Christian Semiotics and the Language of Faith

About the Book

What is the relation between language and religious faith? To what extent do we depend on the use of language in order to express our religious feelings and beliefs? Semiotics is a field of study that seeks to answer these questions by investigating the meaning of religious symbols and by examining their uses, purposes, and functions.

Christian Semiotics and the Language of Faith discusses the work of a number of important thinkers in semiotics, including Saussure, Peirce, Morris, Barthes, Hjelmslev, and Eco. The work of these writers provides insight into many aspects of religious symbolism, including the relation between signs and their referents, the iconicity of signs and symbols, the nature of "meaning" and signification, and the function of signs as signifiers of the sacred. Author Alex Scott discusses the writings of Todorov, Greimas, Foucault, Bakhtin, and others, describing the applications of discourse analysis to theological and literary study. He also examines the usefulness of discourse analysis as a method of studying biblical and liturgical language.

Christian Semiotics and the Language of Faith embraces a variety of disciplines, including semiotics, the philosophy of language, ethics, religion and literature, and theology. This multidisciplinary approach can provide us with a means of understanding the symbolic importance of many aspects of religious faith.

About the Author

Alex Scott is the author of The Conditions of Knowledge: Reviews of 100 Great Works of Philosophy. His interests include ethics, semiotics, and the philosophy of language. A practicing physician, he lives in Baltimore, Maryland.