Speech and Theology: Language and the Logic of Incarnation (Radical Orthodoxy)

Rating:
Summary: How to speak about God
Review: In this book, Smith grapples with how one ought to (or can) speak about God. The problem he deals with is one from phenomenology. If something is transcendent (as is God), then it cannot be conceptualized or spoken of without doing violence to its transcendence. Essentially, we cannot speak of something that is wholly other without making it immanent, even if only in our speech. Yet this speech does not do justice to God. The other option is not to speak, but this does not seem like such a good option either. Following the young Heidigger and Augustine, Smith develops an incarnational model of speech. Such speech does not violate transcendence, but points beyond itself to the greater reality (God). Further, it does not do violence because the transcendent One (God) initiated the speech. This is a difficult read if you are not familiar with French Deconstructionist philosophers like Derrida, Marion, and Levinas, but it is well worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: How to speak about God
Review: In this book, Smith grapples with how one ought to (or can) speak about God. The problem he deals with is one from phenomenology. If something is transcendent (as is God), then it cannot be conceptualized or spoken of without doing violence to its transcendence. Essentially, we cannot speak of something that is wholly other without making it immanent, even if only in our speech. Yet this speech does not do justice to God. The other option is not to speak, but this does not seem like such a good option either. Following the young Heidigger and Augustine, Smith develops an incarnational model of speech. Such speech does not violate transcendence, but points beyond itself to the greater reality (God). Further, it does not do violence because the transcendent One (God) initiated the speech. This is a difficult read if you are not familiar with French Deconstructionist philosophers like Derrida, Marion, and Levinas, but it is well worth the effort.