Religious Language: Aquinas' Analogy
Aquinas employs analogy to address how language meaningfully refers to God. Analogy of attribution: properties predicated of creatures derive from God. Analogy of proportion: the relationship between God's attributes and God parallels creatures' attributes to their beings.
Real World
When a judge is described as 'just,' we understand something real about their character even though their justice differs vastly from divine justice — exactly the proportional relationship Aquinas uses to defend analogy: the judge's justice relates to the judge as God's justice relates to God.
Exam Focus
Distinguish analogy of attribution from analogy of proportion precisely — vague use of 'analogy' without this distinction typically loses marks on 'explain' questions.
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