ANTHROPOMORPHISM (an'thres-po-m5r fiz'mi, (Gr. EtrOpidiros, azzik'ro-pos, man; and papcb7,, form); a term in theology used to denote that figure whereby etords derived ''.rom human objects arc employed to express something which relates to the Deity.
As a finite being I .in have no intuitive knowledge of an infinite, so no language of rational creatures can fully express the nature of God and render it comprehensible.
All further knowledge of God must be com municated by words used to express ourselves intelligibly concerning human and other terrestrial objects. Such words and phrases have their foun dation in a resemblance which, according to our conceptions, exists between the Deity and man kind. This resemblance, when essential, is such as regards the pure perfections of our minds, that is, such as arc unaccompanied with any imperfec tion, as reason, liberty, power, life, wisdom, and goodness. Those expressions afford an analogical knowledge, from whence arise analogical phrases. winch are absolutely necessary whenever we speak of God, and would acquire or communicate some knowledge of his perfections.
Such analogical expressions must, oowever, be understood properly, although they give no im mediate and intuitive, but only a symbolical knowl edge of the Deny.. In this sense is that in Gen.
:9; 6:13; :t ; soy; xvli ; xviii ; Exod.
iii :4, 3—speech is immediately ascribed to the Deity %%loft addri ssing Adam, Noali,Altraliam and Mos •s. The Deily is also it this sense said to speak media/ay to man. viz by his messengers. But although the speech here ascribed to the Deity is to he understood in a different manner from the language of men. it is not to be understood in such instances figuratively, or .in the anthropomorphitic sense, hut really and properly. 'Either,' says St. Augustine, 'immutable truth speaks to man in effably of itself to the minds of rational creatures, or speaks by a mutable creature, either by spirit ual images to our minds, or by corporeal voices to the bodily senses.' But God speaks not properly, but onthropopathically, when his decrees and their execution are described in human methods, or in the form of dialogues and conversations, as in the phrase (Gen. i:3t 'Let there he light, and theme was light.' 'This,' says Mainionides, 'is to he understood of the will, not the speech ;' and, in like manner, St. Augustine, 'This was performed by the intellectual and eternal, not by the audible and temporal word' (City of God, elm. vii.).
Anthropomorphitic phrases, generally consid ered, are such as ascribe to the Deity mixed per fections and human imperfections.
(1) Human Actions. A rational being, who receives impressions through the senses, can form conceptions of the Deity only by is consideration of his own powers and properties. Anthropomor phitic modes of thought arc therefore unavoidable in the religion of mankind; and although they can furnish no other than corporeal or sensible repre sentations of the Deity, they are nevertheless true and just when we guard against transferring to God qualities pertaining to the human senses. It is, for instance, a proper expression to assert that God knows all things; it is improper, that is, tropical or anthropomorphitic, to say that lie sees all things. Anthropomorphism is thus a species of accommodation, inasmuch as by these representa tions the Deity as it were lowers himself to the comprehension of men. And it is altogether con sonant to his wisdom and benevolence in com municating divine revelations to address mankint; in language adapted to their inferior capacities. Therefore it is that this figttre is called by the Fathers Divine Economy (Theodoret, Dialog. 2) and Condescension (Gregory of Nazianzus, Oral. 1).
'Divine affections,' says Tertullian, 'arc ascribed to the Deity by means of figures borrowed from the human form, not as if he were endued with corporeal qualities: when eyes are ascribed to him, it is denoted that lie sees (viz. knows)
all things; when ears, that he hears all things ; the speech denotes the will ; nostrils, the perception of prayer ; hands, creation; arms, power; feet, immensity; for lie has no mem bers, and performs no office for which they are required, but executes all things by the sole act of his•will. I low can he require who is light itself ? or feet, who is omnipresent ? Ilow can he require hands, who is the silent creator of all things? or a tongue, to whom to think is to command. Those members are necessary to men, hut not to God, inasmuch as the counsel of men would he inefficacious unless his thoughts put his members in motion ;—bin not to God, whose opera. turns follow his will without effort.' (2) Human Affections. In the same manner human affections, as grief, repentance, anger, re venge, jealousy, etc., are ascribed to the Deity. These affections are not. properly speaking, in the mind of God, who is infinitely happy and immut able, but are ascribed to him anthropopathically by way of similitude. For instance. when God for gives the penitent what he had denounced against the wicked who continue in sin, he is said to act as men do in similar cases. Thus St. Augus tine observes, 'By repentance is signified a change of events. For as a man when he repents be wails the crime which he had committed, so, when God alters anything unexpectedly, that is, beyond man's expectation, he, figuratively, is said to have repented of the punishment when man repents of the sin' (Ps. cx). Thus, also, when ignorance is ascribed to the Deity (Gen. iv :9), the same Father remarks, 'He inquires, not as if really ignorant, but as a judge interrogates a prisoner ;' and Luther, in reference to the passage (Ps. ii:4) where laughter is ascribed to the Deity, thus ob serves, 'Not that God laughed as men do, but to point out the absurdity of men's undertaking im possibilities; meaning, that the matter was as ridiculous as it would be for a fool with a long stick to attempt to thrust the sun out of the firma ment, and to rejoice as if he had performed his task to admiration' (Works, ii. Ep. ps. 37).
(3) Anthropomorphitic Phrases. pomorphitic phrases are found throughout the whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. In the infancy of mankind conceptions derived from the human senses were universal, and the Deity is constantly spoken of in anthropoinorphitic phrases. We find these ideas more pure after the times of Moses, who forbade the making of any representation of the Deity (see DECALOGUE). The conceptions of men became still less sensuous in the times of the Prophets, who propounded still clearer notions of the sublime perfections of the Deity. But even under the Christian dispen sation anthropomorphitic modes of expression were unavoidable; for although Christianity im parts purer and more spiritual sentiments than the former revelations, the inspired teachers could not express themselves without the aid of images derived from human objects, if they would make their communications in regard to divine things intelligible to their hearers, who were habituated to the anthropomorphitic expressions of the Old Testament. Such a mode of teaching was there fore indispensable in itself, and tended to promote the instruction and enlightenment of mankind; 'the attention was more easily kept up among the sensuous hearers and readers of the sayings and writings of Jesus and his apostles; the truths, fig uratively presented, made a deeper impression on the mind; it introduced variety into the discourse; the affections were moved, and religious instruc tion the more readily communicated' (see Seller's Biblical Hermeneutics, part i, sec. 2. sec. 54-62, London, 1835, and Glass's Philologia Sacra).
W. W.