54. Figures of Speech and Divine Names in Scripture

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Figures of Speech in Scripture #

• Various figures of speech used in sacred texts: synecdoche, metonymy, metaphor, and others
• The distinction between speaking of something properly (according to its true nature) and metaphorically (by transferred meaning)
• Example: “God is fire” speaks metaphorically; “God is all-knowing” speaks properly
• Scripture uses the same realities both properly and metaphorically in different places

Why Scripture Uses Metaphor #

Thomas gives several reasons:

1. Humans are naturally led by sensible things—metaphors appeal to our material experience
2. Metaphors stimulate the mind to understand what is hidden beneath the surface
3. Most important: The whole person—including the imaginative faculty—should be subject to God
   • Imagination is a crucial but dangerous faculty (Shakespeare calls it “sinful fantasy”)
   • Metaphor brings imagination into the service of God rather than leaving it enslaved to vice
   • This is more important than merely intellectual understanding

The Danger of Bold Imagination #

• The primary cause of error in interpreting Scripture is bold imagination (false imagination)
• This involves imagining things other than they are, or imagining what cannot be imagined
• Bold imagination stems from pride
• Examples of errors arising from bold imagination: heresies misunderstanding the Incarnation (e.g., the Word replacing the soul in Christ)

Metaphors in Christian Theology #

• The burning bush: bush represents Christ’s human nature; fire represents his divine nature
  • The fire not consuming the bush represents the divine nature not absorbing the human nature
• Fire as metaphor for the Trinity: light proceeds from fire (Son from Father); heat proceeds from fire (Holy Spirit from both)
• Fire as metaphor for God’s action on us: sun enlightens before it warms (God gives faith before charity)

The Problem of Multiple Divine Names #

• God is absolutely simple (one substance)
• Yet Scripture and tradition speak of God through many names: good, wise, merciful, powerful, etc.
• The objection: If God is one simple thing, why do we need multiple names?
• Resolution: Although all names signify the one divine substance, they signify it through diverse thoughts or concepts

Key Arguments #

Synonymy vs. Analogy of Names #

The Objection: Names said of God are synonymous (signify exactly the same thing)

• In reality, God’s goodness is his essence, his wisdom is his essence, his love is his essence
• Therefore all these names signify the same reality

Thomas’s Response: These names are NOT synonyms

• Synonyms signify one thing through one thought (e.g., “human” and “man” are synonyms)
• These divine names signify one thing through many diverse thoughts
• A name does not signify a thing except through the thought (concept) of the understanding
• Since the thoughts are diverse, the names are not synonyms, though they signify one reality

Why Multiple Thoughts Are Not Vain #

The Objection: If there are many thoughts but only one thing, aren’t these thoughts empty and vain?

Thomas’s Response: The multiple thoughts are not vain because:

• Each thought represents one simple divine reality imperfectly
• Each corresponds to one of the multiple perfections found in creatures
• Creatures manifest God’s perfection in divided and multiplied ways
• Our understanding, knowing God from creatures, forms diverse thoughts proportioned to these diverse perfections

The Unity of Divine Names and the Order of Prayer #

• The Our Father teaches us not only what to pray for but the order in which to desire things
• First petition: “Hallowed be thy name”
• Why “name” (singular) when God has many names? Because all names are reduced to one name
• Thomas references Zechariah 14:8-9: “And in that day, there should be one Lord, and his name shall be one”
• When we know God as he is (in the beatific vision), we will have one unified understanding
• Therefore, in ultimate terms, there will be one name

Important Definitions #

Metaphor (μεταφορά) #

• A figure of speech in which something is described by reference to something else based on similarity
• The metaphor of “sweet” has three components:
  1. Pleasant - appeals to the senses (literal) or emotions/will (transferred)
  2. Refreshing - restores or renews
  3. Restful - brings peace or quietude
• These three aspects underlie metaphorical uses: “sweet love” (pleasant, refreshing, restful), “sweet form” (beautiful; pleasant to see, refreshing to behold, restful to contemplate)

Thought/Concept (λόγος in Greek, ratio or conceptio in Latin) #

• The intellectual grasp or understanding of a thing through the mind
• Names signify things by means of thoughts/concepts
• The same thing can be grasped through multiple concepts, yielding multiple names

Equivocal Causation #

• When a cause produces an effect that does not possess the same property in the same way as the cause
• Example: The sun causes heat in other bodies, but the sun’s heat is not caused in the same way
• Relevant to God: God causes all perfections in creatures but possesses them simply and undividedly

