SYMBOL

Etymologically, the word "symbol" can be traced to the Greek, συμβάλλειν, which means to throw together or simply to place together, as when two things are juxtaposed for the purpose of comparing them. In one of its noun forms, the comparing or setting together refers to the custom of tallying or dovetailing the two halves of a broken coin, called "symbols," in order to establish the identity of one or both of the persons possessing the matching halves. The abstract and more general use of the term still retains this notion of one thing (usually material and visible) calling forth its complement or better half (usually something that is immaterial and unseen). Thus, hugh of saint-victor describes the symbolic process as "a comparison of the visible forms for the showing forth of the invisible" (In hierarch. coel. 2.1.941; The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 11:204a). Throughout the medieval period symbolism plays an important role not only in architecture, heraldry and art but also in military and mercantile enterprises. The fundamental conception always includes a movement from the material symbol to something in a spiritual or suprasensible order.

In the patristic era the liturgical creeds pronounced by candidates at the time of Baptism were called symbols, probably because they were collections of dogmatic statements "brought together" as succinct expressions of basic Christian truths (see creed). More recently, the study of the various beliefs and doctrinal tenets of the different Christian denominations has given rise, among Protestants, to a branch of theology known as comparative symbolics.

Symbol as Representative Form. While most of the contemporary uses of the word reflect the original idea of a comparison or juxtaposition of two things, the variety of symbols is so great that it is almost impossible to provide a definition that will satisfy every instance. Perhaps the best way to define the symbol is to contrast it with other representative forms that, like the symbol, stand for or point to something beyond themselves:

Images (pictures, statues, photos, etc.) imitate what they represent, whereas symbols need not resemble what they symbolize. It is sufficient if the symbol suggests or is associated with its meaning.

Signs (dinner bell, traffic light, smoke) announce some fact or give notification. Their role is practical and instrumental (see sign). Save for mathematical symbols, which some authors call signs, the typical symbol provides inspiration rather than notification. It functions as a rallying point for meaning, representing what is complex in a simple way. This is especially true of emblems, flags, or conventionalized drawings.

Gestures (shrugging the shoulders, bowing the head) express or embody their meaning as spontaneous, visible extensions of inner attitudes. While many gestures are symbolic, not all symbols are gestures or actions.

Analogues involve some perfection common to several beings of different orders, with the shared perfection being found either formally or causally in each but with references to one (see analogy). With symbols, however, the perfections to which they refer need not be present in the symbol either formally or causally. A flag neither causes nor contains the "spirit" of a nation. By association and convention, this colored bit of cloth comes to represent that spirit, but of itself the cloth neither participates in nor causes the quality it stands for. On the other hand, some symbols involve a tacit analogy, as when ritual ablutions are understood to bring about spiritual purification on the analogy of the cleansing properties of ordinary water. It should be apparent that symbols based on an underlying analogy that is ontologically rooted in the nature of things are bound to be richer and more fertile than those resulting from convention or casual association. If Sacraments, like Baptism and the Eucharist, make use of water or bread, it is because these elements are natural symbols for spiritual cleansing and nourishment, and the implied analogy is clear.

Kinds of Symbol. Of the endless variety of symbols, three categories may be singled out for special attention.

Arbitrary Symbols. These symbols are not found in nature but are established by decree, for example, the plus sign in mathematics or the notation used in music. They are sometimes called stenographic or code symbols.

Associative Symbols. Here the symbol and its meaning are joined in virtue of an implicit middle term with which they are connected either naturally or because of some historical event. Thus, a key is a natural and almost inevitable symbol for authority because of its association with ownership or stewardship. The dove and the olive branch stand for peace, no doubt because of the story of Noah.

Evocative Symbols. These symbols suggest their meaning by engendering certain attitudes and feelings rather than by direct statement. Symbolists, both in art and literature, seek to communicate an impression in a nonconceptual way by the use of color or word combinations, as when a lurid green is employed to suggest envy.

