criticism of exaggeration

The questions concerning the divine in philosophy have inspired the ways of

thinking that go beyond ordinary ways of thinking. Despite that, philosophy is

less successful in providing universally satisfying discourses about the divine, not

always appealing to theologians and those who seek the divine through experience.

The thinking about the divine in philosophy pertains, therefore, less to the

question of the divine. It incites a task of critical examination of the ways of

thinking beyond in philosophy. Especially interesting for me here is the way of

exaggeration. Traditional examples employ exaggeration in the figurative language

of hyperbole to overemphasize the divine beyond the human. The hyperbolic

expressions facilitate the thinking beyond, for instance, in assigning God

superlative attributes, surpassing the human limitations. However, as Thomas

Browne points out, the hyperbole "reach not the portal of divinity":