Religious Language: Analogy and Symbol Flashcards
What is an Analogy?
A comparison between one thing and another, usually for the purpose of explanation or clarification
What word is Aristotles argument of analogy based upon?
- Homoites, term for ‘likeness’
- In Topics 1, 17 and 18 his idea was that If two things share an attribute then what is true of one is true of the other
Quote Aristotle and explain his notion of Analogy?
“we take a man, a horse and a dog… where they have identical attribute… they are alike”
- For example if all hearts beat and the stopping of their hearts beating causes horses and dogs to die then we can conclude that man has a heart and the stopping of this heart will cause man to die
What is the flaw in Aristotle’s analogy?
- He does not tell us how much we can assume and the stopping point at which the analogy no longer holds up
- We might assume similarities are not plausible, e.g if a whale has live briths and so do humans, are they then similar in every way shape and form?
What are the Four Ways Aristotle judges analogical arguments?
- Strength of analogy depends on the number of similarities between the two things
- Similarity exists only in identical relations and properties
- Good analogies are based on common causes or the same general principle
4.Good analogical arguments have no relation with underlying generalisations
What answers does Aquinas attempt to provide in his Doctrine of Analogy?
- Aquinas addresses the same problems of apophatic problems such as Pseudo-Dionysius, Eriguena and Maimonides
- Deals with the issue of whether we can say anything about God
What two points does Aquinas attempt to bring together? (Quote)
- Accepting human language is inadequate in expressing the divine
- Not to assume it is saying nothing of value
“Our intellect knows him by different conceptions because it cannot see him”
Does Aquinas believe we can talk about God?
- He believes that we can have positive awareness that we cannot think of God like he himself does, we are limited by human terms
- He believes that this ability to express and know our limitation says something about God
- To describe God as unknowable is to acknowledge our lack of knowledge and this is a valuable description about God
What is Aquinas’ definition of Univocal Language?
- Words used with identical meaning in different sentences
- E.g My Cat is fat and your cat is tabby, cat means the same thing in both sentences
- Religious Language is not like this, we do not describe God in the way we describe humans, that would be anthropomorphising him
What is Aquinas’ definition of Equivocal Language?
- Same words used with entirely different meanings in different sentences
- E.g A bat in a cave and a bat for cricket, bat means two different things
- Argues statements such as ‘God is love’ has some meaning if it does not empty the human meaning to God
What is Analogy of Attribution?
We can say something about an author/maker from the product they have created
Does Christian belief support analogy of attribution?
- Based on Christian belief that God created the universe
- It is not a random generation but what God willed it to be, an intended, deliberate and conscious action
- Gods handiwork allow us to attribute characteristics to him, e.g if beauty is in nature it can be argued God is truly beautiful
How does Aquinas support the analogy of attribution?
- Example of a Bulls Urine
- From a Bulls urine we can tell if the Bull is healthy, but it does not follow the Bull is just a puddle of its own urine
- The inference of Good health is justifiable the same way the inferences about God are justifiable from his product of the world
What is the Analogy of Proportion?
- From a lesser object we can say that something else, such as God, has proportionately more of the same quality
- e.g If we say that you are a good snooker player we can say that your friend is better, they win more games and pot more balls, they have more of the same quality of being good at snooker
Quote Baron Von Hügel on the analogy of proportion
“God… so unspeakably more rich and alive”
- It is har to use an analogy of proportion on God, he is so infinitely more we cannot ever understand him
- There is no strict proportion that can be applied to God
Quote John MacQuarrie and expand on Aquinas’ notion of analogy?
“Give us assurance that our talk is not just empty”
- Doctrine of analogy for Aquinas is to not talk about what the terms MEAN, it is about what we are DOING
- In our limited language, we are creating a measure to understand the divine and speak positively about him, not trying to define what he is
What is Vincent Brümmer’s argument against the analogy of proportion? (Quote)
“Gods nature is not accessible to us… God is not wise in the same way a human person is wise”
- Analogy can give us the appearance of saying something significant but this is a mere illusion
- We do not know God and no amount of analogy can change that fact
What is Vincent Brümmers argument against the analogy of attribution?
- “Leaves us free to call God ‘warm;, ‘multi-coloured’ and ‘heavy’, because he is the source of all warm, multicoloured and heavy objects”
- We make a grave assumption that just because God is the source of something, he himself embodies that thing
- We make this huge assumption knowing nothing about Gods nature
What is Ian Ramsay’s ‘Disclosure Situation’?
- Ian Ramsay’s term for an event which reveals something beyond the bare facts of the case
How does Ian Ramsay link his Disclosure Situation to religious language?
- Ramsay uses the example of a Polygon where a teacher adds a side each time
- Eventually you will not see the individual sees but a circle, we see through the reality of the straight lines to the full picture (the circle)
- The same way when we use religious language we move beyond the physicality of this world and see the ‘full picture’
What is Ian Ramsay’s ‘Qualified Model’
- The use of human language to ‘model’ something
How does Ian Ramsay link his Qualified model to religious language?
- ‘First cause’ argument to illustrate a use of a qualified model
- This acts as a model, but models still act differently in practice, e.g car crash simulations still require real tests to be done, no matter how accurate the simulation
- The same way God as a model or as a ‘cause’ is different to any cause we know as he is not a cause like in a science, he is a model in its own rights
What is Karl Barths argument against analogy? (Quote)
“Has been given to us by Gods revelation”
- We cannot approach God through language and personal experience as we only him him through revelation
- We can only know God when he reveals himself, analogy fails as it tries to talk of God
What is Frederick Ferré’s view on analogy?
- Analogy provides us with a rule enabling us to use theological language about God
- We should not focus on analogies defining transcendental ideas but rather on how we use our language carefully
- God is beyond all understanding but terms can be used in the right contexts
