Created things are predicated according to the relationship and correspondence that they have with God Himself on whose account and with respect to whom they are actually said to be such as they are.
Five Books on the Nature of God,
or
On the Divine Attributes
or
On the Divine Attributes
By Girolamo Zanchi
Translated by Patrick J. O'Banion
Book 1, Chapter 10, Quaestio 8, Part 2
Volume 1 is available for order now from Merchant Royal Press
E
veryone knows that names are spoken either equivocally, univocally, or analogically.[2] Univocal names are those where not only the name is identical but so too the sense and definition. For example, the name man is said univocally of both Peter and Paul, for each of them is a true man and, for that reason, the definition of each is the same.
Equivocal names are those that have a different and quite distinct sense and definition despite having an identical name. Take, for example, ram the animal and ram the siege engine, which pulls down a city’s fortifications, and the ram [that is, Aries], the heavenly constellation. Each one of these has the same name, but they are very distinct things, and each one’s definition is different. Accordingly, the name ram is said equivocally of three types of things.
So how are they predicated? Analogically.[1] That is, created things are predicated according to the relationship [ordinem] and correspondence that they have with God Himself on whose account and with respect to whom they are actually said to be such as they are. In fact, the reason why created things are and are called being, good, righteous, and so forth is because God is such things first and, subsequently, creatures have them from Him. For names such as being, good, righteous, and the rest are predicated first of God as far as their substance is concerned rather than of creatures. That is to say, God was righteous before creatures were. But creatures are such subsequently, and they are and are predicated to be such for the sake of and with respect to God. On that account, these names that signify the perfections of God and of creatures are said of God and of creatures neither univocally nor equivocally but rather analogically.[2]
Everyone concedes that, with regard to substance and accident, being is predicated neither univocally nor equivocally but rather analogically.[3] Why? On account of the similarity (that is, the correspondence or analogy) and relationship [ordinem] that accident has to substance. For substance is being prior to accident. Indeed, an accident has being from the substance. In fact, the reason why an accident is being is because it subsists in a substance. Therefore, on account of the relationship that created things have to God, whatever is predicated both of God and of creatures must be acknowledged to be predicated altogether analogically.[4]
However, we should note that there are two types of analogies. The first is when multiple things have the sort of relationship and regard to one particular thing such that the one thing is appropriately predicated of the many. Imagine that health is the one thing about which we are speaking. The body of a human or of any other animal has a relation to this health or well-being, for it is the subject of well-being or health. Healing medicine has the same relation, for it is a cause of healthiness. A good, strong pulse has reference to the same one thing, for it is an indication of health, as does good food, for it maintains health. So, an animal is called healthy, and medicine is called healthy, and a pulse is called healthy, and food is called healthy. Hence, on account of the relation which all those things have to health, the term health is predicate of them analogically.[5] This first type of analogy should by no means be said to be predicated of God and of creatures on account of the fact that nothing is prior to God unto which (as unto something prior) both God and created things have relation.
The other kind of analogy is when two things are related, when a mutual regard and correspondence exist between them, such that one is traced back and has reference to the other, just as I previously said with reference to a substance and an accident. The analogy between God and created things is of this sort, as was explained above.