- Can God be named by us?
- Are any names applied to God predicated of Him substantially?
- Are any names applied to God said of Him literally, or are all to be taken metaphorically?
- Are any names applied to God synonymous?
- Are some names applied to God and to creatures univocally or equivocally?
- Supposing they are applied analogically, are they applied first to God or to creatures?
- Are any names applicable to God from time?
- Is this name "God" a name of nature, or of the operation?
- Is this name "God" a communicable name?
- Is it taken univocally or equivocally as signifying God, by nature, by participation, and by opinion?
- Is this name, "Who is," the supremely appropriate name of God?
- Can affirmative propositions be formed about God?
"It is because the contemporary alternatives seem so one-sided and are not more evidently solutions to the problems which Thomas faced, and partly solved, that we return to him and to the tradition of theology and philosophy in which his Summa Theologiae appears: theology as the science of the first principle and this as the total knowledge of reality in its unity." -- Wayne J. Hankey, God in Himself (Oxford University Press, 1987), p.159.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Q13: The names of God
We conclude our study of what we can know of the essence of God by summarizing what we can say of God when predicating names of Him: