1264–1274

Thomas Aquinas: The Five Ways and the Doctrine of Analogy

Thomas rejected Anselm's thesis that God's existence is self-evident: in God essence and existence coincide, so that God's existence is evident in itself, but "for us, who do not know the divine nature, it is not evident." He therefore proposed five ways – from what is perceived by the senses to God: from motion, from cause, from the contingent to the necessary, from degrees of perfection and from purpose. González explains this type of argument partly by Aristotelianism; Maimonides had already proposed a parallel path from the sensible world. Speech about God, according to Thomas, is analogical – between univocal speech, incompatible with transcendence, and equivocal speech, which contradicts Romans 1:20; this yields real but imperfect knowledge of God.