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Document Details : Title: Only You Subtitle: On Saying You to God Author(s): SOJER, Thomas Journal: Studies in Spirituality Volume: 33 Date: 2024 Pages: 91-114 DOI: 10.2143/SIS.33.0.3293658 Abstract : This article is an attempt to get an initial bead on the question of whom we speak to when we say You in the act of prayerful address. It uses a semiotic approach to study the second-person address to ground and illustrate a rather overlooked enigma of saying You. From a semiotic point of view, the pronoun You poses a particular challenge. Saying You implies the question of who. The personal pronoun You operates like a discrete and manifest sign. As personal deixis it establishes a direct relationship with someone who is referred to by the sign. However, what does this mean if God is the referent of this sign? Whom are we talking to in a prayerful address? The article proceeds along a comprehensive list of texts that draws attention to a spirituality of You, searching for who God is. Against this backdrop, this article argues that the You spoken onto God does not create a deixis in the common sense, no aim, but something is transformed in the person who is speaking in the act of prayerful address. |
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