God, Eternity and Freewill:

Question 1

Immanent:

Answer 1

Within this world.

Question 2

Transcendent:

Answer 2

Beyond this world.

Question 3

Temporal:

Answer 3

Within time and space.

Question 4

Incorporeality:

Answer 4

God has no body, or is non-physical.

Question 5

Simplicity:

Answer 5

God must be incorporeal.

Question 6

Unity:

Answer 6

Monotheism maintains that there is no God.

Question 7

Eternity:

Answer 7

God exists not inside time, but outside it. God is atemporal.

Question 8

Immutability:

Answer 8

God cannot change.

Question 9

Eternal:

Answer 9

Outside and space.

Question 10

Freedom:

Answer 10

The ability to choose one’s own action without compulsion from an external source- thus, accountability for one’s action.

Question 11

Necessity:

Answer 11

That it is impossible for something to not be the case.

Question 12

Everlasting:

Answer 12

On-going within the universe.

Question 13

St Augustine and freewill:

Answer 13

Freewill was questioned since the time of St Augustine. It is clear that this discussion was significant to Augustine as he used it as a strong part in his theodicy.

Question 14

Contextual links with Freewill:

Answer 14

• In 1524, Erasmus, the great humanist thinker, wrote a defence for freewill.
• In 1525, Martin Luther, the great religious Reformer responded by writing “The Bondage of the will.”

Question 15

Question regarding freewill and predestination:

Answer 15

Can God be sovereign (fully control of the universe) whilst his creation have freewill?

Question 16

Time:

Answer 16

Time doesn’t change things, it’s the things that exist within time which change. It is understandable as to why people may believe that God lives outside of the constrains of time.

Question 17

Timelessness and the relationship with humans:

Answer 17

We feel that we have freedom to make choices, but is this an illusion? As how can a timelessness being relate to creatures who exist only within time?

Question 18

Boethius:

Answer 18

Argued that Got is eternal, there is no tenses for God as everything is now for him. Argued that God has “the complete possession at once of illimitable life.”

Question 19

Anselm, Augustine and Aquinas on Boethius view:

Answer 19

They believed that Boethius view on Gods eternity solved the argument for omniscience and human freewill.

Question 20

Chad Mesiter:

Answer 20

Supports Boethius argument. He adds that timelessness is based in relative theory. Time and space are conjoined. One doesn’t exist without the other.

Question 21

Critiques against Boethius:

Answer 21

• A timelessness God would mean that God could only have knowledge of timeless truth such as mathematical knowledge. Logical knowledge.
• His view contradicts with the Christianity teaching. In both the old and new testament, God is described as acting in specific times and places i.e. God created the world in six days.