C1.1 nature of God

• eternal - existing outside time
• everlasting - existing through all time
• incorporeal - immaterial
• immutable - unchanging
• transcendent - separate from the world
• immanent - involved in the world
• gnosticism - argued for 2 gods: the supreme God (source of spiritual world) and a lesser deity (created world of material things, visible realm)
• passible - capable of feeling suffering
• Passion of Christ - the story of Jesus' arrest, trial and crucifixion
• "To do what is logically impossible is not an act of power at all, but an irrational, self-contradictory scenario" (Aquinas)

  • quote about omnipotence, logically impossible
• God is "the individual substance of a rational nature" (Boethius)

  • God and rationality
• "Were God incapable of suffering [...] He would also be incapable of love" (Moltmann)
• "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1)

  • God created the world, Bible quote
• "God is the almighty maker of heaven and earth, all that is seen and unseen" (Nicene Creed)

  • God created everything
• God is the "unlimited ocean of being" (Boethius)

  • God is infinite, beyond our imagination
• Ockham: God has two powers:

  - potentia absoluta: at start, let him create universe

  - potentia ordinata: God creates order which limits own pwr
• Buber on God as personal

  • God is personal and can have personal I-You relationship w him
  • can't reduce God to concept - the "You that can never be an It"
  • relationship w God can change but he can't change (perfect)
• Buber:

  - I-It relationship = impersonal, know facts about someone

  - I-You relationship = personal, direct, have relationship w someone
• criticism of Buber's view of God and a response

  if God's personal, has emotion (e.g. compassion, love) so must be able to change

  >> Anselm: we experience God as compassionate but doesn't mean he is
• Aquinas: God = impassible - can't suffer or love as can't be vulnerable or change
• 3 criticisms of Aquinas' view of God as impassible

  • non-suffering God seems alien
  • God hears ppl crying + worries abt them (Exodus)
  • Moltmann: "were God incapable of suffering [...] he would also be incapable of love"
• Bible verse for God as passible:

  The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt [...] I am concerned about their suffering. (Exodus)
• Descartes view on God's omnipotence

  can do logically impossible, God not limited by our understanding
• criticism of Descartes' arg that God can do the logically impossible

  Paradox of the stone - if can/can't create, not omnip
• Aquinas' view on God's omnipotence

  can do the logically possible
• give a response to this criticism

  can God sin? - yes = not omniben; no = not omnip

  Aquinas: sin = failure --> not sinning = omnipotence
• Augustine on God as personal + creator

  created everything and has loving relationship w ppl who accept him; only way to bring meaning to our lives
• Augustine quote about God as creator: "nothing that exists could exist without [God]"
• Augustine quote about God as personal: "God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us"