Religious Language
The philosophical problem of how to speak meaningfully about God and transcendent reality. Major approaches: via negativa (speaking of God only through negation—what God is not), analogy (using human qualities to understand divine ones proportionally), symbol (religious language expresses symbolic truth about ultimate reality), myth (religious narratives convey truth through archetypal stories), and language games (religious language follows distinct rules within faith communities).
Real World
When Pope Francis says 'God is merciful,' Aquinas's analogical approach explains this: mercy in God is analogous to, but infinitely greater than, human mercy — not identical, not completely different, as seen in Catholic social teaching on forgiveness.
Exam Focus
Name the specific type of analogy (attribution or proportion) when discussing Aquinas — vague reference to 'analogy' alone will not access the highest marks.
How well did you know this?