Definitions and understandings of God Flashcards
How and where to Christians define their beliefs about god
Defined as one / holy trinity
From 381ce Nicene Creed + Judaism
What beliefs did many christians have about god to begin with?
There is only one God, make no idols or images of God
What is the father in the trinity?
The almighty father, creator, sustainer
What does Jesus do in the holy trinity?
- Showed God’s nature
- brings forgiveness and freedom
What is the holy spirit in the trinity?
- Power to make people like christ, empowers them to do God’s will.
What made early christians want to define their beliefs about God?
- They were challenged about whether they were monotheistic or not, they wanted to define themselves against Jews and other beliefs
- Theologians needed to explain how God was one but was experience in three ways.
What language did Tertullian suggest
talk of 3 persons, means 3 masks, 3 personi in one substance.
What language did Origen suggest
3 hypospaces, means substance in Greek.
Hypospaces means centres of activity.
How did beliefs about Jesus’ divinity develop?
Jesus is son of God, shared his character, incarnation of God, idea that Jesus is God in the flesh.
What is Docetism
Jesus is not an incarnation of God, he only seemed to be human, but all matter is evil, God cannot come in human matter
What did the Council of Nicea do?
They wanted a united empire, invited all bishops of empire for a big debate, settle argument about whether Jesus is God
What did the Nicene Creed now say after Athanasius won?
Jesus is eternally begotten - always part of trinity
Why is the Nicene Creed important today?
- Orthodox definition of Christian beliefs
- Its an accepted summary by most Christians. Catholix/ Orthodix/ Anglicans still use it.
- Declaration about ideas of God
- Used in Roman Catholic mass
What does Heretic mean
unacceptable belief
Quickly what does Arius think?
Jesus was created by god he is not a part of god
What is Subordinationsim?
The denial of equality of the persons
What is Tritheism?
The belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are independent and separate entities.
What is modialism?
There are three different modes of God.
What does it mean by Omnipotent?
God has the ability to do anything
What does it mean by Almighty?
God has power over all things
What did Aquinas say about God being able to do anything possible?
God can do anything LOGICALLY possible and which doesn’t go against his nature.
Quickly what does Athanasius think?
Jesus is eternally begotten
Who won the argument between A&A?
Athanasius!!
Confirmed by the council of Nicene
Slowly what did Arius think? (3)
1) God is utterly transcendent and inaccessible so only relates to humans through an intermediary
2) God creates everything so Jesus was created by God, there was a time where he was not. Jesus is a creature created by God.
3) Jesus was created by God so cannot be God.
Slowly what did Athanasius think? (3)
1) Only God saves from sin –> Jesus saves from sin –> JESUS IS GOD. No creature can save another creature, so Jesus must be God.
2) We worship Jesus –> we worship God –> JESUS IS GOD, or it would be idolatrous.
3) So Jesus is begotten –> come from the very being of God.
Homoiousious =
- Arius ‘OI Aruis youre wrong!’
- Of like substance
Homoousious =
- Athanasius
- Of the same substance
Vardy: Why must God be omnipotent?(4)
- God created the world, no limit to his power.
- If he wasnt omnipotent he wouldnt be relied on to ensure that goodness and truth triumph over evil and lies.
- If god is not all powerful he cannot keep his promises, only the promise of God can offer confidence that there will be an afterlife, if god is not all powerful there would be no hope that this promise would not be kept.
- promise of salvation which God would not be able to fulfill if he wasnt all powerful.
What does almighty mean?
God has power over all things
What does omnipotent mean?
God has the ability to do anything
What can God not do?
- Anything contrary to the nature of God, i.e creating a being more powerful than God, nothing is more powerful that God.
- anything logically impossible.
- Aquinas: God cannot do ‘pseudo tasks’, forms of words which look like they represent a task but they dont. e.g making a square a circle.
- God cannot be subject to any power because God created all power
- God cannot have a body because he cannot die therefore he is not limited by flesh. cannot feel tired/ angry/ pain.
What is liberation theory?
- God is on the side of the poor, and has a preference for the poor/ oppressed / sick/
- God is a suffering god who suffers with his people, on the side of justice in the struggle against injustice.
- the church should also be on the side of the poor.
When did liberation theory arise?
- late 1960’s early 1970’s
- Following the Second Vatican council of the Catholic Church.
Why did people think God was on the side of the poor?
- Jesus on the side of the poor & weak - mixed with outsiders & sinners.
- God is a suffering God
- God brought god’s chosen people out of slavery to freedom.
Almighty father (holy trinity)
creator, sustainer
Son (holy trinity)
Bringing forgiveness and freedom, shows God’s nature
Holy spirit
makes people like christ, empowering them to do God’s will
What do theologians argue?
