Simplicity and Language: Bonaventure's Semiotic Asymptoticism
Luy engages in a close reading of Bonaventure's doctrine of divine simplicity. He offers this reading in light of a keen awareness of contemporary critiques of the doctrine, especially from philosophers of religion who suggest that divine simplicity either means that our human words really cann...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2019]
|
| In: |
Modern theology
Year: 2019, Volume: 35, Issue: 3, Pages: 481-495 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Johannes Bonaventura, Kardinal, Heiliger 1221-1274
/ Religious language
/ Simplicity of God
/ God's self-revelation
/ Perfection
|
| IxTheo Classification: | KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages KDB Roman Catholic Church NBC Doctrine of God |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Luy engages in a close reading of Bonaventure's doctrine of divine simplicity. He offers this reading in light of a keen awareness of contemporary critiques of the doctrine, especially from philosophers of religion who suggest that divine simplicity either means that our human words really cannot say anything intelligible about God, or that divine properties that are surely distinct (such as justice and goodness) are in fact absolutely identical. In sum, Luy recognizes that the doctrine of simplicity challenges the intelligibility of religious language. He points out that medieval thinkers, too, recognized this challenge, but they regarded it as a salutary reminder that God is ultimately incomprehensible to finite minds, even though we can speak true things about God. In expositing divine simplicity according to Bonaventure, Luy shows that Bonaventure expects that creation itself is designed to reveal God's limitless self-communication. Divine simplicity, then, serves to affirm divine perfection, in a manner limited by the effort of finite words to express the infinite; but divine simplicity also reflects the "semiotic universe" that allows for, and exalts in, the wondrous expression of the divine plenitude. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1468-0025 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Modern theology
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/moth.12509 |