Language

Abstract

Like many an account of religious language in philosophy of religion, that offered by pluralism must be to some extent prescriptive rather than descriptive. That is to say, it will explain what forms of meaning religious language can have given pluralism’s overall view of the nature of religion. It will not necessarily be an account of the conscious intentions of religious believers Many writers now approach the topic of the character of religious language by employing the three-fold classification of George Lind beck (1984), which focuses in particular on the doctrinal sentences within religious discourse. According to Lind beck we can view religious discourse as propositional, in which case it is the fact-stating character of doctrinal statements that is uppermost in our minds. Or we can see religious language as experiential-expressive and therefore as the vehicle for the avowal of important feelings and experiences. Or we can regard doctrinal statements from a cultural-linguistic point of view, seeing them primarily as rules which make possible distinctive ways of thinking and behaving.