D. Z. Phillips on the grammar of “God”

摘要

In this essay dedicated to the memory of D. Z. Phillips, I propose to do twonthings. In the first part I present his position on the grammar of God and the language gamenin some detail, discussing the confusion of “subliming” the logic of our language, the con-ntextual genesis of sense and meaning, the idea of a world view, language game, logic, andngrammar internal to each context, the constitution of the religious context, and the grammarnof God proper to that context. In the second part I present my appreciative critical reflectionnby arguing that the conception of context and language game must be made more dialectical,nthat the grammar of God needs more systematic metaphysical analysis, and that a greaternsense of the radical transcendence of God over a language game is necessary in order to avoidnreductionism always inherent in any contextual approach.