Tag Archives: analogy

Perfect Being Theology, Theistic Personalism, and the Eclipse of the Apophatic

Posted on 19 November 2019 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Readers of this blog will by now be well-acquainated with the term “theistic personalism.” It was coined by Brian Davies to describe what he believes to be a problematic understand­ing of divinity, commonly advanced by analytic philosophers. He specifically names … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 29 Comments

God, Analogy, and the Metaphysics of Participation

Posted on 17 February 2019 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by Robert Fortuin There’s an interesting post over at Tom Belt’s Open Orthodoxy blog—“Lost in Translation” (part 1 and part 2)—which developed into a conversation about a conversation. The post and the subsequent comments concern a topic of great importance. … Continue reading →

Posted in Robert Fortuin | Tagged , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Reflecting the Mystery: Analogy Beyond Negation and Affirmation

Posted on 30 October 2017 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by Robert F. Fortuin Silence is a mystery of the age to come, but words are instruments of this world. ~ St Isaac the Syrian The Holy Spirit, in delivering to us the Divine mysteries, conveys its instruction on those … Continue reading →

Posted in Gregory of Nyssa, Robert Fortuin | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Trinity, Logic, and the Transcendence of Transcendence

Posted on 24 August 2017 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Philosopher Dale Tuggy believes he has a decisive proof against the coherency of the catholic doctrine of the Trinity. It goes like this: God is a personal being, i.e., a self. By “self” is understood a being who is conscious, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Holy Trinity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

Analogy of Being: Knowing God in Similarity within Dissimilarity

Posted on 9 February 2017 by Fr Aidan Kimel

How is it possible to speak meaningfully of the infinite and transcendent God? By definition he is not an object of our sensible, perhaps not even of our intellectual, experience; yet human language is grounded in our experience of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , | 27 Comments

St Thomas Aquinas, Divine Simplicity, and Knowing the Unknowable God

Posted on 23 May 2016 by Fr Aidan Kimel

What is God? What is his nature? The answer given by St Thomas Aquinas may surprise us: we do not know. By contemplation of the structures of the world, we may know that God exists as the ultimate cause and doer … Continue reading →

Posted in Aquinas, Philosophical Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Can we cajole God into doing what we want?

Posted on 31 May 2015 by Fr Aidan Kimel

The Righteous Forefather Abraham bargains with the Lord for the survival of Sodom. The Holy Prophet and God-Seer Moses pleads with him on behalf of faithless Israel.  When the Prophet Jonah declares to the people of Nineveh their imminent destruction, … Continue reading →

Posted in Herbert McCabe & Friends | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Christos Yannaras: Did God Choose to Exist?

Posted on 7 January 2015 by Fr Aidan Kimel

“Man has been endowed by God with the gift of being a person, with personhood, which is to exist in the same mode in which God exists” (Elements of Faith, p. 58). At first glance this statement seems uncontroversial. Personalism … Continue reading →

Posted in Zizioulas & Yannaras | Tagged , , , , , , , | 19 Comments