God is one but it experienced in 3 ways
What did the first Christians believe about God?
Oneness of God
God is creator, sustainer, almighty etc
New age through Jesus’ life
Beliefs about the holy trinity
- McGrath in ‘Christian Theology: An introduction’, the father is revealed in Christ through the spirit.
What does begotten mean
- Jesus is part of God, he has come from the very being of God.
Personal God?
- ‘god as father’ affirms that Christians believe in a personal God.
- Language used in old and new testament is personal language which describes god’s character and nature: faithful/ loving.
- Prayer: modeled in child/ parent relationship
John Oman quote about prayer and relationship with God
prayer is gracious relationship which ‘is simply trust in a person whose whole dealing with us proves him worthy of trust.’
Implications of ‘God as father’
- From Nicene Creed
- affirms belief in personal god, personal language used in old and new testament.
- Christian writers: prayer modeled on child/ parent relationship.
- implies we derive our origins from God, God cares for us in the way that human father care for their children.
Aquinas and ‘god as father’
- its an analogy, not saying that God is actually a human father, God is like a human father.
- similarities between god and human father: God cares for us, God exercises authority over us, God is the ultimate source for our existence. But God is not human.
- ’ God is our father’ does to reduce God to humans, it means that thinking about human fathers helps us to think about god. Analogy to help us describe something out of our world.
Mcgraph examples of God imagery
- male imagery: king, father, judge - authority.
- rock: conveys ideas of strength, stability and permanence.
- feminine imagery: described God’s care and compassion, linked to love of a mother for child.
Where is the trinity mentioned?
- Bible, Mark 1:1-11 Gods speaks to Jesus and the holy spirit descends as a dove.
- Nicene Creed
Conflicting view about the trinity (3)
- Irensus: ‘the economy of salvation’, Trinity was how God responded in history.
- Tertullion: In Latin, God is one substance but had three masks ‘personas’
- Origen: God consisted of 3 hypostases (centres of activity) in one ousia, inner reality.
When was the Nicene Creed written
381 CE
What idea does the creed reject?
subordinism - expressing that all aspect of the Trinity were equal.
Quote from Nicene Creed about God as Father
’ we believe in on God, the father, the almighty, maker of heaven and earth…’
Ward: three ways of expressing belief about the Trinity
1- eastern church ~ God as three hypostases in one inner reality.
2- western church ~ Tertullians concept, all aspects of God are needed for him to be complete.
3 - Mystics ~ God is beyond language and attributes.
Tertullian
- coined the term ‘Trinity’
- God is one substance but has 3 personas/ persons (mask)
- all aspects of God are needed in order for God to be complete.
Heresies to avoid
1 - Subordinationism: idea that all three aspects of Holy Trinity arent equal.
2 - Tritheism: the 3 ‘persons’ are separate, like three gods.
3- Modalism: ‘3 persons’ merge.
Origins of holy trinity
- Jesus Baptism
- Migliore: ‘the doctrine of the Trinity is not a revealed doctrine, rather a product of the reflection of the church on the gospel message over many centuries’
What deos Ward say about the different aspects of God
- different paths which all lead to God
- all forms of the one true god
- worship one God who is known in many different ways
What was life like when liberation theory arose
- many poor people living in poverty
- very little people who were rich and living luxurious lives
- Church sided and identified with the rich
How come aquinas’ wholly simple God is omnipotent even though it cant act?
- God acts with a single timeless act
- everything which happens is part of his single timeless act, so all his actions are accomplished in one single timeless action.
Aquinas: what can god do?
- anything logically possible
- anything that does not involve contradiction.
How do Christian theologians define God?
- God is all powerful, this means that God can only do whatever is logically possible for him to do.
Descartes and God and Logic
- God created universe so God created laws of logic, so isnt limited by the laws of logic.
- God could go against logic as we know it, doesnt mean god can do the logically impossible, just that humans cannot understand what is and isnt possible for God.
- human knowledge is not adequate to set any limits on God’s power.
Why could it be incoherent to say that God is omnipotent?
- Omnipotent God does not have a body and is not limited by the flesh
- God did take a body ‘and the word became flesh’, so God did feel tired/ angry/ compassion/ was subject to powers of time and space.
- against the nature of a wholly simple God, contradict his all mighty powerful nature.
Aquinas’ reply to it being incoherent to say that God is omnipotent because of becoming christ.
- God as God cannot be a man or have a body, we can talk of christ as man and christ as God
- christ as god cannot have a body, but christ as man can .
Describe the wholly simple God
- Outside time and space
- not made of parts and has no body
- is immutable and has no potential
- necessary
- impassable (doesnt feel or suffer)
god as mother quote from Julian of norwhich
’ as truly as god is our father, So just as truly is he our mother’
