1.7 Nature of God Flashcards
COMPLETED
what are the three approaches to God’s omnipotence
- God can do anything including the logically impossible
- God can only do the logically possible
- He has self-imposed limitations
what scholars take the view that God can do anything, including the logically impossible and what are their arguments
Anselm
- God has to be able to do anything otherwise he is not TTWNGBCBC
Descartes
- the term impossible just doesn’t apply to God
- by human standards things appear logically impossible but they are not for God
what scholar argues against the view that God can do anything including the logically impossible
J.L. Mackie
- you can’t say God can do the logically impossible because there is actually no such thing
- ‘a form of words which fails to describe any state of affairs’
what are three issues with the view that God can do anything, including the logically impossible
- it make one question why God does not change the laws so that we do not do evil
- the bible says God cannot lie (book of titus)
- does the principle of ‘logically impossible’ even exist
what scholars take the view that God can only do the logically possible
Aquinas
- why worry about creating such things as a square circle if it doesn’t exist
- ‘whatever involves a contradiction is not held by omnipotence’
Swinburne
- God being able to do everything has to be understood in context
- a square circle is not a ‘thing’ so to say God can do everything therefore does not include a squircle
what scholars argue that God has self-imposed limitations
Vardy
- God deliberately limits his power for our own benefit
- 1992 puzzle of evil
- In order for humans to be rational and free God’s powers have to be limited but these limitations are self-imposed
- it is still right to call God omnipotent because he the limitations are sel-imposed
MacQuarrie
- 1966 work Principles of Christian Theology
- Any limitations on God’s omnipotence are self-imposing
- Jesus didn’t always display God’s attributes because of kenosis (self-emptying, God deliberately emptied out some of his abilities before coming to earth as Jesus in order to make his encounters with humanity possible)
- Jesus had to have human limitations to be human at all and this was through God’s own choice
what are two other approaches to God’s omnipotence?
Kenny
- He suggests that omnipotence does not mean the ability to do anything, including the logically impossible
- Rather God’s omnipotence should be understood as the ability to do anything that is logically possible and consistent with God’s nature
- This view aligns with the idea that God’s power is not arbitrary but is bound by the constraints of logical coherence
Geach
- rejected the idea that God’s omnipotence implies the ability to do anything, including the logically impossible
- God cannot perform actions that go against His own rational and good nature and his omnipotence should be understood in accordance with his nature
- believed that God’s omnipotence does not negate human free will, God’s power is exercised in such a way that it allows for genuine human choices and moral responsibility
how does religious language play into God’s omnipotence and the nature of God more widely?
- When we use the term omnipotence or power it is very much limited in our fallible human minds
- Therefore it is understandable that we struggle to understand God’s power
- This view is particularly taken by MacQuarrie and Aquinas
what are the different approaches to God’s relationship with time?
Atemporal: God is timeless
Sempiternal: God moves along the same timeline as we do
What scholars argued God is outside of time?
Boethius
- is it fair for God to judge people if they don’t have moral freedom?
- God has perfect knowledge of what we will freely choose to do
- He does not know what moral choices we will make in advance of our making them because there is no such thing as ‘in advance’ for God, all events occur simultaneously for him
- God does not know what will happen in the future because there is no future for God (therefore he cannot be accused of a lack of wisdom in not realising that Adam and Eve would disobey him or a lack of morality in allowing evil dictators to be born)
- We therefore have genuine free choice and can be punished and rewarded with justice
Anselm
- Inspired by Boethius and took it further in his ‘city of God’
- Humans live in the present moment but God does not just as we are constrained by space but God is not
- A four-dimensionalist view argues that the past and future exist in the same way that the present exists
- Time is the fourth dimension that relates to space alongside height, width and depth
- Like Boethius Anselm believes we have free will therefore
what scholar argues God is within time?
Swinburne
- Argues that love cannot be compatible with immutability, a loving being responds to the object of their love
- God has to exist within time to interact with our love
- Isaiah 38:1-5 talks of King Hezekiah praying to God when he is ill for a longer life despite God earlier saying he will soon die, and his prayers being answered with 15 years added onto his life suggesting God can directly answer within time
what are three issues with an atemporal approach?
- how can God have a relationship with us if he is so separate and outside of time
- do we have free will if God knows the future and can we be held responsible for our decisions
- if god knows the future then surely he is responsible for the problem of evil
what are issues with an temporal approach?
- can God be omniscient or omnipotent if he is within time
- did God exist before time and will he exist after time?
- if he is within time he will change but can a perfect God change
what are some biblical quotes to show God’s love for humanity
“before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart”
“Because your love is better than life, my lips will praise you” - Psalm 63:3
“Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered” - Matthew 10:30
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” - 1 Corinthians 13:13
what are the main issues with God’s omnibenevolence?
- god’s love is interactive but how does that work if he is outside of time
- the problem of evil
