Abrahamic conceptions of God
 |
16th century Christian view of Genesis: God creates Adam (Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel) |
Judaism, Christianity and Islam see
God as a being who created the world and who rules over the universe. God is usually held to have the properties of holiness (separate from sin and incorruptible), justice (fair, right, and true in all His judgments),
sovereignty (unthwartable in His will), omnipotence (all-powerful), omniscience (all-knowing), omni benevolence (all-loving), omnipresence (present everywhere at the same time), and immortality (eternal and everlasting). He is also believed to be transcendent, meaning that He is outside space and outside time, and therefore eternal and unable to be changed by earthly forces or anything else within His creation.
Jews, Christians and Muslims often conceive of God as a
personal God, with a will and personality. However, many
rationalist philosophers felt that one should not view God as personal, and that such personal descriptions of God are only meant as metaphors, as it was widely viewed that God's transcendence meant that He could not act in the lives of ordinary people.
In
Eastern Christianity, it remains essential that God be personal; hence it speaks of the three
persons of the
Trinity. It also emphasizes that God has a will, and that God the Son has two wills, divine and human, though these are never in conflict. However, this point is disputed by Oriental Orthodox Christians, who hold that God the Son has only one will of unified divinity and humanity (see
Miaphysitism). The personhood of God and of all human people is essential to the concept of
theosis or deification.
*
God*
Names of God*
Conceptions of God*
Existence of God
