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Originally Posted by py3ak  I think a lot of times a preference for "literal" language is really nothing more than a preference for one kind of figures over another. See here for more detail, or Owen Barfield, History, Guilt and Habit has some material on this point. |
If we take Phil 4:8 as a pattern of believing thought, we see there are different qualities to knowledge. We're not only to reflect on the "true," which might be best expressed in propositional terms, but also the "honest," "just," "pure," "lovely," etc, which all have a language of their own. Expressions which are reverent, moralistic, quaint, paradoxical, picturesque, etc., do not only show the truth of what is known, but bring out other qualities which are just as important. The Proverbs teach us that wisdom operates on a number of different levels. There is more to human life than meets the eye, and it requires reverential and reflective study to understand the height and depth and length and breadth of a knowledge which passes knowledge.