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| Question | Answer |
| Who proposes analogy for a way of taking about God? | Sir Thomas Aquinas |
| Why does Aquinas suggest this theory? | he believes we can speak positively about God |
| Does he believe religious language is meaningful? | yes but he does not suggest that language means the same when rallied to God as when applied to humans |
| What two ways does he distinguish language? | univocal and equivocal language |
| What is univocal language? | When they words mean the same thing in both cases e.g. a black cat a black car |
| What is equivocal language? | both words have different meanings in each case e.g. a goal post a post box |
| What does Aquinas say about these types of language in relation to God/ | neither types work when we apply language to God. As when we say God is 'good' we are not using the term univocally nor equivocally |
| So instead what does Aquinas propose? | analogy; the process of reasoning from parallel cases; presumptive reasoning based upon the assumption that if things have similar attributes, their other attributes will be similar |
| What does analogy rely on? | the fact there is some point of comparison between two things e.g. when we use the word 'good' to describe God there is some analogy between the goodness of a being in this world and the goodness of God |
| What two ways does Aquinas use analogy to describe God? | analogy of attribution analogy of proportion |
| For analogy of attribution what analogy does Brian Davies use? | the bread is good the baker is good the word good is related but we do not know exactly what it means to be a good baker but the good bread indicates the goodness of the baker |
| For analogy of attribution what analogy does Aquinas use? | the medicine is healthy the urine is healthy |
| What does Aquinas argue about God's creation and God (Analogy of Attribution)? | because God created the world, we can know something about him, we can know that God is good because he attributes goodness to his creation. However we cannot know exactly what the term means when applied to God |
| What is analogy of proportion? | a plant has life a human has life God has life |
| What is meant by analogy of proportion? | the type of property that something has is dependent on the nature of the being that possess the properties. e.g. when we say that God is good and my dog is good we mean that the goodness of God is proportionally greater though the nature of our proportion is beyond understanding |
| In what way is the analogy of proportion meaningful? | when you know both things, so you can understand what is meant when we say in 'proportion to themselves' |
| What is the analogy of proper proportion? | we possess qualities like those of God, because we were create din his image and likeness but are inferior to God, we possess them in lesser qualities to him |
| What do these two forms of analogy relate to? (quote) | the... "gradation to be found in things" Aquinas |
| What sub-theory does Ian Ramsey propose? | that of models and qualifiers |
| What is a model for Ramsey? | if we say that god is good, the model is the word goodness, as humans we have an understanding of the nature of goodness and when applied to god it is a model for our understanding |
| What is a qualifier for Ramsey? | the model words requires adaptation to describe God, we recognise God cannot be good in our concept of the word, therefore we qualify it by saying god is infinitely good |
| What can the phrase "god is infinitely good' to do help us understand god? | we can develop a greater insight into God's nature which enables us to respond with a sense of awe and wonder |
| What can be said positively about this theory? | explains the complexity of language avoids anthropomorphising God avoids agnosticism as conveys the knowledge of God helps to explain difficult concepts like God's agapaeic love |
| How could we flaw this theory? | by using analogy we lose the meaning and purpose behind what we are trying to communicate |
| How does St Paul respond to this theory? | We cannot accurately express God - even through analogy - until we 'see' him |
| What problem does the analogy of attribution raise? | the problem of evil, the world compromises evil so does God posses these qualities as well |
| What does Richard Swinburne say about analogy? | we don't need it at all, when we say god is good and humans are good, we may be using good to apply to different things but we are meaning it to mean the same things, i.e. we are using the word good univocally |
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