ANTHROPOMORPHISM (IN THEOLOGY)

From the two Greek words [symbol omitted]νθρωπος (man) and μορφή (form). The term designates in theology the tendency to conceive God in human terms. To think of God, for instance, as literally shaking His fist, would be anthropomorphic. For God is pure spirit; before His Incarnation, even the Son, the eternal Word, was exclusively spirit. Since God as God, then, is pure spirit, He has no body, and so no fist.

Such an example may be quite obvious. A much more subtle and problematical anthropomorphism, however, has lain at the base of some of theology's greatest controversies. Thus, to cite a single but very important example, the various attempts to explain Christ's sacrificial death on the cross as satisfying the Father's vindictiveness have been motivated, at least in part, by a subconscious anthropomorphism. For, in the final analysis, they picture the heavenly Father as subject to a strictly human sort of passion and reaction.

In a brief article, it is possible to touch only on selected aspects of this total question: first, the pedagogical anthropomorphism of which God Himself made use; second, the successful elimination of anthropomorphism through theological analogy; and, third, the psychological inevitability of at least an element and degree of anthropomorphism in theology despite man's best efforts.

Any reader of the OT is aware of the extent to which God tolerated provisionally anthropomorphic ideas about Himself in His slow, step-by-step instruction of His chosen people. He had walked with Adam in the garden, spoken with him as one man with another. He was moved to anger and then placated, all in a manner that sounded very much human.

But in the same divine plan, there would come a time, in the new dispensation, when theological understanding—the effort of human intelligence illuminated by faith—would see rather clearly that nothing material can be said of God, unless in metaphor, but only what is purely spiritual. More than this, not even what is purely spiritual can be said of God, unless by analogy. If God is called a lion, this is metaphor. If God is said to see, and hear, and vent emotion, this also is metaphor. On the other hand, when God is said to know and, in the strictly spiritual sense, to love, this is not metaphor. For God really does know and love—just as human beings do; just as, yet differently. And this is analogy. Man's knowing and loving is imperfect; God's is infinite. What separates analogy from metaphor is the dropping out of the "as it were." One says that God shouts, "as it were." For God cannot really shout. To take out the "as it were" at this point is anthropomorphism. But one says that God knows—period. The "as it were" drops out, and must drop out; because God really does know, even though His knowing is infinitely more perfect than man's.

There is still, however, a psychological problem. Under the influence of imagination, even the sharpest theological mind can avoid only with difficulty the almost inevitable inclination to invest the divine object, which in this life man can know but dimly, with the qualities of the human object, which man knows quite well, and upon which he bases his analogical understanding of the infinite. Unless attention to the true nature of analogical predication along with exercise of theological judgment supply, so to speak, a constant corrective, an element or degree of unsuspected anthropomorphism will always be just around the corner.

See Also: analogy, theological use of; methodology (theology); reasoning, theological; theological terminology.

Bibliography: A serious study of anthropomorphism, and in the context of theological analogy, courses through several of the writings of b. lonergan, e.g., Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (New York 1957), ch. 17 and 19, nos. 9, 10; De Deo trino, 2 v. (v.1 2d ed., v.2 3d ed. Rome 1964) 1:15–112; 2:7–64. Cognate ideas are reflected also by j. c. murray, The Problem of God (New Haven 1964), pt. 2. There are likewise the excellent studies, with more attention to linguistics, of e. l. mascall, Words and Images: A Study in Theological Discourse (New York 1957); Existence and Analogy (New York 1949); He Who Is (New York 1948).

[r. l. richard]