There are also instances in which symbols symbolize still other symbols, as when the printed word symbolizes the spoken word, while the spoken word symbolizes thought that, once again, represents something beyond itself. One might even say that all finite beings symbolize and point to something beyond themselves, and that God alone is a nonsymbolic Being. It should be noted, however, that symbolism alone does not provide a conclusive argument for the existence of God. Symbolism can be effective only when the symbol and its meaning are known or at least vaguely suspected; otherwise the symbol is incapable of eliciting an affective response. If we know that God exists, ritual gestures and symbolic rites can deepen our understanding of divine things. But an atheist cannot appreciate the significance of most religious actions since he is not convinced that they refer to anything real.

The Religious Symbol. Since symbols need not imitate what they represent, and since they usually refer to something that is in a different and higher category, they are ideally suited for expressing not only abstract notions and mental operations but also spiritual and religious truths—none of which can be pictured in any literal way. While some symbols are so conventionalized and instrumental that they are totally unlike what is symbolized, the majority of symbols do bear some natural relationship to their meaning. Moreover, they usually have an emotive quality whereby they evoke in the knower not simply an intellectual assent but a nonneutral or affective response. Now it is precisely in the area of these "charged" symbols that we find forms that have the greatest elevating thrust or power of self-transcendence. Here must be situated the various kinds of liturgical and sacramental symbols that are so indispensable in communicating a sense of the sacred. Gestures (lifting the arms in prayer, prostration, the ritual kiss), as well as various material elements (water, fire, oil, incense, breath), all lend themselves spontaneously to the process of religious intention.

If the most pregnant religious symbols stand somewhere between the extremes of iconic (pictorial) and stenographic (code) representation, the reason should be evident. Pictorial symbols are too literal; they leave little to the imagination. Therefore, they do not elicit the kind of inner activity that projects the subject beyond what is immediately seen or heard. On the other hand, while code symbols are active creations of the human mind and while they do prescribe difficult mental operations, they are affectively neutral and lacking in depth. Useful in solving technical problems because of their univocity and invariability, they do not plunge the spectator into the mystery of being.

But primordial elements like water and fire are suggestive of cosmic forces. It is not this particular water or this particular fire that cleanses or purges. It is the very essence of water or fire as an expression of God's creative power that is invoked. A symbol, or a symbolic gesture like prostration, immediately and directly portrays man's essential and existential relationship to the Creator and it is a relation of total dependence and subordination. Nothing equals the spontaneous power of the appropriate symbol to project the mind towards the absolute, and not only the mind but the heart as well; for religious symbols are nonneutral, that is, they are charged with affectivity and intelligibility. For this reason any spirituality that tries to eliminate symbolism in its cult tends to diminish man himself, since it is an attempt to reduce the human spirit to a naked intelligence. The Incarnation of the Son of God and the dispensation of the Sacraments as visible signs of invisible grace are but two of the many divine accommodations to the needs of man in his spatiotemporal condition.

Since symbolism avoids the complexities of formal analogy and since it provokes an immediate ascent or movement of transcendence in the beholder, it offers one of the simplest and most powerful vehicles for expressing man's spontaneous attitudes and affections in his secular as well as in his religious life.

See Also: logic, symbolic.

Bibliography: p. foulquiÉ and r. saint-jean, Dictionnaire de la langue philosophique (Paris 1962) 703–704. g. faggin and a. colombo, Enciclopedia filosofica, 4 v. (Venice-Rome 1957) 4:622–627. a. michel, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) 14.2:2925–39. r. eisler, Wörterbuch der philosophischen Begriffe, 3 v. (4th ed. Berlin 1927–30) 3:194–196. j. m. somerville, "Language as Symbolic Function," American Catholic Philosophical Association. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting, 34 (1960) 139–151. h. musuril lo, "History and Symbol: A Study of Form in Early Christian Literature," Theological Studies, 18 (1957) 357–386. g. vann, The Paradise Tree: On Living the Symbols of the Church (New York 1959).

[j. m. somerville]