Don't be Clear with your Speech

Language is appropriately vague. I say this well aware that I again and again have stressed how important language is in discerning the beliefs of a community. Yes, language has meaning but the meaning cannot be captured in a neat, short phrase. For example, the word, “saved” may meaning something specific when you look it up in the dictionary, but when used in a religious context the meaning can be very different. And even in that context the meaning is still vague. What does it mean to be saved? How is one saved? Are we talking atonement or are we talking a kind of existential understanding? Here again, language is vague and appropriately so. You may ask me if I am saved and I will say that I am, but our understandings of what it means to be saved may be very different.

Now I realize that in the very last post I talked about the functionality of language, and if you read your Austin and your Wittgenstein you will know that meaning exists in the context of a community. Yet I would say to a point. The word “saved” functions in a certain way in a religious context, but even in that context it will still vary in meaning from the individual to the individual. We do need to be careful about language becoming private and individualistic, so I would argue that a basic understanding of the word is shared, but only to that degree.

So what do we do? First, I think we would need to be honest and agree that even if people differ on meanings of words, one’s particular understanding of a word was invariably influenced by some community and is not completely private. Second, I think the vagueness of words, especially in a religious context, is necessary so that conversation can occur without parsing every little word and phrase. Hence I can preach that we are saved through Christ and not have to wonder if everyone agrees with my understanding of salvation.

Perhaps what we need to realize is that certain words have symbolic meanings which connect us with something greater (kinda Platonic). Love, Salvation, God, etc…. If this is the case then we need to continue to be sure that we are vague and thus respect the symbol.

Did that make any sense?