Publications

Publication details [#926]

Caponi, Francis J. 2010. Pale Analogies and Dead Metaphors: Some Recent Trends in Religious Language. Horizons 37 (1).
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

The present paper provides a critical review of four trends in contemporary accounts of religious language. He addresses the inadequacy of the accounts of the nature of metaphor, the universality attributed to metaphor, the lack of attention devoted to the nature of literal speech and the inability to understand the nature of the relationship between metaphor and analogy. The author argues that in the last decades, accounts of religious language have focused on metaphor, while analogy was traditionally considered the most recurrent figure in religious language according to the Christian tradition. The author claims that analogy should be given primary status, and also acknowledges the importance of metaphor as being cognitively indispensable in the interpretation of religious texts.