Open Theology (Feb 2018)

Conceiving God: Literal and Figurative Prompt for a More Tectonic Distinction

  • Masson Robert

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2018-0010
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 136 – 157

Abstract

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John Sanders’ Theology in the Flesh, the first comprehensive overview of the toolkit that contemporary cognitive linguistics offers for theological appropriation, despite its remarkable success, gives rather minimal attention to blending theory, one of the discipline’s most formidable tools. This paper draws on blending theory to offer an alternative to Sanders’ chapter on conceiving God. Central to the proposal is claim that God-talk, like many of the advances in science, technology, and art, entails a kind of tectonic understanding and conceptual mapping that is neither literal nor figurative.

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