God as personal

Question 1

Bubers I-it and I-you

Answer 1

I-it is an impersonal relationship with an object e.g human and car
I-thou is a direct reciprocal relationship e.g. between a loving couple

Question 2

How does Alister McGrath describe the distinction between I-you and I-it

Answer 2

“we know about an it, but we know and are known by a you”
e.g. we know a car has tyres, wheels and an exhaust but this knowledge is not the same as knowing in an I-thou relationship through genuine experience

Question 3

Challenge- God cannot suffer, Philo

Answer 3

Philo argues God is unchangeable
If God is fixed he cannot be personal as this suggests a change from the divine to human so God cannot suffer

Question 4

Challenge- Anselm

Answer 4

Argues in the proslogion “You are compassionate in that you save the miserable and spare those who sin against you; you are not compassionate in that you are not affected by any sympathy for misery”
Therefore God is not fully personal

Question 5

Challenge- Aquinas

Answer 5

Love requires being open and vulnerable and God cannot be fully vulnerable therefore God cannot fully love us

Question 6

What are Weiandys 5 challenges

Answer 6

Son of God suffered
Transcendent
Distinct onto order
God is immutable
Panentheism

Question 7

Son of God suffered, not God

Answer 7

Christ experienced human suffering in an authentic manner
However, this was his human not divine nature
Christ lost his human well being and life but was not deprived of his divine perfection as he rose again hence God did not suffer

Question 8

Transcendent

Answer 8

Weiandy argues Moltmann ignores God’s transcendence(outside the world) for understanding God’s immanence (within the world)
If God was only immanent his actions would be less significant e.g. Jesus’ crucifixion

Question 9

God exists in his own distinct ontological order

Answer 9

e.g. Holocaust
Moltmann ignores the fact that God occupies an ontologically distinct realm to humans as the creator
The sin and evil which causes humans to suffer is wholly contained in the order and so God as the creator cannot exist in the order he created, he must exist in his own

Question 10

God is immutable

Answer 10

God cannot experience suffering because his emotional state only changes from a change not within himself but from others involved.
God’s love remains unchanging regardless of his creations actions it just mainfests in different ways i.e. tough love rather than anger during the Babylonian exile

Question 11

Panetheism

Answer 11

(God is both beyond and within the world)
If God is part of the cosmic order and experiences suffering he will not be all loving so cannot offer salvation and be the saviour that triumphs over evil

Question 13

God can and did suffer examples

Answer 13

Israelites in Egypt- Plagues, famine and losing first born
Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross

Question 14

WW1 influence (God did not suffer)

Answer 14

Theologians began to question whether God did experience suffering because if he did why would he allow suffering on the magnitude of World War One?

Question 15

Martin Luther

Answer 15

Argues God did suffer through Christ
Mark 15.34 “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”

Question 16

Moltmanns response to God’s suffering

Answer 16

A perfect God must be able to suffer
“A God who cannot suffer is poorer than any human. For a God who is incapable of suffering is a being who cannot be involved… the one who cannot suffer cannot love either”