Negative, Analogical or Symbolic

Content

• the apophatic way – the via negativa

• cataphatic way – the via positiva

• symbol

Key Knowledge

• the argument that theological language is best approached by negation

• the understanding of religious language in terms of analogy, with reference to:

  • Aquinas’s analogy of attribution and analogy of proper proportion

• understanding of the language of religious expression in terms of symbol, with reference to:

  • Tillich’s view of theological language as almost entirely symbolic

• the extent to which human free will reasonably coexists with these attributes

• the above should be studied with reference to alternative possibilities presented by Boethius, Anselm and Swinburne