The Limits of Theological Representation
Borges’s Tale and the Paradigm of Interpretive Cartography
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29327/2401156.19.2-12Keywords:
Theological Epistemology, Theology and Language, Interpretive Cartography, Jorge Luis Borges, Itinerant FidelityAbstract
This article investigates the problem of representation in theological discourse, critiquing the epistemological illusion that the language of faith might reflect the divine with absolute transparency (the “mirror” paradigm). Drawing upon Jorge Luis Borges’s literary provocation concerning the perfect map — whose absolute coincidence with the empire renders it useless — this article proposes “interpretive cartography” as a theory of mediation. Under this paradigm, doctrine is reconfigured as a historical map, tradition as a diachronic atlas, and hermeneutics as an exercise in navigation. This analytical key enables the diagnosis and overcoming of two opposing epistemological pathologies: the idolatrous absolutization of the map (fundamentalism) and its skeptical rejection (relativism). Finally, by recognizing that the ultimate referent of theology is not a static territory but an irruptive Event that continually destabilizes representations, the study proposes a redefinition of theological truth. Static adequacy gives way to “itinerant fidelity,” an epistemological virtue that embraces the finitude of language not as an obstacle, but as a necessary condition for keeping theological thought in motion.
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