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Ian Ramsey on Talk about God

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Donald Evans
Donald Evans
Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto
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Extract

For Ian Ramsey, talk about God raises many philosophical problems:

‘If we are not to use anthropomorphic concepts like love, power, wisdom, we cannot talk about God; but if we do use them, how do we manage to talk of God and not man?’ (MJGC152)

‘Believers wish on the one hand to claim that he (God) is indescribable and ineffable, and yet on the other hand to talk a great deal about him. Nay more, when they speak of God they say that he is transcendent and immanent, im passible yet loving, and so on. But if we speak like this, are we talking significantly at all? Here is the Falsification Problem: What kind of talk can this talk about God be, if it permits us to use such conflicting descriptions of God and to continue to use these descriptions in the face of any and all empirical phenomena?’ (RL 13–14).

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Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 1971, pp. 125 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

page 125 note 1 The following is a list of works by Ramsey which are cited in this essay, together with abbreviations used in the notes: AC: ‘The Authority of the Church Today’, Authority and the Church, ed. Williams, R. R. (London: S.P.C.K. 1965)Google Scholar. BP: ‘Biology and Personality: Some Philosophical Reflections’, Biology and Personality, ed. Ramsey, I. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1965).Google ScholarBSR: On Being Sure in Religion (London: Athlone Press, 1963)Google Scholar. CD: Christian Discourse (London: Oxford Univ.Press, 1965)Google Scholar. CE: ‘The Concept of the Eternal’, The Christian Hope, no editor, S.P.C.K. Theological Collections, No. 13 (London: 1970)Google Scholar. FI: Freedom and Immortality (London: S.C.M. Press, 1960)Google Scholar. FIR: ‘Some Further Reflections on Freedom and Immortality’, The Hibbert Journal, Vol. LIX, July, 1961Google Scholar. ICBC: ‘The Intellectual Crisis of British Christianity’, Theology, Feb., 1965Google Scholar. MELP: ‘Miracles: An Exercise in Logical Mapwork’, The Miracles and the Resurrection, no editor, S.P.C.K. Theological Collections No. 3 (London: 1964). This Oxford Inaugural Lecture was first published in 1952 by The Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar. MJGC: ‘Moral Judgments and God's Commands’, Christian Ethics and Contemporary Philosophy, ed. Ramsey, I. (London: S.C.M. Press, 1966)Google Scholar. MM: Models and Mystery (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1964)Google Scholar. MMR: ‘Models and Mystery: a reply’, Theoria to Theory, I, 3, April, 1967Google Scholar. MT: ‘On the Possibility and Purpose of a Metaphysical Theology’, Prospect for Metaphysics, ed. Ramsey, Ian (London: Allen & Unwin, 1961)Google Scholar. PA: ‘Polanyi and J. L. Austin’, Intellect and Hope, ed. Langford, Thomas A. and Poteat, William H. (Durham, N. C.: Duke Univ. Press, 1968)Google Scholar. PG: ‘A Personal God’, Prospect for Theology, ed. Healey, F. G. (Welwyn, Herts: Nisbet, 1966)Google Scholar. PR: ‘Paradox in Religion’, Aristotelian Society Supplementary Vol. xxxiii, 1959Google Scholar. RB: Reply to Braithwaite's, R. B.An Empiricist's View of the Nature of Religious Belief', Christian Ethics and Contemporary Philosophy, ed. Ramsey, Ian (London: S.C.M. Press, 1966)Google Scholar. RL: Religious Language (London: S.C.M. Press, 1957)Google Scholar. RS: Religion and Science: Conflict and Synthesis (London: S.P.C.K., 1964)Google Scholar. TG: ‘Talking about God: Models, Ancient and Modern’, Myth and Symbol, ed. Dillistone, F. W. (London: S.P.C.K., 1966)Google Scholar. TL: ‘Theological Literacy’, The Chicago Theological Seminary Register, Vol. LIII, No. 5, May, 1963.Google Scholar

page 129 note 1 I and Thou.

page 133 note 1 A Rumour of Angels (New York: Doubleday, 1969), p. 69.Google Scholar

page 139 note 1 Nature, Man and God (London: Macmillan, 1934), Lect. XI.Google Scholar