God and Ultimate reality Flashcards
where do our ideas of God come from
religious experiences e.g. Moses speaks to Yahweh in the Burning Bush and asks him to take his shoes off since he is on holy ground- demonstrates that God is ‘wholly other’ Rudolf Otto
Who describe God as ‘wholly other’
Rudolf Otto
What did 5th Century Christian Writer, Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite think about Gods Characteristics
engagement with God has three characteristics
- purification
- revelation
- Union with God
he said ‘the most divine knowledge of God is that he is known through unknowing.. in a manner that transcends understanding’
Soren Kierkegaard on understanding God
he believed that by attempting to describe God using various terms was a misrepresentation of God. he thought that true faith and realisation of God involves a new insight into oneself, a deeper awareness of one’s own nature
who is God- christian response
it is in Gods very nature that he transcends human comprehension . Therefore we use ‘via negative’- speaking of what God is not and ‘via positive’, where certain attributes are given, like good and love.
Richard Swimburn on God
he is a personal being: omnipotent, omniscient, perfect freedom and everlasting. he is perfectly good and the creator since the universe only exists because of him.
John Hick on ultimate reality
he thinks about ‘the real’ as the subject of religious experience and the ultimate subject of different religious traditions
why do religious experiences and expressions of religion vary so widely across human culture
experiences are of a personal God, or a universal truth. Sciences study the physical universe, so cannot measure what is beyond the physical, so are limited. But if there is a reality beyond the physical world, sciences will not and cannot, discover it.
how god has been describe din the creed
almighty, one, creator, everlasting
how god has been described in the bible
all knowing, righteous, loving, judge , forgiving
how god was described by the first vatican council in 1870
15 internal attributes: one true living eternal omnipotent measureless incomprehensible infinite unchangeable transcendent