Examples & Illustrations #

Scripture’s Use of Fire as Metaphor #

• The burning bush (Exodus 3): Fire signifies divine knowledge, love, and power by reason of its light, heat, and transforming power; the bush not being consumed represents the human nature of Christ not being absorbed by the divine
• “I have come to cast fire upon the earth” (Luke 12:49): Jesus speaking metaphorically of love, not literal fire
• Fire for the Trinity: Light and heat proceeding from fire allegorize Son and Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father
• Fire for God’s action: The sun (fire) enlightens before it warms—so God enlightens us through faith before warming us through charity

The Sweetness Metaphor and Its Applications #

• Literal sweetness: Pleasant taste, refreshing to the palate, restful when consumed (as ice cream quiets a crying child)
• Beauty as sweet: “Your sweet form” (Shakespeare)—beautiful things are pleasant to behold, refreshing to the eye, restful to contemplate
• Love as sweet: Being loved is pleasant, refreshing, and restful (creates peace); enmity is unpleasant, agitating, and creates restlessness
• Spiritual sweetness: “Taste and see how sweet the Lord is” (Psalms)—God’s goodness is pleasant, refreshing, and provides rest

Examples of Bold Imagination Leading to Error #

• Eucharist and sun worship: Confused imaginations connect Catholic Eucharistic worship to pagan sun worship because monstrances are circular and radiant
• Spinoza’s Ethics: Employing Euclidean geometrical form to structure ethics (“on an infinite federal republic to construct a pyramid of total power”)
• Literary misreadings: Characters in English novels misapplying Euclidean theorems to human relations (“parallel lines extended to infinity never meet” applied metaphorically to forbidden love)

Notable Quotes #

“Scripture will speak both properly and metaphorically of the same thing; and when it’s metaphoric in one place, it’s a property in another place.”

“It’s very important that the imagination be subject to God too, and in its metaphor is you are bringing the imagination out into the service of God. So if it’s important that even your legs be in the service of God and you genuflect, how much more important that this more noble faculty, the imagination, should be brought into this subjection to God.”

“The whole of man should be subject to God, okay? That means especially our mind and our will, right? But even our legs… imagination is a very important ability we have, but it’s also very dangerous.”

“A name does not signify a thing, except through, or mediante, mediante, is a medium, the thought of the understanding.”

“These names signify one thing by one thought [are synonymous]. But those that signify diverse thoughts about one thing do not first and through themselves signify one.”

Questions Addressed #

How can God have many names if God is absolutely simple? #

• God’s substance is one and simple
• Our understanding knows God from creatures, which manifest divine perfections in divided and multiplied ways
• Each diverse perfection of creatures corresponds to one simple divine reality
• Therefore, we form diverse thoughts/concepts of the one divine reality
• Each name corresponds to one of these diverse thoughts, though all names ultimately signify the same substance

Why does Scripture use metaphor rather than literal, proper language? #

• Humans are naturally led by sensible things—metaphor accommodates to our mode of knowing
• Metaphor stimulates intellectual engagement and understanding
• Most importantly, metaphor brings the imaginative faculty into service to God, which is crucial for the formation of the whole person in holiness

What is the relationship between diverse thoughts and one reality? #

• Multiple thoughts can represent the same reality imperfectly from different angles
• These thoughts are not vain because each genuinely corresponds to some aspect of how creatures manifest divine reality
• This parallels how men and women unequally manifest understanding and love (both attributes of God): man more understanding, woman more loving, yet both express the unified divine nature

How does the teaching on divine names relate to prayer (the Our Father)? #

• The Our Father begins with “Hallowed be thy name”—establishing that we first desire the sanctification of God’s name
• All God’s names are ultimately reduced to one name in ultimate understanding
• This parallels the order of petition: first the name (God’s glory), then the kingdom (the ordered society of those who see God), then daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from temptation

Connections to Broader Doctrine #

Relationship between Names and Knowledge of God #

• Names are the means by which finite minds access knowledge of infinite reality
• Words signify through concepts/thoughts; concepts are the proximate means by which we grasp things
• This explains why sacred Scripture prioritizes teaching through words (as teacher Thomas noted): the student receives the teacher’s words first, then gradually comes to grasp the teacher’s thoughts, and finally approaches the reality itself
• Teaching prayer (like the Our Father) similarly begins with words, which children gradually grow in understanding through life experience

The Imagination and Spiritual Life #

• Imagination is vital to Christian formation and cannot be neglected
• Metaphor and figurative language consciously train and sanctify the imagination
• The danger of bold imagination (false or prideful imagining) is countered not by rejecting imagination but by ordering it to God
• This reflects broader Thomistic anthropology: all powers of the human person (legs, imagination, intellect, will) must be subordinate to God

Connection to Dionysius’s Divine Names #

• Thomas respects Dionysius’s division of works: one on names said properly of God, another on names said metaphorically (Symbolic Theology)
• Both proper and metaphorical naming are essential to approaching God
• The doctrine of multiple thoughts signifying one reality undergirds both modes of discourse