Analogy in the Summa theologica : a study in the method used by St. Thomas Aquinas to discuss the nature and attributes of God

Abstract

Sooner or later all theologians are faced with the question, "How can we talk about God?". It is an essential part of the formulation of any systematic theology that the theologian ask himself how he is going to talk about the Creator. What sort of terms is he going to predicate of Him, and what do the statements that he will make about God mean, and is their interpretation exactly what he intended it to be. It is essential that the theologians be able to state why they intend to express an infinite cosmological truth in terms that are both finite and anthropomorphic. We will be mainly concerned in this paper to examine and evaluate the effort made to answer the question, "How can we talk about God ?", by St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor.