omnipotence

omnipotence

• God created the universe and all that it contains 

• Because of worlds contingency, must have been created by eternal, supreme being. 

• Immensity of the universe is such that it could only have been brought into existence by someone with almighty power, and therefore God is also described as omnipotent (all powerful) 

• ‘But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’ [Matthew 19:26] 

• ‘Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure’ [Psalm 147:5] 

mackie

• In ‘Evil and Omnipotence (1955)’ argues that an all-powerful, all-good God is logically incompatible with the existence of evil. If God were truly omnipotent, he could actualise a world without evil. The fact that evil exists, according to Mackie disproves God’s omnipotence 

• Paradox of the stone :’can an omnipotent being create a stone so heavy that He cannot lift it?’ -> omnipotence is self-contradictory 

ockham

• There are two powers of God 

• Once there was a time when God could do anything (absolute power). However, God chose to establish an order of things and this order remains until the end of time (ordering power) 

• Once God chose to order the world, his power was restricted to acting within the order he has made 

• Therefore, God has complete omnipotence but chooses not to use his full omnipotence to keep the world in the natural order that he has created 

• God has chosen ‘divine self-limitation'. He has limited himself as he committed to a course of action and rules of nature 

augustine

• Defines omnipotence as god’s ability to do all things that are logically possible and consistent with His nature 

• God cannot lie, sin, or act unjustly (not bc of a limitatilon on his power but bc these actions contradict his perf nature) 

• God’s omnipotence is not about arbitrary power but about the perfect execution of His divine will 

• For augustine, true power is always in harmony with God’s wisdom and goodness, so acts like deception, wickedness or irrational contradictions are not true expressions of power 

• Neoplatonic background (influenced by Plotinus) shaped his belief that God is a purely perfect being, w/o change (immutable) deficiency or contradiction 

• Therefore, cannot do logically impossible/ sin 

• Power doesn’t incll power to change his own nature 

CRITICISM of augustine

• Suggests omnipotence should incl capacity to bring abt any state of affairs that is not logically impossible, incl those that involve free will. 

• A’s view of God’s omnipotence is too narrow 

• Should allow for God’s ability to influence free will without completely overriding it.  

• God’s omnipotence should be compatible with a dynamic interaction between divine will and human freedom 

• COUNTER: hick’s epistemic distance 

process theodicy

• The process god is everlasting rather than transcendent or eternal 

• God doesn’t have a beginning or an end, but he exists within time: has a past/ future and CHANGE 

• God is not (yet) completely perfecr: he is journeying towards perfection, evolving into a perfect being, but hasn’t attained perfection yet 

• Idea of a changeable god solves probs in theology because a changeable god could react to prayers etc