The Nature of God

Classical theism holds that God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, and eternal. But what do these attributes actually mean? Are they internally consistent? Do they cohere with one another? This lesson examines the major divine attributes, the philosophical puzzles and paradoxes they generate, and the alternative conceptions of God offered by process theology and other traditions. Understanding the nature of God is essential for evaluating every other topic in the philosophy of religion — the problem of evil, religious experience, miracles, and the arguments for God's existence all depend on what kind of God is under discussion.

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Omnipotence

Definition

Omnipotence means that God is all-powerful — God can do anything. But what does "anything" mean? Philosophers have debated whether omnipotence extends to logically impossible actions.

Key Definition: Omnipotence — The attribute of being all-powerful. Classical theists debate whether omnipotence means God can do anything whatsoever (including logical impossibilities) or anything that is logically possible.

The Paradox of the Stone

The most famous puzzle about omnipotence is the paradox of the stone: Can God create a stone so heavy that even God cannot lift it?

If God can create such a stone	Then there is something God cannot do (lift the stone) — so God is not omnipotent
If God cannot create such a stone	Then there is something God cannot do (create the stone) — so God is not omnipotent

Either way, it seems, God is not omnipotent.

Responses:

• Aquinas argued that omnipotence means God can do anything that is logically possible. Creating a stone that an omnipotent being cannot lift is a logical contradiction — like creating a square circle — and logical contradictions are not genuine possibilities. God's inability to do the logically impossible does not limit God's power; it merely reflects the fact that logical impossibilities are nothing at all.
• Descartes took the more radical position that God can do even the logically impossible — God could create a square circle or make 2+2=5. God's power is absolutely unlimited.
• Swinburne distinguishes between omnipotence as the power to do anything logically possible and omnipotence as the power to bring about any logically possible state of affairs. The latter avoids the paradox while preserving a robust sense of divine power.

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Omniscience

Definition

Omniscience means that God knows everything — every truth, every fact, past, present, and future.

Key Definition: Omniscience — The attribute of knowing all truths. The major philosophical problem concerns whether divine foreknowledge of future free actions is compatible with genuine human freedom.

Divine Foreknowledge and Free Will

The most pressing philosophical problem concerning omniscience is its relationship to human freedom. If God knows in advance what I will do tomorrow, can I really be free not to do it?

The argument against compatibility:

1. God knows at time T1 that I will perform action A at time T2
2. God's knowledge is infallible — God cannot be wrong
3. Therefore, at T2, I must perform action A — I cannot do otherwise
4. If I cannot do otherwise, I am not free
5. Therefore, divine foreknowledge and human freedom are incompatible

Responses:

Response	Philosopher	Explanation
Timeless knowledge	Boethius	God does not foreknow the future — God is outside time and sees all events (past, present, and future) simultaneously, as an eternal observer. God's knowledge does not cause or constrain our actions any more than our observation of a present event causes it.
Middle knowledge (Molinism)	Luis de Molina (1535–1600)	God knows not only what will happen but what would happen in every possible circumstance (counterfactuals of freedom). This allows God to know what free beings will choose without determining their choices.
Open theism	Clark Pinnock (1937–2010), William Hasker (b. 1935)	The future is genuinely open — even God cannot know with certainty what free beings will freely choose, because there is no fact of the matter until the choice is made. God is omniscient (knows all truths) but future free actions are not yet truths.

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Omnibenevolence

Definition

Omnibenevolence means that God is perfectly good — all-loving, all-just, all-merciful.

The Problem of Evil

The most significant challenge to omnibenevolence is the problem of evil (examined in detail in Lesson 5). If God is all-loving, why does God permit suffering? The various theodicies — Augustinian, Irenaean, process, free will defence — are all attempts to reconcile God's perfect goodness with the reality of evil and suffering.

Justice and Mercy

A further philosophical tension exists between God's justice and God's mercy. Justice demands that wrongdoers receive their due punishment; mercy requires that punishment be remitted or mitigated. Can God be perfectly just and perfectly merciful simultaneously?

• Anselm argued that God's mercy flows from God's justice — it is just for a supremely good being to be merciful, because mercy is a form of goodness.
• Aquinas distinguished between God's absolute justice (which gives creatures what they are owed) and God's mercy (which gives creatures more than they are owed — grace). God never gives less than justice demands but freely gives more.

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Eternity

One of the most important debates about God's nature concerns the meaning of God's eternity. There are two fundamentally different conceptions:

Timelessness (Boethius)

Boethius (c. 480–524), in The Consolation of Philosophy, defined God's eternity as timelessness — God exists outside time altogether. God does not experience temporal succession (past, present, future) but apprehends all of time in a single eternal present — "the complete possession all at once of illimitable life" (interminabilis vitae tota simul et perfecta possessio).

Everlastingness (Swinburne)