Ineffability: A Response to William Rowe and Christopher Insole

  • John Hick
Chapter

Abstract

The term ‘ineffable’, meaning inexpressible, transcending description, beyond the scope of our human concepts, is good semantic currency with a respectable Latin lineage. But today, because of such similar-sounding but very different-meaning words and phrases as ‘effing’ and ‘the eff word’, we may well be slightly uncomfortable with ‘ineffable’ and ready for an alternative. I suggest ‘transcategorial’, that is, outside or beyond the range of our categories of thought, and I shall use both terms in what follows.

Keywords

Religious Experience Religious Life Ultimate Reality Logical Objection Christian Theology 
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Notes

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Copyright information

© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2001

Authors and Affiliations

  • John Hick

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