Tuesday, September 13, 2011

truth in language

We simply must acknowledge that even though our finite understanding of God is limited, it is no less true! We possess exhaustive knowledge of very little; all reality, including the visible and physical, remains something of a mystery to us. Our talk of spiritual matters, including those of our own souls, is necessarily metaphorical, figurative, poetic. But this does not mean that what we say is untrue and incorrect. On the contrary, real poetry is truth, for it is based on the resemblance, similarity and kinship that exist between different groups of phenomena. All language participates in this rich interpenetration of visible and invisible. If speaking figuratively were untrue, all our thought and knowledge would be an illusion and speech itself impossible.

- Bavinck

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