The Divine Names

Abstract

Our concern has been to present the doctrine of the analogy of names, a doctrine we have seen to belong to the logic of signification. If we now examine some particular analogous names, those common to God and creature, it is because so much of what St Thomas has to say of analogical signification occurs in discussions of such names; moreover, the uniqueness of the tiling we are trying to name in this case has led to some of the misapprehension concerning analogy which we have sought to correct. To say that God and creature have a name analogously in common is manifested by appeal to the examples of “healthy” and “being” for the indisputable reason that the divine names involve the same mode of signification. On the level of the res named, however, there is all the difference in the world (and out of it), but it is important to realize that that is where the difference lies. The divine names are not a subdivision of the analogy of names, but instances of it. The present chapter has for its purpose to make that one point; consequently it should not be read as an essay on St Thomas’ doctrine on the names of God, a subject which would demand a study at least as lengthy as this on the logic of analogy.