КОНЦЕПТ «БОГ/GOD» И ЕГО МЕТАФОРИЧЕСКАЯ РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИЯ В АНГЛОЯЗЫЧНОМ РЕЛИГИОЗНОМ ДИСКУРСЕ

Abstract

The focus of this research is the concept of «God» and its metaphorical representation in the English religious discourse. The research material is 570 religious texts published in American Theological Inquiry journal from 2000 to the present and posted on the publisher's website. The paper emphasizes the importance of metaphor in the formation of the addressee’s (believer’s) knowledge about the image of God, his unique abilities and nature. Based on the results of an empirical analysis of the language material, the authors come to the following conclusions: 1) in the conceptual sphere of the English religious discourse, the concept of «God» is one of the key elements which form the system of religious knowledge of a person; 2) the religious discursive sphere is the space of actualization of a cognitive metaphor formed according to the scheme X is Y; 3) in English religious texts, the concept of «God» is often verbalized by metaphors; 4) the main linguistic means of manifestation of the metaphorical model «God is ... » are nouns belonging to the core of the metaphor, adjectives and verbs, as a rule, representing the metaphorical periphery.