The Personal God of Classical Theism

Book chapter

Stump, Eleonore. (2019). The Personal God of Classical Theism. In In Hazony, Yoram and Johnson, Dru (Ed.). The Question of God's Perfection pp. 65-81 Brill - Rodopi. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004387980_006
AuthorsStump, Eleonore
EditorsHazony, Yoram and Johnson, Dru
Abstract

It is common among contemporary theologians and philosophers to suppose that the God of the Bible is radically different from the God of the philosophers. The God of the philosophers is generally understood to be the God of classical theism, whose standard divine attributes are those paradigmatically given by the great medieval philosophers of the three monotheisms, Averroes, Maimonides, and Aquinas: simplicity, eternity, immutability. By contrast, the God portrayed in the Bible generally is very human. When Genesis says that human beings are made in the image of God, the stories of God in the Bible bear out the claim. By contrast with these biblical representations of God, to many people the God of classical theism seems unresponsive, unengaged, and entirely inhuman. In this paper, I argue against the supposed inconsistency and try to show that the God of classical theism is the engaged, personally present, responsive God of the Bible.

KeywordsPhilosophy; Theology; Philosophy; Religion; Christianity; Biblical Theology
Page range65-81
Year01 Jan 2019
Book titleThe Question of God's Perfection
PublisherBrill - Rodopi
Place of publicationNetherlands
Edition8
Series Philosophy of Religion - World Religions
ISBN978-90-04-38795-9
ISSN2210-481X
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004387980_006
Web address (URL)https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004387980/BP000007.xml
Open accessPublished as non-open access
Research or scholarlyScholarly
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All rights reserved
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Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Print20 Nov 2018
Publication process dates
Deposited17 Jan 2024
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Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.

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