Divine Names, Simplicity & Analogy
How can finite language refer truthfully to the incomprehensible God?
Analogical God-talk neither captures God within creaturely concepts nor dissolves revelation into equivocation.
This seminar studies how finite language can refer truthfully to the incomprehensible God. It places apophatic discipline, analogical predication, and divine simplicity into constructive conversation.
- 01
Distinguish univocal, equivocal, analogical, and metaphorical speech
- 02
Explain why simplicity is a rule for God-talk
- 03
Construct a responsible claim about a divine attribute
- 01
The double discipline of naming
Christian God-talk must affirm what revelation gives and deny that creaturely concepts comprehend God’s mode of being.
- 02
Analogy without a common genus
God and creatures are neither instances of one class nor unrelated realities.
- 03
Simplicity as theological grammar
Divine simplicity denies that God is composed, dependent, or actualized by anything more basic than God.
- 04
Names learned in the economy
Christians learn who God is through divine action while refusing to reduce eternal being to historical effects.