Book028

Note. See also Prayer about the Being and Will of God

The being of God

A transcendent and impassible God or a loving and caring God

This document is about the two main interpretations of the "character" of God, that he is a Being apart from the world, or that he is a Being involved with and getting along with creation; the first interpretation is called theism, and the second one is the interpretation of modern theology.

The concept of God doesn't have to be uniform

It is not necessary that everybody have the same concept about God. As long as that concept does not contradict the nature of God as it would be to say, for instance, that God is a physical being, we may have different opinions regarding the sets of qualities and attributes that we see in him, or we may emphasize one over the other.

Why? Because nobody can say, for certain, what or how God is. God is a being who transcends our intelligence, and so we can not have a complete, adequate concept about God. That is why we may diverge on the concept of God, since no concept is the real God but just our interpretation of him.

There are two basic interpretations about God in Christianity, that of the classical theology with a monarchical and absolute model of God, and that of a more recent theology called process theology, with a power sharing model of God.

Characteristics of the classical interpretation

Classical theology is mainly that of the writings of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), based on the Bible and Aristotle's philosophy, which was accepted by traditional Christianity since the Middle Ages. According to this interpretation, God is a powerful monarch called the Omnipotent.

God is also omniscient, since he knows and foreknew everything from eternity. With his power and knowledge, God has a predetermined will over every being or event of the universe, and has decided in advance all the responses to possible events.

According to this interpretation God receives nothing from the world; we, or the world, can not do or add anything to him. He is the same forever, not affected by the passing of time; everything happens simultaneously to him. He implemented all the changes of the universe in advance without any change for himself. God may affect the world but the world can not affect God, and so he is not grieved by our choices and sins, or by the suffering of humankind.