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Bonaventure's Theory of Resemblance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Philip L. Reynolds*
Affiliation:
Emory University
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Extract

In what ways can two different things be alike? One way, which is perhaps the easiest to explain, involves the sharing of a common nature, or tertium quid, such that two different things are the same in a certain respect. For example, Socrates and Plato are alike in being human, cats and dogs are alike in being animals, and swans and snow are alike in being white. Scholastic theologians believed that no creature could be like God in this way, whether in this life or in the next. In a strict sense, in their view, God and creatures have nothing in common, for God has no accidental qualities to share and does not belong to any genus.

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Research Article
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Copyright © 2003 by Fordham University 

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