4.1 analogy and symbol

Question 1

What is meant by univocal language?

Answer 1

a word has the same meaning at all times

Question 2

What is a limitation of using univocal language when refering to God?

Answer 2

it anthropomorphises God and reduces Him to a human level

Question 3

What is meant by equivocal language?

Answer 3

the same word can be used but with different meanings

Question 4

What is a limitation of using equivocal language?

Answer 4

this fails to communicate anything
- e.g. we can say that God loves us not in the same way as mothers but in some other, unknowable way, but this just implies that God is not knowable

Question 5

What does Aquinas offer as a “middle-way” between the two?

Answer 5

analogy

Question 6

What is meant by analogy?

Answer 6

• an approach to religious language that compares the normal use of a word to it’s religious use

Question 7

What is Aquinas’ theory about analogy?

Answer 7

• since God created the universe, there must be some link between human attributes/predicates and the attributes are being used as analogies
• we use analogy to interpret God’s revelations in human terms in order to understand

Question 8

What are the 2 types of analogy Aquinas identified?

Answer 8

1. Analogy of attribution
2. Analogy of proportion

Question 9

What is meant by analogy of attribution?

Answer 9

• attribution the same quality to 2 different things
• we can know of God’s qualities from what he has caused

Question 10

How does Brian Davis further explain analogy of attribution?

Answer 10

‘the bread is good’ and ‘the baker is good’ - good has a similar meaning, good bread means it’s soft and tasty but a good baker doesn’t mean soft and tasty

Question 11

What is meant by analogy of proportion?

Answer 11

• the things which are compared within the analogies have to be proportionately similar in order to work logically
• to say that God is good can be explained in comparison to something we know to be good BUT God is on a higher scale/proportion

Question 12

What are some limitations with analogy?

Answer 12

• the language we use to describe God has to be in part univocal and cognitive, as opposed to non-cognitive language - but if goodness in God and humans is understood univocally then we have gained nothing
• tells us nothing new about God as it is based upon things that are already in existence

Question 13

What is meant by symbols?

Answer 13

symbols signify ideas and qualities of an object/word which are different from their literal meaning

Question 14

What did Paul Tillich argue about symbol?

Answer 14

• there are levels of reality beyond the empirical, that can be partly understood through symbolic language
• the symbol participates in the reality to which it points
• religious symbols cannot be produced intentionally as they stem from the unconscious mind and from human culture

Question 15

In what two ways did Tillich argue that God could be understood?

Answer 15

1. non-symbolically = as ‘Being-Itself’, God is the ultimate being
2. symbolically = as a person, a way of denoting ‘Being Itself’ through the concept of a human person

Question 16

How does John Hick criticise Tillich?

Answer 16

• participation does little towards the end of showing what that participation constitutes
• argues that there is little difference between a symbol and a sign