Doctrine Of Analogy (Noun)
Meaning
The religious belief that between creature and creator no similarity can be found so great but that the dissimilarity is always greater; any analogy between God and humans will always be inadequate.
Classification
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents.
Examples
- The doctrine of analogy states that our language about God is always approximate and never fully captures the divine reality.
- According to the doctrine of analogy, the relationship between God and humanity is not one of direct similarity, but rather of analogous similarity.
- The doctrine of analogy was first developed by St. Thomas Aquinas as a way to understand the relationship between God's nature and human language.
- In the doctrine of analogy, the concept of analogy is used to convey the idea that God's attributes and human attributes, though similar, are not identical.
- The doctrine of analogy emphasizes that our understanding of God is always incomplete and imperfect, and that we can only speak of God in terms of analogy and metaphor.