Aquinas’ Analogical Language

• What is the analogy of proportion?


  the idea that all things have attributes are in proportion to the thing that they are describing. For example, seagulls can only be as good as seagulls can be. You cannot compare them to humans because they're different. So to say 'God is good' means we will never truly understand what that means because we have nothing to compare him to. We know that he is good but not what it is to be God.
• Why does Aquinas find language limiting when referring to religion?

  Some words are univocal but when applied to God it becomes equivocal and limits God, anthropomorphising him. It makes the word ambiguous with multiple meanings
• What is the analogy of attribution?


  One thing causes the other so that is applied to it. So if a baker baked good bread, the baker would be a good baker because they made the bread. Furthermore, if a bull's urine is healthy, that means the bull is healthy. Therefore when discussing God, we could say that he created Sarah (who is good) so God is good because he created her.
• What is the weakness of Aquinas' analogy of attribution?


  If God is good because he created a good person, does that make him bad because he created a bad person?
• What was Ian Ramsey's models and qualifiers?


  When talking about God we say that he is good but when applied to God (the human understanding of it), it is a model for understanding his goodness. To understand goodness we must adapt this model and add a qualifier. God is 'good' becomes God is infinitely good, makes us think of his goodness in greater depth
• Example Paragraph of Aquinas‘ Analogical Language A01 1/2

  Aquinas rejects both univocal and equivocal language; instead arguing for analogical language. Aquinas believed that through analogical language, God is not anthropomorphised but meaning was not lost either. Aquinas developed the analogy of proportion and analogy of attribution.
• Example Paragraph of Aquinas’ Analogical Language A01 2/2


  The analogy of proportion avoided comparing God to humans, since his goodness cannot be measured to the same level as human goodness. Aquinas argued that we know that God is good, but not how. The analogy of attribution followed the premise of attributing qualities to God based on his creation. If a human was ‘good’, God is also good since he created them.