Ordered to the Good: Final Causality and Analogical Predication in Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

Thomas Aquinas's treatments of analogical predication of the divine names have generated perennial and polarizing debates. This article expands the framework for analysis by examining the divine names through the lens of final causality and the convertibility of being and good, stressing agathological participation as crucial for understanding the metaphysical foundation for analogical predication of the divine names. This approach specifies how analogical predication of the divine names functions as an intermediary end subordinate to the ultimate end of the beatific vision and how the ultimate end of the beatific vision causes the intermediate end of analogical predication.

Publisher

Wiley

Publication Date

10-1-2014

Publication Title

Modern Theology

Department

Religion

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/moth.12055

Language

English

Format

text

Link to Full Text

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