Chap. 9-Landscapes of the Sacred, Laura Boleyn

Chapter 9 was a rather confusing one but after class discussion I have a better grasp of the some of its topics, especially “double intentionality.” In class, we learned it to be “the aboutness of something.” In other words, nature symbols have two meanings, the literal definition, what it actually is, and a hidden meaning or a “deeper, analogical meaning,” that is what it symbolizes. One unnatural example is a stoplight. It is about something and is indicating to you to stop but it is also just a stoplight. Another example of double intentionality, but this time a natural symbol, is used in the phrase, “Life is a river.” First, the literal, obvious meaning being that the river is a flowing body of water through a channel and the second analogical, deeper meaning that rivers can be a natural symbol for life. Like a river, life is always changing direction and paths and it is not always smooth, but instead has bends and turns that make living difficult some times. These examples we learned in class really help to understand the idea of double intentionality and chapter 9. I understand double intentionality, in terms of the chapter, to be a natural symbol that has tow meanings: a literal, obvious meaning and a deeper, analogical meaning, as described on page 231.