Classical theism (philosophy of religion)
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Classical theism is a Christian theology that synthesizes Christian thought and Greek philosophy. Classical theism holds that God is omnipotent, omniscient, immutable, impassible, simple, eternal, and is deterministic, in the sense that humanity either lacks libertarian free will or has compatible freedom. These doctrines are closely related, though not universally upheld by Christian thinkers throughout the tradition.
Classical theism was developed during the third century by Augustine (heavily influenced by Plotinus) who drew on Platonic idealism to interpret Christianity. It was extended by Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century after the rediscovery of the works of Aristotle.
The doctrine of immutability means that God is changeless. This belief holds that any change in a being will result in a change either for the better or for the worse. Since God is the most perfect being, any change in him could only be for the worse, hence God cannot change.
Impassibility has two sides to it. One has to do with humanity's effect on God. According to this view, God is not affected at all by humans. God is completely independent from creation and for creation to affect him would make creation causally superior to God. The other side of immutability is that God does not have emotions. Emotions attributed to God in the Scriptures are not to be taken literally but are anthropomorphisms to help us understand God. Of course immutability implies impassibility since a changless God cannot be affected by temporal beings who once did not exist with out causing a change in God.
According to this view, God's eternal nature is outside of time and his actions cannot be placed within temporal sequences. Although God's action in the Bible is historical, God actually acts from eternity and it is merely the effects of those actions that are found in time. An illustration of this principle is a doctor who writes directions for her patient to take his pills at one moment and to go through therepy at another. Though the doctor's orders are given simultaneously, the effects of these orders occur at different times. Likewise, the Bible may portray God as dividing the Red Sea at one moment and delivering the Ten Commandments at a later date, both actions according to timelessness originate from all eternity.
Simplicity arises from considerations regarding the necessity of God's existence and his permanence. Simplicity is the view that God does not have parts since an entity that consists of parts may cease to exist. This affects the doctrine of eternity. If God was in time then he would have temporal parts, hence simplicity implies timelessness.
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[edit] References
- Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought, Simon and Schuster, 1972, ISBN 0-671-21426-8, online edition
- Jonathan Hill, The History of Christian Thought, Lion Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-7459-5093-0
