Two-Fold God Language

(Originally written March 17, 2007 in Book 25)

A framework for an essay idea.

God-language is two-fold. The first part is a general use of language. Theists, atheists, non-theists, pantheists, polytheists, panentheists and all other "ints" can speak about God using philosophical God-language. This usage of language is descriptive of God in that it aims to either positively or negatively attribute qualities to God. It has all the trappings of petty philosophy. It can be argued whether or not it is solely negative, solely positive or a combination thereof. It can be argued whether it is analogical, univocal, equivocal, modal or what have you. It can follow Scotus, Aquinas, Wittgenstien or Ramsey or whomever. It is an arduous process in developing a philosophical God-Language, but luckily it is not the crucial part of God-Language.

Alongside, maybe even contrary to philosophical God-Language is prayer God-Language. This can be anthropomorphic, mystical, ineffable or even contradictory. It is not bound by logic or language itself. It is beyond language. It is metaphorical and literal, univocal and equivocal and analogical all at once. It can be descriptive about God, but that is not its purpose. Its purpose is the communication between the Transcendent and those who wish to transcend.

Philosophical God-Language is aimed at describing the concept of God; whereas prayer God-Language is aimed at communicating with God. Prayer language is mystical in nature in that those who do not have the experience of prayer can never fully comprehend it. But, beyond that those who pray to Buddha or Allah do not experience what those who pray to YHWH or Jesus Christ and visa versa. Philosophical God-Language can be meaningless, but prayer God-Language cannot. Prayer language can be powerful even if it is empty. Prayer is mystical and emotional. Even if a prayer is offered to a deity that is not there it can stir such emotion to make the emotional experience ineffable. But prayer to a deity that is attentive is beyond emotional, it is mystical.

The ineffability of prayer experience is so because we are ill-equipped to describe it to one another. Not because we do not comprehend mystical experiences or that mystical experiences are non-empirical but because we cannot translate prayer language into philosophical language. Philosophical God-Language is spoken from man-to-man. Prayer language is spoken from man-to-God. Without God all God-Language is philosophical, thus we cannot speak cognitively about prayer language in philosophical terms.