More Than Discourse

Donald A. Crosby

Description

Religious life involves more than prosaically stated beliefs. It also encompasses attitudes, emotions, values, and practices whose meanings cannot be adequately captured in verbal assertions but require effective expression in forceful images, portrayals, and enactments of a nonliteral sort. Indeed, the world's religious traditions are each marked by rich and distinctive symbols. In More Than Discourse, Donald A. Crosby discusses the nature of symbols in religion and investigates symbols appropriate for religious naturalism or what he terms Religion of Nature. This is a religious outlook that holds the natural world to be the only world; it is sacred but without any supernatural domain or presence underlying it. Warning against a too-literalistic approach to any religion by either its adherents or its critics, Crosby discusses the nature and roles of religious symbols, how they work, and their particular kinds of truth or falsity. A set of criteria for evaluating the effectiveness and meaning of religious symbols is provided along with explorations of specific symbols Crosby finds to be highly significant for Religion of Nature.
Preface

Part I. Functions and Types of Religious Symbols

1. Symbols of Living Faith

Introduction
Back to the Pelican
Some Types of Religious Symbolization
Symbols of Evil
Major and Minor Religious Symbols

2. Works of Art and Religious Symbolism

Introduction
Artistic Symbolization
Similarities and Differences between Aesthetic and Religious Symbols
Interrelations of Aesthetic and Religious Symbolizations

3. Master Religious Symbols

Introduction
Symbols of Religious Ultimates
Cosmogonic and Cosmological Symbols
Symbols of Religious Paths of Life and of Obstacles Lying in Their Way
Symbols of Exemplary Human Lives

4. How Religious Symbols Work

Introduction
The Necessary Role of Religious Symbols
Ways in Which Religious Symbols Function
Doctrinal Expositions of Religious Symbols
The Error of Literalism

Part II. Symbols of Religion of Nature

5. Master Symbols of the Ultimacy of Nature and of its Cosmogonic and Cosmological Roles

Introduction
A Symbol of Religious Ultimacy of Nature
A Cosmogonic and Cosmological Symbol for Religion of Nature

6. Master Symbols of the Saving Path of Life and of an Exemplary Traveler on the Path

Introduction
The Path and Its Obstacles and Misdirections
An Exemplar of the Saving Path of Religion of Nature

7. The Truth of Religious Symbols

Introduction
Religious Symbols and Truth
Secular Symbols and Truth

8. Symbols and Symbolic Practices for Religion of Nature

Introduction
Synecdoches
Prayer and Meditation
Rituals
Symbols of Sacrifice and Self-Giving
Other Symbols of Religion of Nature
Conclusion

Notes
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Philosophy of religion
• Comparative religion

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 12 juin 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438453767
• Langue: English

