Doctrine of God Flashcards
Doxology
Worship.
Apophatic
Talking about what God isn’t.
Cataphatic
Attempts to describe what God is.
Communicable
Attributes of God that have been communicated (shared) to us.
Incommunicable
Attributes that we don’t share with God at all.
Divine Simplicity
God is not composed in parts. Rather, God is His essence.
Divine Aseity (a se)
God is life in Himself. He is not contingent upon anything. God does not lack anything, He is the fullness of life in Himself.
Divine Immutability
It is impossible for God to change. God is not in process of becoming anything. God is fully realized. He has no parts, no passions, and He is perfect. His will never changes.
Biblicism
Using a biblical “trump card” is naive. It isn’t mature to just “chapter and verse” a section of the bible.
Divine Impassibility
God does not suffer. He has no passion. God’s love is intense, but not passionate (He did not suffer anything to love you).
Pure Actuality (actus purus)
God is purely actualized. He has no potential.
Passive Potency
WRONG! Says that God has potential.
Divine Atemporality or Eternity
God is not temporary, but eternal. God has no beginning, no end, and no successive moments of experience. God is always the agent of time, never the patient.
Divine Infinitude
God is not finite. He is infinite in quantity, dimension, and locality.
Omniscience
God is all-knowing. He is perfect in His knowledge. He does not gain knowledge or lose knowledge. His knowledge is infinite and has no need for actualization.
Omnipotence
God is all-powerful. His power knows no limits - He can do all things that are actually possible.
Omnipresence
God is everywhere present. Divine presence vs. divine absence in hell.
Omnisapience
God is perfect in His wisdom. He does not gain wisdom or lose wisdom. His wisdom is infinite and has no need for actualization.
Via Triplex
God is perfect. Our language is imperfect for describing Him. Three ways to predicate attributes to God:
- Way of Negation - we must take away what is imperfect about our description of love in order to ascribe it to God (God’s love is not changing).
- Way of Causation - (God is love and one of the implications of that is that He causes love).
- Way of imminence - greatest form/version (because our love is imperfect and God’s love is perfect, His will always be imminent).
Theistic Mutualism (Process Theology)
WRONG! Follows the “open model” of God. Says that God has a genuine back-and-forth between God and creatures. Exactly like any human relationship has ever worked.
Theistic Personalism
WRONG! Downplays mystery/incomprehensibility. Dislikes the Creator/creature distinction. Teaches that God is a greater version of you, and he is personally like you. They say adamantly that we can speak about God univocally.
