Metaphor and Religious Language Book

Soskice uses metaphor as a linguistic lemma to conjecture a post-lockean commandment, "thou shall not take religion so seriously."

about the first 2/3rds of the book are dedicated to michael myers[1]. surgically, she dissects tropes and operates on the mother[2]. after a successful surgery, dr soskice becomes an ethnographer and studies how her patient operates in different contexts[3].

the main thrust of her book comes wrapped in the causal theory of references (ctr). she contrasts ctr with the classical theory of reference (clas), a common and colloquial way of understanding words and phrases.

for example, whereas family has a biological understanding (clas), there is also an associative and affective definition approximated as those whom one feels a fuzzy affection for (ctr).

(in a way, ctr reminds me of an open-ended operational definition)

more generally, take this passage from albert hastorf and hadley cantril's rashomon-like, "they saw a game:"

it is inaccurate and misleading to say that different people have different "attitudes" concerning the same "thing." for the "thing" simply is not the same for different people whether the "thing" is a football game, a presidential candidate, communism, or spinach.

this highlights the ctr vs clas distinction quite well, imo. ask yourself, what is the quoted thing?

both ctr and clas have their pros and cons. one con for ctr is that it is hard to reconcile reference changes. take witch, it used to mean supernatural and wicked, now it's more-or-less an unpleasant woman. one con for clas is it's limiting and often devolves into unproductive word-thinking.

word-thinking is slow poison that has infected the west since enlightenment. today, it's most visible in politics. without going down the rabbit hole: what is collusion? quid pro quo? impeachable? and so on.

(i understand some terms above are well-defined legal terms. my point being, if these strict definitions are being argued by bright lawyers, a fortiori, non-legal terms that are being shot around like their diamond bullets are really just rubber chickens.)

all politics is: is clas pundits playin marbles[4]; having singular orb-al definitions aimed at their opponent's solid glass balls, tryna shoot them over an arbitrary line drawn in the sand.

i can go on, but i've already rambled on about the major themes, associated ideas, and how i've related to it in the world. all in all, if you're interested in language at all, this is one of the best books i've read. enjoy ;)

[1] slice and dice
[2] metaphors, duhh
[3] specifically, how metaphors are used in science and religious
[4] up for metaphorical interpretation as illustrated and illuminated by soskice