Extrait

More Than Discourse
More Than Discourse
Symbolic Expressions of Naturalistic Faith
Donald A. Crosby
Cover image of brown pelican courtesy of Bigstockphoto.com
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crosby, Donald A.
More than discourse : symbolic expressions of naturalistic faith / Donald A. Crosby.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5375-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Symbolism. 2. Religion. I. Title.
BL603.C76 2014
203'.7—dc23
2014002034
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Brown Pelicans of the Gulf of Mexico Symbols of the Marvel and Vulnerability of Life
Contents
Preface
P ART I F UNCTIONS AND T YPES OF R ELIGIOUS S YMBOLS
1 Symbols of Living Faith
Introduction
Back to the Pelican
Some Types of Religious Symbolization
Symbols of Evil
Major and Minor Religious Symbols
2 Works of Art and Religious Symbolism
Introduction
Artistic Symbolization
Similarities and Differences between Aesthetic and Religious Symbols
Interrelations of Aesthetic and Religious Symbolizations
3 Master Religious Symbols
Introduction
Symbols of Religious Ultimates
Cosmogonic and Cosmological Symbols
Symbols of Religious Paths of Life and of Obstacles Lying in Their Way
Symbols of Exemplary Human Lives
4 How Religious Symbols Work
Introduction
The Necessary Role of Religious Symbols
Ways in Which Religious Symbols Function
Doctrinal Expositions of Religious Symbols
The Error of Literalism
P ART II S YMBOLS OF R ELIGION OF N ATURE
5 Master Symbols of the Ultimacy of Nature and of its Cosmogonic and Cosmological Roles
Introduction
A Symbol of the Religious Ultimacy of Nature
A Cosmogonic and Cosmological Symbol for Religion of Nature
6 Master Symbols of the Saving Path of Life and of an Exemplary Traveler on the Path
Introduction
The Path and Its Obstacles and Misdirections
An Exemplar of the Saving Path of Religion of Nature
7 The Truth of Religious Symbols
Introduction
Religious Symbols and Truth
Secular Symbols and Truth
8 Symbols and Symbolic Practices for Religion of Nature
Introduction
Synecdoches
Prayer and Meditation
Rituals
Symbols of Sacrifice and Self-Giving
Other Symbols for Religion of Nature
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Preface
“It’s interesting, but of course it is not literally true; it’s only a symbol.” This kind of frequently heard comment about religious symbols is half accurate and half misleading. It is accurate because religious symbols of the nondiscursive sort are not meant to be literally true in their essential force and character. They are meant to be symbolically true, and the difference between the two kinds of truth is fundamental and far-reaching, as this book is intended to show. The comment is radically misleading , however, to the extent that it suggests that religious symbols are less important or less informative precisely because they make no claim to being translatable without remainder into perspicuous literal statements.
To say of something that it is only a symbol is to make the serious mistake of overlooking and undervaluing everything that religious symbols are by their very nature best suited to express and convey. It is to fail to recognize the vital and lasting contribution that religious symbols can make to apprehension of religious truths that speak to the whole beings of persons—emotional, volitional, valuational, and practical as well as rational—and that function to awaken and sustain a sense of the daunting, alluring, and healing presence of the sacred in the world. Not only are religious symbolizations rightly entitled to be regarded as true—albeit in a manner distinct from the truths of literal statements—they should also be recognized to have at least the potential to be profoundly true. This potential lies in the ability of religious symbols to bring into focus and to speak meaningfully to some of the deepest issues of life, and to address these issues with an evocative quality, range, and power that are beyond the competence of even the most well-articulated and well-argued literal assertions.
To be dismissive or even contemptuous of symbolical expressions is to betray a literal mindset that is poorly equipped to deal with the central, most abiding truths and modes of awareness of religious traditions. It is interesting to note that such a literal mindset often characterizes both earnest spokespersons for religious traditions and those who are just as earnestly intent on rejecting religions out of hand on the ground that many of their central features cannot be readily reduced to literal statements or that, when reduced, they turn out to be vexingly paradoxical or literally false. The literal mindset of the former gives abundant ammunition to the literalistic objections of the latter. For religious persons to insist that everything about religion must be rendered into literal discourse or propositional doctrines, and that failure to give unquestioning assent to this discourse and these doctrines (so rendered) amounts to un-negotiable heresy and lack of faith, is fundamentally to misconceive the nature of religious outlooks on the world.
These outlooks may admit of literal or more or less literal assertions at many significant points. But they also crucially depend on symbolic modes of thought and conviction which frame vital meanings and truths that cannot be simply stated in literal terms. Endeavoring to reduce these symbolic modes wholly to literal statements is to distort their meanings beyond repair and to lose sight of what may be of most lasting and telling importance in them. My argument throughout this book implies that responsible religious leaders should work constantly to sensitize those whom they lead to the pervasive and underlying symbolic aspects of their traditions and to help their followers to understand why it is so important not to overlook or downplay these crucial aspects in favor of claims that purport to be strictly literal and to call for exclusively literal assent. Development of such sensitivity and attunement to symbolic meanings is no simple task. It requires subtlety and sophistication of a high order, and it should be a basic and intensive aspect of religious education. Discursive religious language, on the one hand, and symbolic expressions and practices of religion, on the other, can be mutually illuminative and informative. But neither can be substituted for the other, and neither is subordinate to the other.
Literal discourse, logical inferences, and rationally ordered doctrinal systems have important roles to play in giving expression to religious truths. I do not want for a moment to deny this fact, and I argue for its importance later in this book. I only mean to assert here that the embodiment and communication of religious truth is critically dependent at many points on nondiscursive symbolic modes of expression, and that these modes of expression cannot be reduced without serious loss of meaning to literal statements. To attempt such wholesale reduction can have disastrous effects for the character and significance of religious thought and commitment, for reasons I shall spell out in due course and in some detail. This spelling out will be largely and admittedly discursive in character, but its focus throughout will be on meanings or aspects of meanings of powerful religious symbols that cannot be reduced to literal analysis or description. I cannot emphasize enough how vitally important it is to understand the distinctive, irreducible role of symbolic forms of intuition and expression in our everyday lives and especially in the religious dimensions of our lives. Without this understanding, we are doomed to skate on the surfaces of religion and much of life, and to be oblivious to their depths.
As the subtitle of this book indicates, its focus is not only on the roles and functions of religious symbols in general. It also focuses on the sorts of religious symbols that can be brought into play and drawn upon to give symbolic expression to the outlook of religious naturalism and, most particularly, to the perspective of what I call Religion of Nature. In the concluding chapter of an earlier (2002) book entitled A Religion of Nature , I noted that my discussions in the book were incomplete because they did not provide an analysis of types of symbolic expressions and enactments suitable for a naturalistic faith. A religious outlook devoid of such symbolic features is deficient in a fundamental aspect of religious thought and expression. This book represents an attempt at least to begin to make up for that notable deficiency in the earlier book.
Other aspects of my elaboration and defense of Religion of Nature have occupied me in two additional books. The first of these, Living with Ambiguity: Religious Naturalism and the Menace of Evil (2008), explores the manifestations of evil in the world and in human life and how these can be regarded, responded to, and coped with in Religion of Nature—a critical issue, if not the most critical issue, for any adequate and meaningful religious vision. And the second book, The Thou of Nature: Religious Naturalism and Reverence for Sentient Life (2013) centers on the question of how propone