Linguistica ancilla theologiae

In the interaction of contextual experience and traditional interpretation, religious language originates and shifts. In this contribution the author investigates whether cognitive linguistics can offer some interesting ideas and though patterns for a recontextualisation of theological epistemology in our current postmodern condition. Cognitive semantics teaches theology that cognitivity lies in the conceptual framework underlying our approach of reality, and not in a presumed determinate relationship between the logical and the ontological order. Of particular interest is its theory of metaphor, showing that many concepts - mostly abstract ones like LOVE, GOD - are essentially structured metaphorically, because they are semantically non-autonomous. In five concluding observations, the author sketches how an interdisciplinary encounter with cognitive linguistics can serve theology today, as well as revealing its limitations