Evaluate the claim that analogy can successfully be used to express the human understanding of God. [35]

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Evaluate the claim that analogy can successfully be used to express the human understanding of God. [35]

        It is a view held by many that we cannot describe what is literally true of god, this is because of our ordinary human language, and by using it to attempt to define the nature of god we automatically limit ourselves to reaching an idea of god which is too small. St Thomas Aquinas used the term via eminentiae (the way of eminence) meaning a position of superiority to outline that what we know of god is only partial and we should accept that nonetheless he suggests in summa theological that there still should be a way in which we can make positive statements about god without resorting to Via negative, he says we must do so analogically. Before I define analogically we must first define the way we use words. We can use words in a sense that is univocal; for example if I say green bat and then say green ball, the word ‘green’ is used in same context therefore we use words of two different things in a way that is univocal. We can also use words equivocally meaning when we use the same word but they mean two different things; for example when we say ‘bat’ we could refer to the cricket instrument or the animal. Now we can define analogy, analogy is when a term is used where there is difference of meaning but also some commonality of meaning, so we have something which is BOTH equivocal and univocal; the analogous.

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        To elaborate on the definition of analogy, Aquinas gives the analogy of being (analogia entis) Aquinas believed that analogies could be a way of speaking of god, to justify this he asserts there is an ‘analogy of being’ between the cosmos and its creator; god. For example if a believer is to say ‘God is good’ they are not using ‘good’ in the univocal sense but neither is it being used equivocally. There is some commonality in the use of good in the statements ‘god is good’ and ‘jenny is good’. Analogy is then split up into two different types ...

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