Many Ways of Knowing God: Metaphor and Analogy

Abstract

At this point my range of questions focuses mainly on the meaningfulness of interpretation and meaning of the central Christian symbols. McFague and Tracy present two manners of interpreting that they believe explicate the meaning of the text. How: is this useful in understanding the ability to name meaning at all? Specifically, I must ask, can anything meaningful be gathered and explicated from the figure of Christ? Or, regardless of re-interpretation, is the Christ unavailable due to the history of violence and oppression? In a similar manner, can we speak meaningfully about scripture, and if so, how? How have McFague and Tracy attempted to answer these questions. Is there a way of interpreting the central Christian symbol and text that can revive Christian meaning without alienating the modern consciousness? What sort of ethic would arise from this new understanding? In regard to last question, I would also pose the need for a new form of eschatological thought and religious ethic that emphasizes a new Christian understanding of salvation. First, what is salvation and second, what sort of Christ figure can save? The organization of this project lies predominately in my intuitive sense of how McFague's and Tracy's thought most naturally flows. I began with McFague as her theology was the more concrete and more easily accessible. Throughout the discussion, I have attempted to problematize and develop McFague's themes from within the framework of my own questions. I continued this structure with Tracy while at the same time trying to flush out the similarities between McFague and Tracy. With Tracy, there was some confusion over the original copyright dates of his books. In the end, I decided to place the discussion of the Analogical Imagination last because I felt it to be the capstone of his thought.