Perfect Being Theology

Question 1

Define Perfect Being Theology.

Answer 1

God is perfect being (not A perfect being)
Not reliant on or participating in anything to be Perfect
Eternally perfect
Actus Purus

Question 2

What are the implications of PBT

Answer 2

Immutability
Immovability
Incomparable

Question 3

Define Aseity

Answer 3

God is self sufficient, of himself, independent, absolute
God is maximally happy, free, dynamic
All life, goodness etc in himself as trinity

Question 4

Biblical Names for Aseity

Answer 4

“I AM”

• Self referential so comparison impossible
• The one who is
• Who has life of himself (John 4)

Question 5

Implications of Aseity

Answer 5

God is Free
God is Unimprovable
God is perfectly happy

Question 6

What are the alternatives to Aseity.

Answer 6

Pantheism - God is everything (No creation, Mutable)
Panenthiesm - Everything is in God (Mutable, Moltmann, Dépendent not a se)
Deism - God is a se but distant - creation is an accident

Question 7

What are the theological implications for the Creator-creature distinction?

Answer 7

God is the Uncreated Creator
Creation is a relation of God’s WILL
Sin is the relation falsely stated
Redemption is the restoration of distinction

Question 8

What does it mean that God is the uncreated creator?

Answer 8

Necessary but not dependent
Simple (nothing anterior to himself)
A se 
Perfect (no other good)
Infinite (without limitation, unmeasurable)

[Simple infinite necessarily perfect a se]

Question 9

What does it mean for creation to be a relation of God’s will?

Answer 9

Not Necessary
Complex, imperfect and finite
Dependent
Dignified (for we are not needed but chosen)

Question 10

How is sin a false statement of the Creator-creature distinction

Answer 10

The in-turning of sin denies dependence

The stealing of the creator’s position

Question 11

What is Divine Simplicity?

Answer 11

God is not made up of parts

All that is in God is God

Question 12

Why is Divine Simplicity important?

Answer 12

If God is complex then he is internally divided and mutable

The divine essence is foundational

God’s “attributes” are merely a way to consider God, under a particularly creaturely aspect

Question 13

Argue Biblically for Simplicity

Answer 13

The uniqueness of YHWH 
    - Deut 6:4
    - Nothing outside him to compare him to
Aseity 
    - Free from Coercion (Ex 3, Ro 9)
Infinity 
    - Psalm 145:3; 139:14-18
Creation Ex Nihilo
    - Gen 1

Question 14

State Plantinga’s concerns with simplicity

Answer 14

“incoherent” as…
If God = Sattributes he is abstract
If Love = Wrath it is absurd

Question 15

What are the problems with Plantinger’s method (of arguing against Simplicity)

Answer 15

Univocity

Attributes must exist outside of God.

Question 16

Explain the question “If God chooses to create, does He have the potential for both creation and non-creation?”

Answer 16

Did he become creator? - if so it is added to God

Other (uncreated) potential worlds - is God fully actualised?

Question 17

Answer “If God chooses to create, does He have the potential for both creation and non-creation?”

Answer 17

Status as creator does not rely on creation. Creation is goodness manifest

Divine freedom is not like our freedom. Not choosing between a range of choices

Question 18

How does Trinity work with Simplicity?

Answer 18

Co-relativity - If always ‘father’ then always ‘son’

Unlosability - attributes essential (Ewok) Same with relations

Identity of persons is primary (dependent) - The divine essence is manifested relationally

Subsistant relations Fully in act.

Question 19

Summarise Process theism

Answer 19

No Exhaustive Foreknowledge
God is in the world and ‘becomes’ as the world changes
Changed by human interaction

Question 20

Problems with Process theism

Answer 20

Lots! e.g. God cannot solve Evil.

Question 21

Summerise Open thiesm

Answer 21

No Exhaustive Foreknowledge
Love over other attributes
Relationality over immutability
God limiter himself to be changed. So ontologically unchanging?

Question 22

Problems with Open Theism

Answer 22

Lots. e.g. Can God keep his promises

Question 23

Summerise Theistic Mutualism

Answer 23

God accommodates his being to us
Sovereign over world
but adds temporal mutable aspect in dealing with it
Symbiotic (unequal) relationship

Question 24

Outline a response to Theistic mutualists

Answer 24

How is God not dependent on creation?
Which God is God - the accommodated or the non-accomodated?
Will is prioritised over being.

Question 25

What are the opera ad intra?

Answer 25

The triune processions fully in act

Order in origin and action.

Question 26

State and expand the 5 stage summary of Aquinas’ Trinitarian relations

Answer 26

1 God (Essence)
2 Processions (Generation and Spiration)
3 Persons (Father, Son and Spirit)
4 Relations (Paternity, filiation, spiration and procession)
5 Notions (Unbegotten, paternity, filiation, spiration, procession)

Question 27

What is the difference between Spiration and Procession

Answer 27

Spiriation is from the Father

Precession is from the Father and the Son

Question 28

What are the Opera ad extra:

Answer 28

Free temporal missions of the 3 persons inseparably
(though one person can have a primacy)

Reveal eternal processions truely but not exhaustively

Question 29

In which other ways do people account for God’s unity?

What would Hilary’s response be?

Answer 29

Perichoresis - the divine persons share the same space

Hils = Begets a son ‘of’ himself - same simple perfect nature.