The Principle of Analogy in Protestant and Catholic Theology

210 Pages·1963·7.54 MB·English

by  Battista Mondin s.x. (auth.)

THE PRINCIPLE OF ANALOGY
IN PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC THEOLOGY
THE PRINCIPLE OF ANALOGY
IN PROTESTANT
AND CATHOLIC THEOLOGY
BY
BATTISTA MONDIN s.x.
Second Edition, Revised and enriched
with a detailed bibliography
•
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.
1968
Second edition ©Martinus Nijhoff 1968
ISBN 978-94-017-6448-3 ISBN 978-94-017-6574-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-6574-9
Copyright 1963 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands in 1963.
All rights reserved, inc/uding the right to translate or to reproduce
this book or parts thereofin any form.
TO
HIS EMINENCE
RICHARD JAMES CARD. CUSHING
G,eat Apostle 01 Christ
and
Christian Unity
Nihil obstat quominus imprimatur opus cui titulus est "Analogy old and new"* a
G. B. Mondin, sx. exaratum.
Parmae, 20 januarii 1963. V. C. Vanzin, sx.
Censor delegatus Soc. Xav.
Imprimi potes t Imprimatur
Parmae, die 23 jan. 1963 Parmae, 24 Januarii 1963
Petrus Garbero, sx. Hamilcar Pasini
Vicarius Generalis Soc. Xav. Vic. Gener.
• "Analogy old and new" was the original title of the book "The Principle of Analogy in Protestant and
Catholic Theology".
FOREWORD
In recent years there has been a remarkable revival of interest in the
doctrine of analogy, and many important studies on this doctrine have
appeared in the form ofarticles and books. Today many ofthe greatest
living philosophers and theologians consider some sort of analogy to be
an indispensable tool for any fruitful research in metaphysics and
theology. In this atmosphere we are sure that a study of the history of
the principle of analogy in Protestant and Catholic theology is welcome.
This is one of the reasons for the present undertaking. A second reason
for this study is to seek to divert the ecumenical dialogue from secondary
questions and to direct it to an area where it is necessary to agree in
order to be one.
The tide of our work is somewhat misleading; it may lead one to
believe that it deals with all Catholic and Protestant theologians of past
and present. Actually it does not. It deals only with so me ofthe major
figures of Catholic and Protestant theology. It concentrates especially
on Aquinas' analogy of intrinsic attribution, on Barth's analogy of
faith and on Tillich's symbolic analogy. It attempts to compare and
evaluate these three theological methods, from the standpoint ofd eterm
ining their adequacy to interpret the God-creature relation and to
justify the use of theological language. Our criterion in determining
their adequacy will be their ability to safeguard both God's tran
scendence and His immanence. We shall try to show that Tillich's symbol
ism, in so far as it is grounded on the principle of correlation, is capable
ofe xpressing God's immanence but it is a threat to God's transcendence.
On the other hand Barth's analogy offaith is a threat to His immanence
in nature. Finally, Aquinas' analogy of proper proportionality is un
able to express God's immanence, but his analogy ofintrinsic attribution
is capable of expressing and safeguarding both divine transcendence
and immanence.
VIII FOREWORD
Our study of Aquinas' doctrine will be both philosophical and
theological, since in his case analogy is a philosophical principle with
a theological application.
The basic material of the present work is drawn from a Thesis that
we presented at the Harvard Department of Philosophy of Religion
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the subject of Philosophy of Religion in 1959.
BATTISTA MONDIN S.X.
Desio, Italy
September 1962
FOREWORD TO THE SEGOND EDITION
Since The Principle of Analogy in Protestant and Catholic Theology has
first been published many important studies have appeared dealing
with the same topics of my book; particularly significant those by
Montagnes, Bredow and O'Shea on St Tho:nas' analogy, those by
McLean, Ford, Fenton and Noeremberg on Tillich's symbolism, those
by Matczak and Poehlmann on Barth's analogy of faith, and those by
Hutchinson, Ghristian and Blackstone on the nature and function of
theologicallanguage.
Seeing, however, that none of these studies has contradicted the
substance of my interpretations of Aquinas', Tillich's and Barths's or
the solutions I have offered to the problem of theological language,
I leave the text of my book substantially unchanged. The only im
provements are: the corrections of the misprints and the addition of a
rich and up-to-date bibliography.
L'Universita del S. Guore (Milan)
September 8, 1967
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword VII
I. THE USE OF THE TERM "ANALOGY" IN GREEK AND MEDIAEVAL
PHILOSOPHY 1
1. Greek use of "analogy" 1
2. Latin use of "analogy" 4
II. AQ.UINAS' DIVISION OF ANALOGY 7
1. Aquinas' division of analogy in the Commentary to the
Sentences 9
2. Aquinas' division of analogy in the De Veritate 12
3. Aquinas' division of analogy in the Contra Gentiles 16
4. Aquinas' division of analogy in the De Potentia 21
5. Aquinas' division of analogy in the Commentaries to
Aristotle, Boethius and Pseudo-Dionysius 25
6. Aquinas' division of analogy in the Summa Theologica
and Compendium Theologiae 29
7. Main textual conclusions 34
8. Cajetan's version of Aquinas' doctrine 35
9. Criticism of Cajetan's interpretation 40
10. A new classification of Aquinas' modes of analogy 51
11. Basic logical differences between Aquinas' four funda-
mental types of analogy 53
III. METAPHYSICAL PRESUPPOSITIONS OF AQ.UINAS' FOUR TYPES OF
ANALOGY 62
I. Ontological presuppositions 62
2. Epistemological presuppositions 76
x
85
IV. AQ.UINAS' THEOLOGICAL USE OF ANALOGY
1. The prineiple "omne agens agit simile sibi" 86
2. Restrietions to this prineiple 89
3. The likeness between God and the world, and theo-
logical language 93
4. Negative and positive theology 98
5. Analogy of intrinsie attribution and proper proportion-
ality 100
V. ANALOGY IN PROTESTANT THEOLOGY FROM LUTHER TO
103
KIERKEGAARD
1. Martin Luther 103
2. John Calvin 107
3. A. Quenstedt 110
4. Sören Kierkegaard 112
118
VI. TILLICH'S DOCTRINE OF RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM
1. History of the doetrine of symbolism 119
2. Tillieh's doetrine of the symbol in general 121
3. Tillieh's doetrine of the religious symbol 127
4. Symbolism and analogy 144
147
VII. BARTH'S DOCTRINE OF ANALOGY OF FAITH
1. Phi10sophy and theo10gy 149
2. N eeessi ty of "analo gia fidei" 151
3. Theo10gieal semanties of" analogia fidei" 153
4. Theological epistemology of "analogia fidei" 159
5. Theological ontology of "analogiafidei" 164
6. Analogia fidei, analogia entis and ana10gy 169
174
VIII. THE MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE
1. The meaning of theologie al 1anguage aeeording to
Aquinas, Tillieh and Barth 174
2. The meaning of religious language aeeording to
Linguistie Analysis 177
3. The mysterious meaning of theo10giea11anguage 183
Bibliography 188
Index oJ proper names 197