On the Meta-Language of Theology and the Divine Word
Meta-lingua theologiae non est sermo humanus superior aliis, sed ipse Verbum divinum, in quo et per quem omnis lingua creata interpretatur. Deus non habet aliud verbum de se quam se ipsum: Logos est meta-lingua qua universa loquela humana in veritatem redigitur.
The meta-language of theology is not a human discourse standing above other discourses but the divine Word Himself, in whom and through whom all created language is interpreted. God possesses no other word about Himself than Himself: the Logos is the meta-language by which all human speech is gathered into truth.
__________
Thesis
The only true meta-language of theology is the eternal Word. All human theological languages—old, new, symbolic, propositional—exist as finite object-languages within the field of divine communication. The Logos is both their ground and their interpreter, the infinite discourse in which their partial meanings are united and fulfilled.
Locus classicus
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” — John 1:1
This verse establishes the primacy of divine speech: before there were languages, there was the Word; before there were signs, there was meaning itself. The divine Logos precedes, grounds, and interprets every act of human speaking.
Explicatio
The notion of meta-language in logic and model theory designates a higher-level language used to describe the rules, syntax, or semantics of another. In theology, such a separation is impossible: no language can stand outside the Word of God to describe it. All human discourse remains within the domain of divine utterance, because the Word is both the Creator of speech and its ultimate hearer.
Thus, when theology speaks about God, it does so within God’s own communicative act. The Logos is not an external commentary on the world but the internal ratio by which it exists and becomes intelligible. Every language, whether philosophical, poetic, or dogmatic, participates as an object-language within the comprehensive “meta-language” that is God’s eternal self-utterance.
This means that the relation between divine Word and human language is not hierarchical but participatory. Let us represent this formally (and then explain it):
Let L₁, L₂, L₃ … denote the many object languages of creation—ordinary speech, philosophical reasoning, scriptural idiom, the nova lingua of faith.
Let L∞ denote the divine Logos, the Word that encompasses and grounds all finite discourse.
Then for every Lₙ, the relation Lₙ ⊂ L∞ holds analogically: each finite language is contained within, and intelligible through, the divine Word. This containment is not linguistic hierarchy but ontological participation.
Hence, divine meta-language is not an external code but the infinite horizon of interpretation within which all meaning subsists. The Spirit mediates this participation, translating the divine Word into the polyphonic tongues of creation and translating creation’s words back into praise.
Objectiones
Obiectio I. Ludwig Wittgenstein and the later linguistic turn argue that language games possess internal criteria of meaning; there is no “meta-language” beyond them. To claim that the Logos functions as a meta-language imposes a totalizing framework that violates the autonomy of forms of life.
Obiectio II. Karl Barth maintains that revelation is wholly event and never a stable linguistic form; thus, there can be no divine “meta-language,” for God’s Word encounters us only as momentary address, never as standing structure of meaning.
Obiectio III. Jacques Derrida and his heirs hold that all language is differential play, without final referent or transcendental signified. The claim that the Logos interprets all language reintroduces the metaphysics of presence which deconstruction has exposed as illusion.
Responsiones
Ad I. Wittgenstein’s insight that meaning arises within language-games is valid at the level of human usage, but theology concerns the ground of linguistic possibility itself. The Logos is not a competing game but the condition for all games—the ratio loquendi that makes signification possible. Without the divine Word as ontological ground, even internal coherence loses intelligibility.
Ad II. Barth rightly emphasizes the event-character of revelation, but the event itself presupposes the eternal Word. The Logos is not a static structure but the living continuity of divine speech. Revelation as event is the historical manifestation of that eternal discourse. Thus, divine meta-language is not static text but the ongoing act of self-communication through the Spirit.
Ad III. Deconstruction’s critique of presence inadvertently confirms the theological claim: no finite language can secure its own meaning. The Logos, however, is not an available presence within language but the transcendent act that bestows meaning upon the play of difference. The Spirit does not close différance but transfigures it into relation.
Nota
To speak of the divine Word as theology’s meta-language is to confess that all truth is linguistic because all being is spoken. The cosmos itself is a sentence within the discourse of the Logos. In this sense, theology’s many models and expressions (as seen in Disputationes XVII–XVIII) are not rival statements but varied declensions of a single Word.
This view transforms the philosophy of language into theology of communion. Meaning no longer rests upon formal conventions or social contracts but upon participation in the divine speech-act that sustains creation. Hence, all interpretation is ultimately Christological: every word finds its coherence only in the Word made flesh.
Formally we might write (and then explain):
∀w ∈ Lₙ, Meaning(w) = Participation(w, L∞). That is, every finite word w acquires meaning insofar as it participates in the divine Word. This formula signifies that semantic realism—the conviction that words truly refer—is the linguistic echo of creation’s metaphysical realism.
The Church, as communio verbi, is the living medium of this divine meta-language in history. Its confession, liturgy, and doctrine are not human projections upon silence but articulations of the eternal discourse of the Word and Spirit. In the Church’s speech, divine meta-language enters temporal form without losing transcendence.
Determinatio
From the foregoing it is determined that:
The divine Logos is the only true meta-language of theology: the eternal act of meaning in which all created languages participate.
All human theological discourse (Lₙ) functions as finite object-language within this horizon; its truth lies in participation, not autonomy.
The Spirit mediates this participation, translating the eternal Word into temporal speech and returning human language into praise.
Philosophical denials of meta-language (Wittgensteinian, Barthian, Derridean) rightly expose the limits of human systems but fail to see that divine discourse is not a system but the very act of meaning itself.
Therefore, theology’s meta-language is not analytical but incarnational: the Word made flesh is the hermeneutical center in which all human words are gathered and made true.
