Ambiguous language haunts countless fields of human inquiry. The solution to its confounding nature has repeatedly been to reduce language to its face-value, launching an endless search for the right meaning. This paper aims to examine two thinkers who reveal language to be a more complicated matter. Paul Ricoeur and Moses Maimonides demonstrate the importance of language’s complexity through close examinations of metaphor. While we find different understandings of metaphor, reflecting different metaphysics within each author’s study, both Ricoeur and Maimonides contribute to the notion that language’s complexity is not to be eliminated through literal readings, but engaged to open up depths of understanding. For the lived religious experience, this means commitment to scripture as the word of God does not require a fundamentalist reading of it. Likewise, in the implementation of philosophical principles, the search for appropriate application need not require a search for and return to original meaning.
","abstract_html":"<p>Ambiguous language haunts countless fields of human inquiry. The solution to its confounding nature has repeatedly been to reduce language to its face-value, launching an endless search for the right meaning. This paper aims to examine two thinkers who reveal language to be a more complicated matter. Paul Ricoeur and Moses Maimonides demonstrate the importance of language’s complexity through close examinations of metaphor. While we find different understandings of metaphor, reflecting different metaphysics within each author’s study, both Ricoeur and Maimonides contribute to the notion that language’s complexity is not to be eliminated through literal readings, but engaged to open up depths of understanding. For the lived religious experience, this means commitment to scripture as the word of God does not require a fundamentalist reading of it. Likewise, in the implementation of philosophical principles, the search for appropriate application need not require a search for and return to original meaning.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Molk, Claire E."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Sandra Lee Dixon","Sarah Pessin","Andrea L. Stanton","Naomi Reshotko"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2020-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:45Z","subjects":["Interpretation","Maimonides","Metaphor","Ricoeur","Other Religion","Religion","Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
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