A Socio-Cognitive Linguistic Theory of Religious Violence
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics Linguistics 2020 Vox et Silentium Dei: A Socio-Cognitive Linguistic Theory of Religious Violence Tyler Everett Kibbey University of Kentucky, [email protected] Author ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7546-3662 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2020.377 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Kibbey, Tyler Everett, "Vox et Silentium Dei: A Socio-Cognitive Linguistic Theory of Religious Violence" (2020). Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics. 36. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ltt_etds/36 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Tyler Everett Kibbey, Student Dr. Rusty Barrett, Major Professor Dr. Allison Burkette, Director of Graduate Studies VOX ET SILENTIUM DEI: A SOCIO-COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC THEORY OF RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE ___________________________________ THESIS ____________________________________ A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistic Theory and Typology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Tyler Everett Kibbey Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Rusty Barrett, Professor of Linguistics Lexington, Kentucky 2020 Copyright © Tyler Everett Kibbey 2020 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7546-3662 ABSTRACT OF THESIS VOX ET SILENTIUM DEI: A SOCIO-COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC THEORY OF RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE Contemporary research in the study of language and cognition frequently characterizes religious metaphors as either monoliths of experience or stable synchronic structures, if not both. In addition, by virtue of how the foundational theory of this paper, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, has been situated in the literature, pre-modern theist writing on figurative language has been largely ignored. This has resulted in a general application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory to religious language which characterizes religious experience as phenomenologically invalid with the contingent effect of contradicting the basic experiential nature of metaphor. Here, I account for these principal theoretical discrepancies through an exploration of the qualities and varieties of religious metaphor, culminating in a proposed amendment to Conceptual Metaphor Theory. In the latter portion of my thesis, I apply the amended theory to the journal of the American missionary John Allen Chau to demonstrate its theoretical efficacy in relation to an analysis of sovereignty metaphors within Chau’s evangelical ideology. KEYWORDS: conceptual metaphor, religion, ineffability, religious violence, ideology Tyler Everett Kibbey July 29, 2020 VOX ET SILENTIUM DEI: A SOCIO-COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC THEORY OF RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE By Tyler Everett Kibbey Dr. Rusty Barrett Director of Thesis Dr. Allison Burkette Director of Graduate Studies July 29, 2020 For my grandfather, Thomas R. Kibbey, and his gentle faith in God. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge everyone who assisted me, intentionally or unintentionally, in the pursuit of this project. I would like to specifically thank Dr. Jeff Mellor, Dr. Bethany Dumas, Dr. Jessi Grieser, and Dr. Anne Snellen at the University of Tennessee for guiding me, through their mentorship and teaching, during the early development of this project. I would also like to thank the chair and members of my thesis committee, Dr. Rusty Barrett, Dr. Allison Burkette, and Dr. Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby, for guiding through the latter portions of the project. I would like to acknowledge and graciously thank the University of Kentucky’s Center for Equality and Social Justice for funding this project with a Graduate Research Fellowship Award. I would also like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Matthew Neltner for his enduring support and guidance during my time at the University of Kentucky. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my grandfather, Thomas R. Kibbey, who passed away during the writing of this thesis and without whom I would not have been able to pursue higher education, let alone excel in it. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Table of contents ................................................................................................................ iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi Preface ............................................................................................................................... vii Introduction: .........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Conceptual Metaphor and Religion, There and Back Again ...........................14 1.1: Conceptual Metaphor Theory: An Overview ........................................................ 14 1.2: Metaphor in Classical Philosophy: The Traditional-Contemporary Dichotomy ... 25 1.2.1: The Greek Philosophers .................................................................................. 27 1.2.2: The Latin Orators and Grammarians .............................................................. 32 1.3: Pre-Modern Theological Thought on Religious Metaphor and the Ineffable ....... 34 1.3.1: Philo of Alexandria, Hellenic Judaism ........................................................... 35 1.3.2: St. Augustine of Hippo, Early Christianity ..................................................... 36 1.3.3: Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Early Christian Mysticism ...................... 44 1.3.4: Ibn Tufayl, Islamic Golden Age Avicennism ................................................. 45 1.3.5: St. Thomas Aquinas, Late Medieval Catholicism .......................................... 47 1.3.6: Benjamin Keach, Particular Baptist Theology ............................................... 49 1.3.7: Untenable Exclusion ....................................................................................... 51 1.4: Modern Applications of CMT to the Study of Religious Metaphor ...................... 52 1.5: Concluding Thoughts ............................................................................................. 57 Chapter 2: A Socio-Cognitive Linguistic Theory of Religious Violence ..........................58 2.1: Towards a Theory of Religious Metaphor ............................................................. 58 2.2: Religious Metaphor Differentiated ........................................................................ 60 2.2.1: Metaphors with a Religious Domain, Culturally Defined .............................. 61 2.2.2: Conceptual Metaphors in the Context of Religious Rhetoric ......................... 66 2.3: On the Theoretical Description of Ineffable Metaphors ........................................ 67 2.3.1: The Leap of Faith, Complex Integrity, and Vox et Silentium Dei ................. 68 2.3.2: The Leap of Faith Argument .......................................................................... 72 2.3.3: Complex Integrity Hypothesis ........................................................................ 93 2.4: The Vox et Silentium Dei .................................................................................... 125 2.4.1: Proto-Constructions: ..................................................................................... 131 iv 2.4.2: Deconstructions: Silencing Divinity ............................................................. 135 2.4.3: Reconstructions: Voicing the Ineffable ........................................................ 137 2.4.4: The Eternal Engine: .....................................................................................