The idea of God and the moral sense in the light of language. Being a philological enquiry into the rise and growth of spiritual and moral concepts

About this book

As a philological study, it traces how language records the formation of ideas about God and moral judgment. In considering Lao-tse, Baynes sets translations of Tao against one another, since rendering it as a way rather than an intelligent cause changes the claim being made. A technical account of Hausa grammar, including verb forms and word order, shows that his inquiry ranges beyond religious vocabulary. When he turns to theology, he distinguishes reason’s abstract principle of unity from the personal God worshippers seek.