Metaphor and Religious Language [Paperback]

Christian theology has suffered in modern times from an inability to explain its traditional reliance on metaphor to an audience intellectually formed by empiricism. The author argues that what is needed is not a more literal theology, but a better understanding of metaphor. Soskice offers here an account of metaphor and religious language that not only illuminates the way in which theists speak of God, but also contributes to our understanding of the workings of metaphor in scientific theory and other disciplines.

A splendid vindication of analytic philosophy. --Times Literary Supplement

An extraordinary account of the metaphorical character of religious language. --Commonweal

Combines two excellent studies: the first is a critical analysis of theories of metaphor and topics in contemporary philosophy of language....the second is an examination of the way in which models and the metaphorical language based on them are understood in a critical realism concerning scientific explanation, and so can support the possibility of a critical realism in theology....Deserves to be widely read. --The Thomist

Presents a clear, concise and forceful challenge to anti-realist views of religious discourse. --Review of Metaphysics

I have little but praise for this study. The crisp insights of the conclusion are symptomatic of its lucidity and sophistication. --British Journal of Aesthetics