On Aggressive and Self-Aggressive Metaphors in Religious Language: The Cases of Martin Luther and Nicholas Cusanus

Religious language is not all hymns and prayers. This paper intends to indicate challenges concerning the examination of the role of metaphors in religious language, i.e., the ways metaphors generate religious meaning. The case of aggressive metaphors, as exemplified in the works of Martin Luther and Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus), shows that metaphors change the domains they are employed in. In Luther, the use of aggressive and offensive metaphors is part of the theological agenda and profoundly changes religious language. In Cusanus, self-aggressive metaphors are employed to cataphorically change religious language to reach the divine asymptotically.