Philosophy of Religion

The Goodness of God

Plato argued for the Form of Good at the top of his hierarchy
For Plato God was a sterile ideal
Within the Judeo-Christian tradition God is more than a concept – He is personal
According to this tradition, God is good in whom there is no evil
Humanity has a responsibility to live up to this goodness
Central to the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) is the concept of God making a covenant:

I will be your God and you will be my people

Ten Commandments = Decalogue (i.e. the Ten Words)
Given on Mount Sinai in a Theophany
Found in Exodus 20 and Deut 5
The Law is a sign of God’s covenant – an agreement
The Ten Commandments gives directions for both religious and social responsibilities
God’s people don’t have to guess what God’s will is – it is written down for them
God is a benevolent dictator – treating his people as children
God is also described as ‘a jealous God’

Abraham is given as the model for faith
Although he was old and childless, God promised Abraham that he would be the Father of a great nation (the Israelites)
Through faith Abraham left his own country with the promise that God would give him a new country
Through faith Abraham was willing to sacrifice his own son Isaac
Job is another example of faith
Job continued to praise God and be faithful to him even when he had lost everything
The goodness of God demands that people respond with faith

God is angered whenever he sees injustice
The prophets of the OT often had to remind the people whenever they neglected the poor, widows or orphans
The Judeo-Christian God is not Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover – he is angered whenever people fail to recognise his goodness

Lookup the following passages in the Bible. Briefly write down the human qualities and emotions that God displays in them:

It is sometimes difficult to reconcile the differences between the God of the Philosophers and the God of Faith
Some argue that a personal God is subject to change, perfection has to be immutable – the two are mutually exclusive
The deists of the 17th, 18th and 19th century, rejecting Christianity, tried to offer a more rational view of God e.g. Rene Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Gottfried Leibniz, Thomas Hobbs, David Hume, Thomas Paine, Thomas Franklin …et al
The French Philosopher Blaise Pascal found it impossible to reconcile the two
In contrast to many of his philosophical contemporaries Pascal believed in the…

For Christianity the goodness of God and his interaction with the world can be seen the person of Jesus Christ
Central to Christianity’s teaching is the incarnation
The incarnation poses its own particular problems – i.e. how could the transcendent eternal God become present in space and time?
According to Christianity God’s goodness can be seen in Jesus’ words and actions – i.e. his teaching and miracles
Unlike Plato’s ultimate Form of the Good which is above this corruptible world, Christians believe that the word has indeed become flesh and lived among us (John 1:14)
At the heart of Christianity lies a paradox
The best way of understanding it is as mystery