How We Speak of God

Departments of theology are rarely found in Western universities today, and when they are, they are often filled with professors who do not believe that God can actually be known. They might affirm that a supreme being exists, but they will deny that He has revealed Himself in any definitive way. In fact, many of these individuals will say that God cannot reveal Himself.

Much of the reason for this doubt about God and His ability to reveal Himself can be traced to some twentieth-century philosophies of human language. Various thinkers suggested that human language is incapable of conveying actual truths about God. Even if God wanted to reveal Himself, many philosophers concluded, He could not do so in a way that we could understand. Liberal theologians thus began describing God in new ways, for if we are only guessing at who God is, any expression might be appropriate. Impersonal language about God as a force or as the “ground of all being” prevailed.

Questions about how human language can express truths about God did not begin in the twentieth century, but they have been a part of the study of theology for generations. Bible-believing theologians have always believed that there are limits to human language when it comes to describing God, for we are finite. Yet, they have also argued that human language is an adequate vehicle for God to reveal Himself to us. Since we are made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26–27), human language can express actual truth about the Lord.

Thomas Aquinas ranks among the most important theologians when it comes to explaining how we may rightly use human language to talk about God. With the vast majority of orthodox Christian thinkers, Thomas stressed that truth about God is expressed in terms of analogy. In analogical language, we use the same word to describe two different things but not to describe them in exactly the same way. For instance, we talk about “good” children and “good” dogs in the sense that both can be obedient, but we know that the obedience of children is not identical to the obedience of dogs.

Scripture uses analogical language, employing metaphors to describe God. For instance, in Psalm 23:1, David refers to God as his “shepherd.” Obviously, David does not mean that God sits in a field with a flock of sheep but means that like a human shepherd, God protects and provides for those under His care. The shepherd metaphor communicates a key truth about God in human language.