[Music] okay so we're going to talk about symbolic language today as a solution to the problems of religious language now really here the idea is rather different when you think about uh the via positive or the via negative which are attempts to explain how our language relating to god makes sense in a factual way this takes a different different tack entirely it says that our language the key idea here is that our language about god the way that we speak about him is a participation so it is part of the religious uh kind of practice it's a participation in the religious idea so the idea there is that our talk of god and the stories that relate to him is part of the action of being religious and all of the religious symbols are are really have their reference point not in fact per se but rather in its participation in the uh in the stories and the concepts of god the person to propose this was paul tillich and tilik made a distinction between two kinds of things in our concept of language signs on the one hand and symbols on the other so signs are things that point to something when you get a notification on your phone you know you've got a message that's a sign that you've got a message when you see a sign it's a sign the idea is that these things aren't part of the thing itself that notification isn't the message it's a sign that you should open your phone and check your message the sign that's pointing you to a landmark or to the next road or whatever is not part of that landmark and not part of that next road it's instead pointing you towards it so signs they point to the thing and tilik thought that in normal life most of our language is a sign kind of language but symbols play an important role too so to give you a secular example um the american flag is one that's often used in relation to tilik uh because the americans they really care about their flag so the flag doesn't point towards america it is america it's it's part of what it is to be american that's why they really don't like it when people burn their flag so an american flag participates it plays a role oh partis it paid i apologize particip it hates well there's my spelling mistake you know i made it over there too don't you but we're not going to talk about that that would be uh embarrassing and and something that i definitely wouldn't go in and correct because it's because it's around so anyway the the the flag participates um in in america it participates in the thing is it's a bit like uh napoleon the uh the french general giving his uh his legions the uh an eagle uh from his own hand and and when they carry that into battle they'll give their lives to protect the eagle not because the eagle points towards france and napoleon but because it is france and napoleon um so that's the flag thing um so let's let's talk a little bit more about this distinction between signs and symbols because if we really get that down if we really understand it then we'll begin to understand his application to uh religious language so the idea is this expressed by by paul tillich this is his concept of signs words because we're talking about language remember not not these sorts of things words in a language are signs for a meaning which they express so words typically in the language are signs so he gives us an example the word desk is a sign which points to something different namely the thing on which paper is lying and at which we might be looking so the word desk points to not the squiggle that you see before you or the sound desk that you hear but rather it points to the physical object that you are probably using right now to rest your phone or laptop on uh to watch this tutorial video so signs then are um are really something that signify they are not part of it itself but they rather signify the thing that they are pointing to they are also conventional he thinks that means that we use them they don't have any particular meaning in and of themselves the word desk could be replaced with the word but if we all agree that the word bleh means the same thing then we could use that in its place it doesn't it doesn't matter and that means that actually what we can do is that we can we can replace them they are completely replace replaceable they are replaced by expediency now expediency just means essentially convenience whatever is useful to us at the time we can change the sign to fit that so the sign at the moment points in a particular direction at one point in britain for instance all signs had different kind of writing on them and so on and if you drive through the countryside you'll still see that a bit but if you're driving along the motorway every sign has the same writing because it was unified it was replaced by expediency uh similarly traffic lights i don't know why i'm using so many uh driving examples uh but traffic lights were really good example uh down here is green i believe here's the thing you didn't know about me i'm colorblind you probably did know that about me from drawings that i've done but i can't tell that i just spend a lot of time guessing when i'm making these drawings sorry about the weird laugh um so just just as an example i i'm red green color blind as are quite a few people um and what used to happen is on a dark night you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between green and red and and people who color blindness would run through the traffic lights so they put a blue tint in the green they changed it through expediency to make it clear for someone like me what is green and what is red um so it's easy to change them it's not a problem and the same he thinks which is our point goes for words words like library or desk are just used by convention and can be changed if we need to on the other side of the issue though are symbols now symbols are different they he thinks wow that's a lot of text all of a sudden i apologize let's start with the definition they and this is this is a paraphrasing of what tillich's saying here um the the open a new reality into our souls what on earth does that mean what he's saying there is that they they essentially touch our feelings in a way uh that signs just don't a traffic light is never going to bring an emotional reaction but but symbols do and they can't be replaced deliberately unlike signs that can be symbols can't be replaced deliberately they only grow and evolve over time according to custom they grow and they also die so the the for instance the uh the example i used earlier of the eagles that napoleon gave his soldiers and no frenchman's gonna die for those now but they would at the time they carried great meaning and import so symbols are different from uh signs in uh at least two important ways they're not just replaceable they have to evolve they have to grow out of a culture and they also participate in the thing that they represent um so just turning again for instance to the american flag this wasn't always this way it developed over time the stars for instance representing the number of states that there are it's also uh a kind of protected symbol it's a protected thing in america you've got to look after it um and it's something that americans are willing to fight for so now we can turn our attention to religious symbols because tilik thought very much that religious language is not like signs but it's rather symbolic as uh tilik tilik wrote about religious symbols religious symbols are distinguished from others by the fact they are representation of that which is unconditionally beyond the conceptual spirit sphere in other words it's beyond our understanding but they represent it they point to the ultimate reality so to god implied by the religious act to what concerns us ultimately so these things these are participations in the religious uh behavior things like religious texts like the bible communion communion wine which unless you're catholic is is just wine and bread it is actually also a participation in the sacrifice that jesus made for you according to christians and of course the the best example within the christian sphere is the cross which is often worn uh by christians and if you see many churches from the sky you will see that it's even in the shape of a cross it is part of the uh it's not just a a sign towards jesus's sacrifice and their view it's actually a part of it this is a constant reminder it is part of their religious behavior so his fundamental idea then is that religious language doesn't point towards god it rather participates in the divine it is a human's way of connecting with what he calls the ultimate reality you