic approaches and sources of wisdom and authority, however the following examples may prove useful:
• Swinburne, R. (1993) The Coherence of Theism, Oxford University Press, Part I
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Religious Language,

Language, Religious