The Theistic Conception of the World: An Essay in Opposition to Certain Tendencies of Modern Thought — John Shaqi
The Theistic Conception of the World: An Essay in Opposition to Certain Tendencies of Modern ThoughtCocker, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)
Religion
The Theistic Conception of the World: An Essay in Opposition to Certain Tendencies of Modern Thought
Cocker, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)
Theism
{WISDOM } Moral Attributes
{as PERFECT PERSONALITY {GOODNESS } (Relational).
{HOLINESS }
{BLESSEDNESS }
The references to the Sacred Scriptures already given will show the
harmony between the conceptions of reason and the verbal revelations of
God. Reason and Scripture unite in proclaiming that God is "the great
and holy _One_ that inhabiteth eternity," who "only hath immortality,"
"with whom is no variableness," and who "filleth all in all;" to whom
"all his works are known from eternity," in whose book "all our members
were written when as yet there was none of them," and whose "purposes,"
ideas, and plans are "eternal." These are mainly the immanent attributes
of God, conceptions which flow from the very idea of the Absolute and
Infinite Being. They are evolved from Real Being by the negation of all
limit, all parts, all change; the canceling of time and space and
matter, the recognition of God as pure Reason, pure Spirit, pure Love.
The Scriptures, however, deal more immediately with the causal,
transitive, and relational aspects of the Divine attributes--that is,
with the conception of God in his voluntary relations to finite being
and finite personality. They speak of God in his historically known
existence, as a Being who _voluntarily_ conditions his Omnipotence and
Sovereignty under concessions of self-reality, self-life, and freedom to
finite beings, without Himself being conditioned by any thing--a
_self-limitation_ which in nowise detracts from the absoluteness and
infinity of God--an _unconditioned conditionating Will_.[46]
The relation which God sustains to his works is not a _necessary_
relation--it is a _voluntary_ and self-imposed relation. Free Love is
the highest determining principle for the efficiency of Divine
Omnipotence. Power thus directed and conditioned by wisdom and love does
not, can not detract from the perfection of God. The substitution of
_choice_ for necessity is, in fact, no real limitation; on the contrary,
it ascribes to God the most _absolute perfection_.
The causal attributes of God, or those conceptions of God which are
especially grounded upon his relation to the world and humanity, are
properly divided into those which are Cosmical and those which are
Ethical. The first, of course, embrace his relation to the world, the
second his relation to personal, responsible beings. The content of the
cosmological conception is Omnipotence, Ubiquity, Omniscience. The
content of the ethical conception is Wisdom, Goodness, Holiness, and
Blessedness. God as the Creator and Sustainer of the world, God as the
Father, Teacher, and Ruler of humanity, are the two grand manifestations
of the one infinite and perfect Being, and "_Elohim_" and "_Jehovah_"
are his expressive and distinctive names, the first denoting the
cosmical activity of God, the latter his government and kingdom among
men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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