Religious Language:Analogy Flashcards
What is analogy?
Analogy is the comparison between 2 (or more) things that point out the ways in which they are similar
Why is analogy used?
Analogy can be used to explain a new idea by comparing it to previous examples
-It allows people to describe God and acknowledge that the words we use to describe him aren’t the same when we may apply them to humans
-it resolves the problem of words by allowing a single one to have a variety of meanings.
What are the two types of language available when it comes to analogy?
-Univocal language
-Equivocal Language
What is univocal language?
language meaning exactly the same thing in all situations.
What are some examples of univocal language?
BLACK hat, BLACK cat, BLACK mat: for all of these phrases, “black” means the same thing.
Why does Aquinas say that we cannot speak about God univocially?
Even though univocal language may work with some particular words, with a lot of words this would not work.
if we use the word “good” in the same context for “That lesson was good” and “God is good”, if we were to interpret this univocally we are saying that God and the lesson have the same value (they do NOT, God is perfect and infinite).
-Therefore, Aquinas argues that we cannot speak of God univocally.
What is equivocal language?
language meaning different things in different situations.
What are some examples of equivocal language?
gay can mean very different things and people use the signular word to describe different feelings or definitions.
“Gay: Happy” “Gay: Homosexual” or “Gay: Not very good”
What is the problem/Why does Aquinas argue that we cannot use equivocal language to describe religious statements or assertions?
if we use the word “good” to describe God and something else, they would mean two completely different things (in this case). Although, this means that God would be unintelligible (we couldn’t understand him)
Therefore, Aquinas argues that we cannot speak of God equivocally.
If Aquinas argues that we should not speak of God univocally and equivocally, what does Aquinas suggest that we use to talk about religious language?
Analogy
Why does Aquinas suggest that we use Analogy to be a good compromise when talking about religious statements? (The strengths of Analogy)
-it would avoid the difficulties of univocal and equivocal language
-We would be saying that God is not just like us, nor is he nothing like us and our world.
-If we use appropriate analogical language, Aquinas thought we could say broadly what God is like.
-Although this would give us partial knowledge of God, this knowledge would be JUSTIFIABLE.
How does Aquinas suggest that we can make analogies between us and God?
Even though we are very different to God, we are not entirely dissimilar to him. Therefore we are able to draw analogies between what we already know about ourselves and God’s features/personality, therefore making it meaningful.
What is the name of the specific way that we can make analogies between us and God?
“graduation to be found in things”
-all goodness and love in humanity which we share between each other first came from God, therefore showing our relation and connection to him (we are ANALOGOUSLY RELATED).
-all of the positive qualities of humanity first belonged to God, which he shared with us. This is another way in which we are “analogously related” to him.
-as God is the cause of evrything in humanity and everything in humanity made by God is good, as he had the ability to create all of this we can say that he is “greater” or “his goodness is greater”.
As well as the “graduation to be found in all things” what is another way that we can gain more understanding of God therefore allowing us to be “analogously related” to him?
“Analogy of attribution”: God is the cause of all things in humans and other beings.Therefore, whatever good qualities and attributes that we have; we are able to associate them to God in a greater and higher sense.
What is an example of the “analogy of attribution?”
As awareness in human faithfulness and being our best selves (being good) towards God and others allows us to project it upwards to reflect God’s greater faithfulness.
