Gods Omnibenevolence

Question 1

Omnibenevolence:

Answer 1

The quality of being well meaning; kindness.

Question 2

Beneficence:

Answer 2

Doing good and performing good actions.

Question 3

Aristotle:

Answer 3

A just person could only be just if he performed just acts, simply having a nice feeling is not enough.

Question 4

Brian Davies:

Answer 4

Gods goodness must not be a case of simply being well-behaved as a good child might be.

Question 5

The Bibles perspective of God:

Answer 5

Sees God as righteous as he his true to his own nature and never breaks his promise with his people.

Question 6

Critique on the Bibles perspective of God:

Answer 6

God could be breaking our promises with out us knowing. After all, he is all-powerful and therefore is capable of the impossible.

Question 7

Brian Davies takes issue with Richard Swinburne that:

Answer 7

God is consisted that he always does the morally best action… and no morally bad action.

Question 8

Aquinas:

Answer 8

-Our justice differs from gods justice. Gods justice relies on doing the right thing as a good God who wills a good universe.

Question 9

Anselm Key Quote- Justifying Gods actions:

Answer 9

“When you punish the wicked, it is what they deserve; and when you spare the wicked, it is also just; since it shows your goodness.”

Question 10

Brian Davies response on Aquinas:

Answer 10

Aquinas’s argument does not conceive of God as a moral person. As the Bible does.

Question 11

M.B. Wilkinson:

Answer 11

• Gods goodness should be understood as part of his creative action.
• He is not a ‘person among persons’, as a moral agent would be.
• Living a moral life should not be seen as following moral rules laid down by God.

Question 12

William Frankena:

Answer 12

Frankena and others have pointed out that the moral principle of justice means making the same relative contribution to the good of the people’s lives.

Question 13

William Frankena university reference:

Answer 13

It would not be justice to send everyone, without exception, to university. Many would be unhappy there and many would be unable to cope.

Question 14

John Calvin:

Answer 14

• Calvin and his followers developed the idea of predestination and the doctrine seems to decline the idea of freewill, since salvation is not. God shows his mercy through the election of certain godly people. By granting his salvation to these, God reveals his goodness. Those who don’t receive salvation have nothing to blame God.
• The human kind has a corrupt nature.

Question 15

Criticisms against John Calvin:

Answer 15

Those who aren’t part of the ‘secret elect’ may question whether God is truly omnibenevolent, as he chooses a small number of of people to ‘save’ and doesn’t consider redemption from others.

Question 16

Calvin’s Response to his criticisms:

Answer 16

There is no injustice and no reason for the damned to complain as no one deserves to be saved.

Question 17

AO2: On Calvin:

Answer 17

Calvin’s vision of hell creates problems for the goodness of God.

Question 18

Aquinas perception of Hell:

Answer 18

Hell is not a place of fire and torture, it’s the separation from God which is the anguish.

Question 19

Roman Catholic Chruch:

Answer 19

For centuries insisted on the requirements of baptism for salvation, but accepted the notion of ‘Baptism of Desire’. Where those who had faith in God and lived their lives according to his values might be saved.

Question 20

Leonard Feeney:

Answer 20

• Was an ultra-traditionalist catholic who argued against the Roman Catholic Church view salvation.
• Feeney was excommunicated in 1953 for his insistence on a narrow interpretation of the doctrine, but still has followers.

Question 21

Pope Francis:

Answer 21

Argues that Gods mercy lies in an offer to everyone, as “we are all sinners, but we are forgiven: we all have the possibility of receiving his pardon, which is the mercy of God!”

Question 22

Vincent Brummer:

Answer 22

• A member of the Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church.
• Argued that we can make sense of justice an mercy only if we think of God as personal. Argues that the one who forgives must be prepared to absorb the pain out of the love for the sinner. The sinner must also accept the wrong doing.

Question 23

Religious Issues with Gods omnibenevolence:

Answer 23

The sacrifice of Isaac.

Question 24

Negative interpretation if the sacrifice of Isaac:

Answer 24

God had contradicted with his own nature by commanding Abraham to kill his own son as ‘thou shalt not kill.’

Question 25

Positive interpretation of the sacrifice of Isaac:

Answer 25

By God swapping Isaac for the sheep suggests Gods benevolence and beneficence. And God ended the child sacrifice tradition.

Question 26

AO2: Critiques on omnibenevolence:

Answer 26

• The problem of evil still exists, so how could God be all-loving.
• How do we know if God actually loves us? After all, we don’t know if God even exists.
• If God is all-loving, then why doesn’t he protect people from being affected the the supernatural. Surely, God would want to protect his creation from the demonic figures. If God cannot save one from a demonic figure then this could either suggest two things, God is not all-powerful, or God isn’t all-loving.