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Naming God
Addressing the Divine in Philosophy, Theology and Scripture
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Janet Soskice
Generations of Christians, Janet Soskice demonstrates, once knew God and Christ by hundreds of remarkable names. These included the appellations ‘Messiah’, ‘Emmanuel’, ‘Alpha’, ‘Omega’, ‘Eternal’, ‘All-Powerful’, ‘Lamb’, ‘Lion’, ‘Goat’, ‘One’, ‘Word’, ‘Serpent’ and ‘Bridegroom’. In her much-anticipated new book, Soskice argues that contemporary understandings of divinity could be transformed by a return to a venerable analogical tradition of divine naming. These ancient titles –drawn from scripture – were chanted and sung, crafted and invoked (in polyphony and plainsong) as they were woven into the worship of the faithful. However, during the sixteenth century, Descartes moved from ‘naming’ to ‘defining’ God via a series of metaphysical attributes. This made God a thing among things: a being amongst beings. For the author, reclaiming divine naming is not only overdue. It can also re-energize the relationship between philosophy and religious tradition. This pathbreaking book shows just how rich and revolutionary such reclamation might be.
Janet Soskice is Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. She is presently the William K. Warren Distinguished Research Professor of Catholic Theology at Duke Divinity School. Her books include Metaphor and Religious Language (1984), which is a classic work of metaphorical theology, and also the best-selling trade title Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels (2009), which vividly recounts how the Ayrshire twins Agnes and Margaret Smith made in the Sinai desert one of the most important New Testament manuscript discoveries of the nineteenth century.
Advance praise
‘Skilfully and insightfully written, this book draws on the inheritance of the author’s classic text Metaphor and Religious Language while developing that inheritance in some interesting and engaging new directions.’
Oliver Davies, King’s College London
