a) Analogy:
Analogy is a comparison between one thing and another, typically for the purpose of explanatin or clarification. In Christianity Analogy is used to explain God's nature and characteristics by comparing it with natural world and things in it. However, the natural world and things merely affirms that there is a likeness or correspondence between God and that being, which allows the latter to act as a signpost to God. Simply speaking a created entity can be like God, without being identical to God.
Thomas Aquinas argues with an example. Using the statement "God is our father", he says that this should be understood to mean that God is like a human father. In other words, God is analogous to a father. That is, in some ways God is like a human father and in others not. There are similarities and dissimilarities. Let us consider similarities, God cares for us as human fathers care for their children and he is the ultimate source of existence just as our earthly fathers brought us into being. God exercises authority over us, as do human fathers. Considering dissimilarities, God is not a human being, for example. Nor does the necessity of a human mother point to the need for a divine mother, that is, two gods.
Aquinas's doctrine of analogy, then, is of fundamental importance to the way we think about God. It illuminates the manner in which God reveals himself to us through scriptural images and analogies, allowing us to understand how God can be above our world, and yet simultaneously be revealed in and through that world. God is not an object or a person in space and time; nevertheless, such persons and objects can help us deepen our appreciation of God's character and nature. God, who is infinite, may be revealed in and through human words and finite images.
b) Metaphor:
Aristotle defined a metaphor as involving "the transferred use of a term that properly belongs to something else." But in the modern use, the word "metaphor" would be taken to mean something rather different, with the following being a useful definition. A metaphor is a way of speaking about one thing in terms which are suggestive of another.
In fact classifying or defining metaphor as above paragraph goes further to suggest that it includes analogy as well. Individual writers offer their own definitions, often reflecting their personal agendas between analogy and metaphor. Perphaps a working solution to the problem could be stated as follows: analogies seem to be appropriate, where metaphors involve a sense of surprise or initial incredulity. For example, consider these two statements:
God is wise.
God is a lion.
In the first case, it is being affirmed that there is an analogical connection between the nature of God and the human notion of “wisdom.” It is being suggested that, at both the linguistic and the ontological level, there is a direct parallel between human and divine notions of wisdom. Human wisdom serves as an analogy of divine wisdom. The comparison does not cause us any surprise.
In the second case, the comparison can cause a slight degree of consternation. It does not seem to be appropriate to compare God to a lion. However many similarities there may be between God and a lion, there are obviously many differences. For some modern writers, a metaphor mingles similarity and dissimilarity, stressing that there are both parallels and divergences between the two objects being compared.
c) Accommodation:
Accommodation in Christian sense is best derived by Origen. Origen suggests that God faces problem when communicating with human beings. When God tries to address sinful mankind, God experiences same problems experienced by human father in trying to communicate to small children. Simply putting it, "God condescends and comes down to us, accommodating to our weakness, like a schoolmaster talking a ‘little language’ to his children, or like a father caring for his own children and adopting their ways.”
Taking this idea John Calvin in 16th century developed a theory referred to by the term "accommodation" which means "adjusting or adapting to meet the needs of the situation and the human ability to comprehend it." Calvin suggest that God accommodates to the capacities of the human mind and heart. Good speakers know the limitations of their audience states Calvin. Good speakers know the limitations of their audience and adjust the way they speak accordingly. Calvin’s concern was not to generalize about the nature of theological language – whether it is analogical or metaphorical, or any of the other figures of speech with which he was familiar. His basic concern was to stress that theological language cannot necessarily be taken at face value. The theologian has to decide on the nature and extent of that accommodation.
Analogy is a comparison between one thing and another, typically for the purpose of explanatin or clarification. In Christianity Analogy is used to explain God's nature and characteristics by comparing it with natural world and things in it. However, the natural world and things merely affirms that there is a likeness or correspondence between God and that being, which allows the latter to act as a signpost to God. Simply speaking a created entity can be like God, without being identical to God.
Thomas Aquinas argues with an example. Using the statement "God is our father", he says that this should be understood to mean that God is like a human father. In other words, God is analogous to a father. That is, in some ways God is like a human father and in others not. There are similarities and dissimilarities. Let us consider similarities, God cares for us as human fathers care for their children and he is the ultimate source of existence just as our earthly fathers brought us into being. God exercises authority over us, as do human fathers. Considering dissimilarities, God is not a human being, for example. Nor does the necessity of a human mother point to the need for a divine mother, that is, two gods.
Aquinas's doctrine of analogy, then, is of fundamental importance to the way we think about God. It illuminates the manner in which God reveals himself to us through scriptural images and analogies, allowing us to understand how God can be above our world, and yet simultaneously be revealed in and through that world. God is not an object or a person in space and time; nevertheless, such persons and objects can help us deepen our appreciation of God's character and nature. God, who is infinite, may be revealed in and through human words and finite images.
b) Metaphor:
Aristotle defined a metaphor as involving "the transferred use of a term that properly belongs to something else." But in the modern use, the word "metaphor" would be taken to mean something rather different, with the following being a useful definition. A metaphor is a way of speaking about one thing in terms which are suggestive of another.
In fact classifying or defining metaphor as above paragraph goes further to suggest that it includes analogy as well. Individual writers offer their own definitions, often reflecting their personal agendas between analogy and metaphor. Perphaps a working solution to the problem could be stated as follows: analogies seem to be appropriate, where metaphors involve a sense of surprise or initial incredulity. For example, consider these two statements:
God is wise.
God is a lion.
In the first case, it is being affirmed that there is an analogical connection between the nature of God and the human notion of “wisdom.” It is being suggested that, at both the linguistic and the ontological level, there is a direct parallel between human and divine notions of wisdom. Human wisdom serves as an analogy of divine wisdom. The comparison does not cause us any surprise.
In the second case, the comparison can cause a slight degree of consternation. It does not seem to be appropriate to compare God to a lion. However many similarities there may be between God and a lion, there are obviously many differences. For some modern writers, a metaphor mingles similarity and dissimilarity, stressing that there are both parallels and divergences between the two objects being compared.
c) Accommodation:
Accommodation in Christian sense is best derived by Origen. Origen suggests that God faces problem when communicating with human beings. When God tries to address sinful mankind, God experiences same problems experienced by human father in trying to communicate to small children. Simply putting it, "God condescends and comes down to us, accommodating to our weakness, like a schoolmaster talking a ‘little language’ to his children, or like a father caring for his own children and adopting their ways.”
Taking this idea John Calvin in 16th century developed a theory referred to by the term "accommodation" which means "adjusting or adapting to meet the needs of the situation and the human ability to comprehend it." Calvin suggest that God accommodates to the capacities of the human mind and heart. Good speakers know the limitations of their audience states Calvin. Good speakers know the limitations of their audience and adjust the way they speak accordingly. Calvin’s concern was not to generalize about the nature of theological language – whether it is analogical or metaphorical, or any of the other figures of speech with which he was familiar. His basic concern was to stress that theological language cannot necessarily be taken at face value. The theologian has to decide on the nature and extent of that accommodation.
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