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TheTruth of Broken Symbols. By Robert Cummings Neville. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. Pp. 320.
Reviewed by Julia Ching, University of Toronto
The Truth of Broken Symbols by Robert Cummings Neville has a poignant title. "Broken symbols" is a term adapted from Paul Tillich's "broken myths," referring to the finite with its known limitations, symbolizing the infinite. An example is heaven and its delights, usually described anthropomorphically and therefore easily understood as limping in its analogy (p. xii). It points at once to human finitude in knowing anything about the infinite, and highlights the frailty of our constructs, the symbols themselves.
Neville's book is formidable, not because he seeks to understand how religious symbols are true or not true (p. xii), but because...