Toward an Analogia Sanctificationis

Karl Barth’s dramatic rejection of the Roman Catholic concept of the analogia entis continues to influence the reception of the concept by Protestant theologians. A Protestant commitment to the doctrine of justification and to a Barthian Christocentrism necessitates such a rejection. In this essay, I explore alternative Protestant responses to the analogia entis. Eberhard Jüngel argues that evangelical theological commitments should prompt evangelical theologians to consider the analogia entis more seriously. I follow Jüngel’s lead in arguing that there are basic commitments in Protestant thought that require an implicit analogia entis. In particular, I explore the analogy of being from the doctrine of sanctification and consider the possibilities of an analogia sanctificationis. I develop three components of a participatory account of sanctification and argue that together they perform the epistemological and ontological similarity-in-ever-greater difference of the analogia entis and do so within the order of salvation.