The epistemic status of religious symbols in the thought of Wilbur M. Urban

The purpose of this dissertation is to ascertain the epistemic status of religious symbols in Urban's thought. This involves the clarification and evaluation of the basic concepts in his religious epistemology--meaning, dialectic, truth, and verification--as they relate to his philosophy of language. The meaning of religious terms is intuitive connotation or indirect reference to intuitive universals, which is a genuine level of meaning created by the religious speech community in its attempt to express the axiological character of reality. That is, religious language is referential and cognitive in that it expresses true or false judgments of reality. Religious language is also expressive of the intuition of God in human experience. Thus, the religious statement "God is a Person" is conceived to be a judgment, the ontological intention of which is ultimate reality; but it is also a judgment rooted in religious experience. Thus, religious judgments are meaningful or cognitive because they are symbolically representative of deity. Religious myth, Urban believes, constitutes a special case of intuitive connotation, and fulfills the requirements of representation and creativity necessary for the meaningful expression of the religious referent [TRUNCATED]

Grantor dc:publisher

Boston University

Year dc:date.issued

1966

Author dc:creator

• Butler, Roy Willington, Jr.

• Theology
• Urban, Wilbur M.
• Religious symbols

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Dc Identifier Other

b14628600

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.bu.edu:2144/33413