Preface

I regularly encounter persons who think it is self-evident that language is inherently metaphysical, that it therefore shoehorns objects into a predetermined framework and so inflicts violence upon them, and that it must accordingly be kept at a distance from God. I have never been convinced that this is the case, much less that it is self-evidently the case. This book argues that there is good reason to resist such a view, since there is reason to think that language is not – or need not be thought to be – metaphysical. If I am right about this, the book should contribute to current discussions of theological language as well as of metaphysics. That is my hope, at any rate.

This project began as a dissertation written at Princeton Seminary, and I am grateful to Gordon Graham, George Hunsinger, Wentzel van Huyssteen, Bruce McCormack, Daniel Migliore, and Jeffrey Stout for their invaluable help with it. McCormack and Stout deserve special recognition, since whatever theological and philosophical skill I have is due largely to them. I was blessed to have been mentored by two professors who are not only among the best in the world at what they do, but who earnestly care about – and root for – their students.