There are three ways
I can see of speaking about God: as a being, an idea or a word. That there are very important distinctions and
differences within and not just between these ways of speaking goes without saying. Think of what Aquinas does with Aristotle's
proofs of the existence of God, for example, where he speaks of God in terms of existence rather than essence, even though He is still a being. Moreover, there are always minor writers within them (all the mystical traditions within
the religions, to name but one type of minor writing) that cut across these traditions both conceptually and historically. What I am particularly interested in is
the third way of speaking about God, because it is closest to my problem. What if God were only a word and neither a being nor an idea? In one sense one would say that this is the sign of the disappearance of God, but in an other, perhaps not. Hasn't religious belief, or a least a certain kind, only every related to God as a word (a mysterious magical one), and not as a being or an idea? It is only philosophy that has entertained the latter definitions and its atheism has been maintained by their destruction. Is there an atheism of the word? My supposition is maybe not.
