None Greater: Chapters 2 & 3

Chapter two really grabbed me, and chapter three, although well written, did not grab me. Although it is unimportant, I found the title and subtitle combo of chapter two ironic.

Can We Think God's "Thoughts" [quotes mine] after him?
how the Creature Should (and Should Not) "Talk" [quotes mine] about the creator.

I have been to the Grand Canyon (29-30) once, and it always brings up a semi bad memory. My visit there in 2013 was the beginning of a months long sickness. Not because of my visit. It was just when my sickness was beginning to manifest itself. On to None Greater and the Grand Canyon, I had never thought of the skyscraper-Grand Canyon comparison before. That was vivid.

Chapter two was filled with words that I am fuzzy with or did not know.

Incorporeal (30)

in•cor•po•re•al (1) : not corporeal : having no material body or form - Inc Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1996).

Ectype (33)

1: a copy from an original : an imitation or reproduction (such as an impression of a seal) 2a: something in the world of external reality as distinguished from its eternal and ideal archetype or prototype bLockeanism : an idea or impression more or less corresponding to some external reality (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ectype)

Univocal (33)

■ adjective Philosophy & Linguistics (of a word or term) having only one possible meaning; unambiguous. —derivatives univocality noun univocally adverb - Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, eds., Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Equivocal (33)

■ adjective open to more than one interpretation; ambiguous. ▶ questionable or uncertain: the results of the analysis were equivocal. —derivatives equivocality noun equivocally adverb equivocalness noun —origin 16^th century: from late Latin aequivocus, from Latin aequus ‘equally’ + vocare ‘to call’. - Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, eds., Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Cataphatic (37)

■ adjective Theology (of knowledge of God) obtained through defining God with positive statements. The opposite of apophatic. —origin 19^th century: from Greek kataphatikos ‘affirmative’, from kataphasis ‘affirmation’. - Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, eds., Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Apophatic (37)

■ adjective Theology (of knowledge of God) obtained through negating concepts that might be applied to him. The opposite of cataphatic. —origin 19^th century: from Greek apophatikos ‘negative’, from apophasis ‘denial’. - Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, eds., Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Speaking Creation into Being

I had a random thought when Barrett was talking about this on page 31 - What language did God use as he spoke the universe into existence? We won't know in this life. The reason it matters to me is that it helps me connect more personally to the Creating act of God to consider it. A corollary is when Aslan sang Narnia into existence.