“Metaphor as Apt for Conversation: The Inherently Conversational Character of Theological Discourse,” In Theology and Conversation. Developing a Relational Theology. Ed. Jacques Haers, and Peter De Mey, 145-61. Leuven: Peeters Press.

Abstract: : Properly speaking, talk of God is always rooted in and essentially related to a metaphoric process. Moreover encounter, in the most proper sense of the term, with God and with the neighbor is mediated by metaphoric processes. The research program envisioned in this volume is more radical than simply the investigation of apt metaphors. To opt for such root metaphors is to call for teshuva: a metaphoric turning or conversion in thinking and living. Inattention to this essentially conversational dynamic of metaphoric discourse about God is at the root of significant confusions in religious and theological thinking. Theological thinking as inherently metaphoric is, when successful, intrinsically conversational and fundamentally directed toward encounter with God and neighbor as other and mystery. Attention to the logic of this essentially conversational dynamic is crucial to understanding how we think and talk about God and how we relate to neighbor—especially in our pluralistic world with its many intersecting but also disparate conversations.