god as...

• approaches to God as creator:

  • creation 'ex Deo' 'out of God's own being': this idea is rejected by most as it suggests God + his creation are the same thing; instead most believe God is transcendent
  • creation 'ex nihilo' 'from nothing': suggested in Genesis 1
  • process theology: earth was already in existence + God worked at ordering it from a state of chaos
• God as controller of all things:

  • God sustains the universe: God "... set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be shaken"
  • ethical monotheism + 10 commandments: shows how God sustains human life in the spiritual as well as physical sense
• differing approaches to God's omniscience:

  • theological determinism: God knows all past, present + future
  • God exists beyond space + time (Aquinas held this view)
  • God exists within time + knows all that is logically possible for God to know - can predict but not cause human choices (Swinburne held this view)
• God as transcendent + unknowable:

  • "i am who i am" = God's response when Moses asked to know God's name: means no human can possibly know God's name or understand what it means to be God
• God as personal:

  • makes him more relatable + comprehensive to humans
• evidence of God as personal:

  • "the Lord was grieved that he had made man on earth and his heart was filled with pain" - God grieving
  • "the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened" - God changed his mind
• God as Father:

  • metaphor for strengths, power, authority, wisdom + love
  • in line with patriarchal society at the time: adult males held political, economic, domestic + moral power
  • God as Father in the Apostles Creed: creator of the universe + father of Jesus, "i believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only son"
• God as love:

  • suffering + death of Jesus support God as love: "for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son... that the world might be saved through him"
  • agape: humans are made in God's image so God's love must be reflected in the human capacity for agape
  • the problem of evil challenges claims of God's omnibenevolence
• God as King:

  • Messiah: king or anointed one
  • "the Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice"
  • "mighty king, love of justice"