THEOLOGICAL REVISIONISM: FROM GOD TO MAXIMAL GOD Cover Image

THEOLOGICAL REVISIONISM: FROM GOD TO MAXIMAL GOD
THEOLOGICAL REVISIONISM: FROM GOD TO MAXIMAL GOD

Author(s): Majid Amini
Subject(s): Metaphysics, Logic, Comparative Studies of Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Published by: Editura Pro Universitaria
Keywords: Divine Attributes; Divine Uniqueness; Duns Scotus; Anselmian Thesis; Maximal God; Omnipotence; Thomas Aquinas;

Summary/Abstract: The classical monotheistic concept of God has been bedevilled by a plethora of logical and metaphysical paradoxes. Recently there have been a number of attempts claiming that by reforming the traditional concept of God as an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent being to a concept of God as the being with maximal consistent set of knowledge, power and benevolence, the monotheistic concept of God can be rescued from contradictions and thereby reinstating a viable version of Anselmian theism. By focusing on omnipotence specifically, the purpose of this paper is therefore twofold: (1) to show the logical impossibility of maintaining an absolute or infinite conception of divine attributes, and (2) to show that even a maximal conception of divine attributes is plagued with the problem of uniqueness of God and a variant of the paradox of omnipotence thus indicating that such reformulations are still beset with dilemmas and paradoxes.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 49-55
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: English