« Ch.X. Q. 62. Technical Terms | Main | Ch.X. Q.64. Three Divine Persons »
August 08, 2005
Ch.X. Q.63. Personal Subsistence of God
INASMUCH as God possesses a rational nature, and is both self-conscious and self-determining, He is rightly described as a personal Being. It does not follow, however, that we must attribute to Him the limitations of our human and really imperfect personality, or the precise methods of personal activity which we discern in ourselves. God is infinite. His personality is perfect and transcends ours.1
2. We infer that God is personal because (a) He is the ultimate Cause of all other things, and the idea of a true cause involves its possession of intelligence and will2; (b) the teleological nature of the universe shows that its Author must be capable of intelligent purpose;3 (c) in particular, an impersonal being could not be the Author of a universe containing persons, such as we are con¬scious of being; (d) our instinctive sense of responsibility to a Supreme Being, and our religious aspirations, are otherwise meaningless; (e) an impersonal God would be inferior to every personal being. The personality and supremacy of God stand or fall together; (f) the theory of an impersonal God involves all the moral difficulties of pantheism.4
3. The Pantheist objects, however, that an infinite being cannot be personal, for such a being cannot be self-conscious except by distinguishing ego from non-ego—i.e., self-consciousness is conditioned by an objective sphere of exercise. In reply, it is to be said that (a) we cannot argue precisely from what is necessary for finite self-consciousness, to what is necessary for infinite self-consciousness; (b) if Divine self-consciousness is thus conditioned, the condition is satisfied within the Godhead, by virtue of the personal distinctions existing eternally within the Divine essence.5
1 Strong, Syst. Theol., pp. 56, 57, 121, 122, 160; Mulford, Repub of God, pp. 23-26; Liddon, Some Elements, p. 35; Illingworth, Personality, Lec III. and App. xii.; Lacey, Elem. of Doctrine, pp. 78-80.
2 Cf. Q. xxvi. 2.
3 Cf. Q. xxvii.
4 Cf. Q. xxxvi. 3. See Christlieb, Modern Doubt, pp. 161-190.
5 Mulford; Strong, pp. 56, 57; Weidner, Theologia, pp. 24-25; Iverach, Theism, pp. 208-209; Fisher, Grounds of Belief, p. 61; Bruce, Apologetics, pp. 80-84.
Posted by Debra Bullock at August 8, 2005 06:21 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://disseminary.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/535