Godwithout Object: Diaphoric Reference and the Trinitarian Grammar of Liberal Theology

The core unresolved issue in classical liberal theology is not anthropocentrism, but the lack of a formal account of how theological language refers to God after Kant. Thinkers from Schleiermacher to Tillich have tried to speak of God without reducing Him to an object, yet have not fully clarified how this reference works. The text proposes “diaphoric reference” as a model: a form of real reference mediated through finite means, where God is neither identical to the mediation nor hidden behind it as an object. This structure—medium, passage, and terminus—is grounded in Trinitarian theology: the Father as origin, the Son as historical mediation, and the Spirit as the active medium. Thus, the Trinity is not an external addition but the necessary condition for making coherent theological reference within the liberal tradition.