Jan Stanislav Institute of Slavistics SAS
Topic
Axiological Potential of Metaphor in Religious Communication
PhD. program
Year of admission
2026
Name of the supervisor
Prof. PhDr. ThDr. Peter Zubko, PhD.
Contact:
Receiving school
Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre
Annotation
Religion as a form of social consciousness and a sphere of human activity is intended to transmit value meanings recorded in the sacred prototext. The Holy Scriptures contain a triad of protogenres, one of which is the sermon in the text of the Gospel - the Sermon on the Mount.
The sermon genre performs the function of instruction and education and is intended to explain abstract divine truths to believers, supports the assimilation of religious values. Along with other didactic means, metaphor is used in the sermon. In the historical context, metaphor in the sermon performed the function of imagery and its meaning was simplification.
Medieval preachers actively used metaphor in explaining the subject-sacred and spiritual theme, characterizing the subject of speech: the subject -- a representative of the sacred world or the holiday to which the sermon is dedicated. In addition to the iconic-expressive function, metaphor is still used in sermon texts to explain to believers the meaning of key sacred concepts characterized by a significant degree of abstractness. Bringing the unknown closer through the known, the unusual through the ordinary, the incomprehensible through the understandable, images of the sacred world through images of the reality of the profane world - this is the principle on which the effectiveness or efficiency of cognitive metaphor in religious communication is built: God is love, sin is a disease, man is a fragile vessel, life is a journey, etc. Abstract concepts of the sacred world have a value character, they are the embodiment of the highest meaning, which complicates the process of interiorization of axiological ideals for believers. The use of cognitive metaphors allows preachers to bring transcendent axiological meanings closer, to show the ways of their acquisition and application in everyday life.
Work with texts of specific sermons is assumed. The research method is discursive analysis aimed at identifying the reflection of the contemporary world and reality in the textual form of sermons, as well as the intentionally used communication strategies to address an anonymous, yet value-based addressee.
The sermon genre performs the function of instruction and education and is intended to explain abstract divine truths to believers, supports the assimilation of religious values. Along with other didactic means, metaphor is used in the sermon. In the historical context, metaphor in the sermon performed the function of imagery and its meaning was simplification.
Medieval preachers actively used metaphor in explaining the subject-sacred and spiritual theme, characterizing the subject of speech: the subject -- a representative of the sacred world or the holiday to which the sermon is dedicated. In addition to the iconic-expressive function, metaphor is still used in sermon texts to explain to believers the meaning of key sacred concepts characterized by a significant degree of abstractness. Bringing the unknown closer through the known, the unusual through the ordinary, the incomprehensible through the understandable, images of the sacred world through images of the reality of the profane world - this is the principle on which the effectiveness or efficiency of cognitive metaphor in religious communication is built: God is love, sin is a disease, man is a fragile vessel, life is a journey, etc. Abstract concepts of the sacred world have a value character, they are the embodiment of the highest meaning, which complicates the process of interiorization of axiological ideals for believers. The use of cognitive metaphors allows preachers to bring transcendent axiological meanings closer, to show the ways of their acquisition and application in everyday life.
Work with texts of specific sermons is assumed. The research method is discursive analysis aimed at identifying the reflection of the contemporary world and reality in the textual form of sermons, as well as the intentionally used communication strategies to address an anonymous, yet value-based addressee.