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LONG, Steve A. Analogia Entis: On the Analogy of Being, Metaphysics and the Act of Faith. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2011. ix + 153 pp. Paper, $28.00 - In this short but intellectually dense book, Steve Long weighs in on a variety of fundamental questions regarding Aquinas' doctrine of analogy. Is the doctrine primarily concerned with terminological and logical similitude (as Ralph Mclnerny argued) or ontological likeness (as is traditionally asserted)? Does Aquinas change his thinking regarding this issue, from the earlier works such as De Ventate, q. 2, a 11 to the mature work, as we find in Summa theologiae I, q. 13, a. 5?
For the past fifty years, these questions have been greatly influenced by the genealogical thesis of the French Dominican, Bernard Montagnes. His argument is that Aquinas' doctrine evolved as he developed a mature theory of participated being, and of the real distinction between existence and essence. Aquinas supposedly came to see created being in a primarily relational way, and articulated this in terms of "analogy of attribution" or "proportion." Thus, the analogy of "proper proportionality" that Aquinas articulated in the De Ventate was progressively abandoned. Behind this seemingly technical argument lies a significant question: what is the...