God's Attributes - Exam Questions

Question 1

‘God is eternal.’ Discuss.
Paragraph - God is eternal outside of time

Answer 1

Boethius in Consolation of Philosophy
Strength:
* Explains how humans can retain their free will with an omniscient God who could see every human’s future as God exists outside time whereas humanity does.
* God knows the future but it is not the future for him as he does not exist within time but instead in a continuous present.

Aquinas in Summa Theologica
Strength:
* In the human world, change and time are inextricably linked e.g. humans are born, grow old, and die. If God exists within time, he would be constrained by the same laws which time inflicts upon the universe and would be susceptible to change. A perfect being cannot change therefore must exist outside time and space.
* Malachi 3:6 ‘I the Lord do not change’

Question 2

‘God is eternal.’ Discuss.
Paragraph - God is not eternal.

Answer 2

• If God is able to enter a relationship with man, it must have altered him in some way e.g. covenant
• Bible describes moments when God is described as surprised (Isaiah 5) then that suggests he is susceptible to change
• God enters the human time-frame to intervene directly by answering prayers or coming of Jesus. If God existed outside time he would have no concept of past, present and future, but that seems impossible as he chose a specific date for incarnation.
  However
  RESPONSE: Impossible for humans to fully understand God’s nature and the way he acts.

Question 3

‘God is eternal.’ Discuss.
Paragraph - God is everlasting as one in our time

Answer 3

Swinburne and Kenny: idea that God sees everything and knows everything outside time in a simultaneous present is incoherent.
Kenny: ‘the great fire of Rome is simultaneous with the whole of eternity.’
Swinburne: God cannot know what it is like to be in 1995 unless he was in fact in 1995, in which case God must be within time.

Question 4

‘God is eternal.’ Discuss.
Paragraph - God is not everlasting.

Answer 4

Neither Aquinas nor Boethius claim that all of time takes place at once, but that the nature of God’s knowledge is so different to humans’ that he as an omniscient being sees all of eternity as a simultaneously present *i.e. *God takes all knowledge of the universe simultaneously, the events do not happen simultaneously

Timeless view of God is superior as it allows God to relate to us in all of our lives in his all at once duration. Cf. daughter who I can’t relate to her as a child after she grows up. This allows God to be closer and more intimate to us.

Question 5

‘Divine power is not limited’. Discuss.
Paragraph - God’s omnipotence is limited.

Answer 5

Aquinas: God can do everything that is within his nature therefore cannot be cruel or unwise

Swinburne:God can do everything possible but logical impossibilities are not things

Vardy: God deliberately limits his own power (self-limitation) -hecreated the world in such a way that his own power has to be limited. This doesn’t undermine God as he chose to do this in order to create a world suitable for free and rational human beings - doctrine of Kenosis-Goddeliberately emptieshimself of his own powerCf. Philippians -Inincarnation God deliberately limited his power

Question 6

‘Divine power is not limited’. Discuss.
Paragraph - God’s omnipotence is not limited.

Answer 6

• IfGod cannot do things andis limited by his ownnature then he is not truly omnipotent
  **However - **
  RESPONSE: Is omnipotence a problem of religious language where we do not have the words to frame an adequate concept ofGod’s power?

Question 7

‘Divine power is not limited’. Discuss.
Paragraph - God’s omnipotence has no limit.

Answer 7

Descartes:God has no limitations at all, even things which are logically impossible
* God could make a square circle or make 2+2=5 because God is supreme perfection and therefore can have no limitations at all
* God is the source of logic and has the power to suspend logic or replace it whenever he wants. To deny this would reduce him to Zeus figure who was at the mercy of the Fates.
* Laws of mathematicsonly exist the way they do because God created them that way.
* God is also capable of doing evil (because of his omnipotence) and incapable (because of his loving nature) at the same time, even though this involves a logical contradiction. We cannot see how such a God exists because we are limited by logic and the smallness of human understanding.

Question 8

‘Divine power is not limited’. Discuss.
Paragraph - God’s power has some limitations.

Answer 8

• If God can do anything then he can do things that go against his loving nature e.g. cruelty
• Problem of Evil - See Hume.
• Problem of Miracles: If God is all powerful, why doesn’t he perform miracles on everyone? (Maurice Wiles)
• Whitehead and Hartshorne: a totally omnipotent God is not as impressive as a God who could meet resistance.