LIMITS OF RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE Dr V Chandrasekar Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College (Autonomous) Chennai

Religious language – used to refer to statements about God, or even to Godly attributes and actins of man towards the Divine Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s reply to young Narendra – how does it form part of the analysis of religious language?

Problem concerning statements about God solved in 4 ways: These statements are meaningless equivocal Univocal analogical The FOURTH suggests that the property of goodness attributed to a finite being stands for a particular quality whereas it is ascribed to God’s unity - advocates a middle position – terms used are same thing in different modes

Arguments substantiating limits of religious language will hold good to communication about God But Swami Saradananda, looks at the mission of Sri Ramakrishna in TWO ways: 1} Divine mother acts through him 2} addresses himself, at times, as the Divine

But Swami Saradananda, looks at the mission of Sri Ramakrishna in TWO ways: 1} Divine mother acts through him 2} addresses himself, at times, as the Divine Compare Swamiji’s statement about 2 statements of Jesus Christ – kingdom of heaven in you and 2) our father in the heaven FIRST for the uneducated in religion and the other for the realized

“my usage of religious language while giving directions to the church is FUNCTIONAL, OPERATIONAL AND UNCOMMITTED; and my usage of religious language is COMMITMENT, ENGAGEMENT AND PARTICIPATION in the faith perspective of my church. Therefore, the religious language examines the following: commitment and engagement which includes language of prayer, devotion, meditation, hymns used for prayer and the theological doctrine”. As put forth by Stephen Loxton

John Wisdom’s analogy of the two people who return to their land unattended by them One of them looks at the weeds and overgrowth of shrubs as the handiwork of a gardener While the other does not deny what he sees but not ready to the succumb to the theory of a gardener (God here)

Swami Vivekananda on four divisions of religion Symbology History Philosophy Mysticism Religious language and the attendant response seems applicable to three of these

Swami Saradananda points to the usage of Vedanta in place of Hinduism by Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s understanding that the different forms of Vedanta are nothing but different shades of the same truth

Inadequacy of religious language not only when seen as a problem because of the areas of its application (from the empirical to the non-empirical) but even among the religionists like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda – where the latter spoke extensively what his master showed him (including universality of religion)

Dr S Radhakrishnan, highlights the conglomeration of the intellect with trust by saying that the ancient Indians’ attitude to the Vedas is one of trust tempered by criticism - “… trust because the beliefs and forms which helped our fathers are likely to be of use to us also; criticism because, however valuable the testimony of past ages may be, it cannot deprive the present ee of its right to inquire and sift the evidence” .