Religious Language

Category: metaphor

  • The Sacred Discourse of “Cleanliness”

    The Sacred Discourse of “Cleanliness”

    This sketch of the ways that bacteria appear in popular culture is also a sketch of ourselves. What our research demonstrates is that bacteria are a kind of vehicle for fears of what we might be, and of aspects of ourselves and our society that we find it difficult to confront directly. Norah Campbell and…

  • “Covidism:” How calling something a religion can act as a smokescreen

    “Covidism:” How calling something a religion can act as a smokescreen

    This morning I came across a Twitter hashtag I hadn’t seen before, #CoronaReligion. One of the threads participating in this Discourse especially caught my attention, as a group of Tweeters last month proclaimed that “The fastest growing religion in the world is COVIDISM.” Hashtag CovidCult. Hashtag CovidReligion. Hmmm. Is covid a religion? Are protective masks…

  • Where is God? Spatial metaphor, spatial theography

    Bodo Winter, Sarah Duffy and Jeannette Littlemore recently published a research paper in Metaphor and Symbol entitled “Power, Gender, and Individual Differences in Spatial Metaphor: The Role of Perceptual Stereotypes and Language Statistics.“ Their study investigates connections between vertical language (for example, “at the bottom of the social hierarchy” or “rising to the top”) and…

  • Parenting as War?

    One of the most productive metaphors is that of WAR. War on poverty. War on crime. War on drugs. War on cancer. War on terror. Price wars. War of words. Holy war. War is everywhere. Not long ago, I read one report on how silicon valley companies like Apple and Google foster an “ at…