aquinas' analogical cataphatic way

• aquinas: argued we cannot say anything literally true of God (reject cognitive language)

• when we talk of God, what we say can only be partial knowledge

• positive language is not a good way to talk about God BUT it is really all we have

• when we talk of God we do so by analogy, conveying ideas of what God is ‘like’

• as long as we understand that what we say is never literally true, then we can accept God-talk as non-cognitive and meaningful

analogy of attribution:

• aquinas saw human attributes as a reflection of Godly attributes - since God is the cause of them

• it must be remembered, however, that we as humans are seen to be an imperfect reflection of a perfect God

aquinas: the ox & the urine:

• the urine reflects the attribute of health

• we can test the health of the ox by testing the health of the urine

• the ox is healthy

• the ox displays the attribute of health, more perfectly and completely

• God is the source of qualities in the universe and God possesses these qualities first and most perfectly

• this sets up an order of reference, meaning that these qualities apply to God first and foremost, then to other things secondarily and analogically

• because we are created in God’s image, it is possible to say that we have these attributes (wisdom, goodness, etc) analogically: these qualities are attributed to us, whilst God has them perfectly

• eg the goodness of the baker is in the cake

• eg the goodness of the carpenter is in the chair

analogy of proportion:

• eg really really good boy (God) vs good boy (human)

• we possess qualities like those of God (goodness, wisdom, faithfulness, etc) because we were created in His image and likeness, but because we are inferior to God, we possess those qualities in lesser proportion to God