Gods attributes pt 2

BOETHIUS, ANSELM & SWINBURNE 

A01

BOETHIUS:

Timeless god, outside of and unaffected by time- live in his own eternity outside f time as we, as humans, know it. God lives in the eternal present. But through this he limits God to our present, as his god cannot interact with the past of the future. Can only see events as/whilst they are occurring. - unlike Aristotles beginning-less and everlasting God, bc that would imply God is linear and ages, and a perfect God cannot age. 

way around this for B is Gods Divine Foreknowledge- that he can know what will happen without causing it to happen. 

Simple necessity: some things are just necessary. Like human mortality. Nothing you can say or want can change this. It just is and has to be. 

Conditional necessity: something cannot be and not be at the same time. Eg I cannot walk and not walk at once, I am either doing one or the other. In the same way God knows what is happening as and when it is happening. 

Through this he reconciles his God with the omniscience he looses by being limited to the eternal present. As he can know everything that is and has been up until that point at all times- always having complete omniscience. 

Not as strong as Anselms completely omniscient God, but presents a stringer foundation for human free will. As humans are not predestined in any way. Our choices are a product of our free will, they are conditional, and God cannot know what I choose until I make my choice. 

Allows important connection and interaction for humans with God. Arguable without this religion for man would be meaningless.- prayers could never be answered.

Whilst he is limited to acting and interacting only in the present, humans always have full unlimited access to god/the godhead, and he is fully able to interact. Means unlike Anselms mostly unknowable god b’s is present always and can be engaged wit- closer to the biblical, knowable god. 

Omnibenevolence- prioritised, as humans have full, constant, unlimited acess to the Godhead- but only in the present. 

Omniscience- limited to up until the preset. (Our present)

Omnipotence- limited as is within the eternal present, cannot interfere with past or present. 

ANSELM:

Builds on B’s ideas- which had alr informed his ont a- which he also builds on further with his perfect God. 

‘Is that which nothing greater can be imagined’, his perfect God has to be unlimited- which makes his God seem to prioritise omnipotence over the omnibenevolence Q we see in B’s god. 

Gos id outside of time & eternal, cannot be bound by effected by it in any way. 

Ties free will to rectitide, doing the right thing, and thinks that if we do the right thing without having chosen to do it then we are not morally praiseworthy. 

Evil exists in the world- this is fact. 

God cannot choose or act with evil as that would be against his nature, so man…