The classical attributes

Classical theism ascribes to God several perfections:

• Omnipotence — all-powerful.
• Omniscience — all-knowing.
• Omnibenevolence — all-good.
• Eternity — God is not limited by time (either timeless or everlasting).

The tension: these attributes can seem to clash — with each other (can God know the future and leave us free?) and with the world (evil vs benevolence).

Omnipotence and its puzzles

Does omnipotence mean God can do literally anything, even the logically impossible?

• Aquinas: omnipotence means God can do whatever is logically possible. A 'square circle' or a 'married bachelor' is not a thing God fails to do — it is nonsense, not a task.
• The paradox of the stone: can God make a stone too heavy for God to lift? Either way God seems limited. Aquinas' reply: this is a self-contradiction, not a genuine power.
• Others (e.g. Descartes) hold God could even do the logically impossible — but most theists follow Aquinas.

Aquinas on power

Omniscience and human freedom

If God foreknows everything I will do, am I still free? If God knew yesterday that I would choose X, it seems I cannot do otherwise.

• One response limits omniscience to all that is logically knowable — perhaps the free future is not yet a fact to be known.
• The classic response uses God's eternity: if God is timeless, God does not foreknow at all — God simply sees all moments at once (see the next screens).

The dilemma

Timeless or everlasting?

Tap a claim, then the view of God eternity it fits.

God as timeless (Boethius)

Boethius (in The Consolation of Philosophy) argues God is timeless — outside time altogether, possessing 'the whole, simultaneous and perfect possession of unending life'.

• God does not foresee the future as if waiting for it; God sees all times at once in an eternal present, as someone on a hill sees the whole road.
• Boethius distinguishes simple necessity (what must be) from conditional necessity (necessary given that it is happening). God's seeing my act brings only conditional necessity, so my freedom is preserved.

Anselm and Aquinas broadly agree God is timeless and immutable.

Boethius solution

God as everlasting (Swinburne)

Richard Swinburne rejects timelessness. He argues God is everlasting (sempiternal): God exists within time, without beginning or end.

• A timeless God, he argues, could not act, respond, answer prayer, or love in the way the Bible describes — all of which are temporal activities.
• An everlasting God can genuinely interact with a changing world.
• Cost: such a God may not know the free future with certainty, so omniscience is redefined as knowing all that is logically possible to know.

Evaluate: a timeless God fits perfection and immutability; an everlasting God fits a personal, responsive deity. Each preserves some attributes at the cost of others.

Match the attribute

Tap an attribute, then its meaning.

Swinburne view

The big ideas to take into the exam

How you model eternity reshapes every other attribute. Press Finish for your score.