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Summary points for Week 3: Chapters 7—11 & 3.3
Chapter 7: Plan of Approach
á Postulate 1 God exists.
á Postulate 2 God is One.
Chapter 8: The ‘I am’
á Postulate 3 God is Being Itself.
Chapter 9: God is Not Us
á Postulate 4 God loves us unselfishly.
Chapter 10: Images of God
á Postulate 5 All the world, and each of its parts, is a kind of image of God.
Chapter 11: God is Love
á Postulate 6 God is Love.
Where to begin Theism?
á ‘God is an eternal, omnipotent, omniscient being who created & sustains the world’.
o But these attributes do not have specific consequences for minds & spirit!
á We want the ‘God of the Living’, not just ‘God of the Philosophers’.
á Better: ‘Living theism’:
o God is that Person who is a necessary being, who is unselfish Love itself, Wisdom itself, and (in fact) Life itself.
o God enlivens our world. (That is, not ‘deism’)
Essential Theistic Principles
á God is love which is unselfish and cannot love (only) itself.
á God is wisdom as well as love and thereby also power and action.
á God is life itself: the source of all dispositions to will, think and act.
á Everything in the world is a kind of image of God: all minds and also natural objects of all kinds.
á Our life from God derives from divine power, depending on us.
Religious Support for Postulates
á Love: “God is Love” 1 John 4:8
á Wisdom: “the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” Proverbs 2:6
á Life: “the Father has life in himself” John 5:26
á Image of God: “God created man in his own image” Genesis 1:27
á Our life is from God: “The free gift of God is eternal life” Romans 6:23
Consequence 1: We either are God, or depend on God for existence
á God is Being itself (Postulate 3)
á We (as individuals) have being (as, we exist).
¯ Therefore, our being either is, or depends on (derives from), God (Being itself).
Which?
Consequence 2: God is Not Us
1. God is love which is unselfish
2. Unselfish loves cannot love itself.
Therefore, we must be distinct from God.
¯ That is: We are separate from God in some way: God is not us.
á So: not ‘pantheism’, when everything is a part of God
A Problem for God:
a) God is inner nature of all existence, and
b) God cannot love himself,
¯ What is he to do? Can there be a separate being to love?
(see next week)
Consequence 3: Every active thing is (some) image of God
á All the world, and each of its parts, is a kind of image of God
á We are images to greater or lesser extents, depending on our nature and actions.
(more details next week)
Consequence 4: Adjusting Religion (Section 3.3)
á God is a being composed entirely of Love, and, moreover, a completely unselfish love.
o Anger, jealousy, exclusiveness and selfishness are completely foreign.
á But God is often portrayed as angry or jealous!
o He permitted early religions to be more external and behavior-based.
o Why?
á Proposal: it is our variation which lead to God having varying appearances to us.
á Psychology (to be confirmed):
o When we are angry, then God appears angry with us.
o We can choose to become less an image of God.
á Matt. 5:45: “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”.
á Like the sun rising & setting to make day and night. Does the sun vary, or the earth?
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