To think of God with human form and qualities (anthropomorphism) appears at first sight merely as an instance of the general structure of knowledge, which is to assimilate the thing known to the knower (“quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur”), with all the attendant risks and benefits. The advantage is that man draws closer to God, whom be knows not just as a vague and unattainable being or perhaps as the silence or demonic strangeness…