Questions tagged [divine-simplicity]
The divine-simplicity tag has no usage guidance.
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How do real distinctions in God lead to act and potency composition?
Thomists believe that there is no real distinction between perfections of God as God is pure act. My understanding is that they reject real distinctions between perfections because that leads to act ...
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How does the concept of "Echad" in Deut 6:4 relate to Divine Simplicity?
Lately I've read some discussions that says the word "echad" ("one" in English) in the Shema refers to a unity more than an absolute singularity. (Here's one example of those ...
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Can God ground his own parts?
One of the motivations behind the doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS) is that if God was composed of parts, God would depend upon those parts to exist and hence there would be something more ...
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What is the Christian Doctrine that balances God's self-sufficiency and perfection with His wants or desires?
I am a Christian wrestling with some doubts lately, and this is one of the most difficult questions I have.
I have seen related questions like "Why does God desire glorification?" and "...
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Why would having emotions imply that an entity is composite?
The Summa Theologica contains the following quote when considering "Whether God is composed of matter and form?":
Objection 2. Further, anger, joy and the like are passions of the composite....
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Do Biblical Unitarians have a theology and definition of divine simplicity?
The doctrine of divine simplicity says that God is simple (without
parts). The general idea can be stated in this way: The being of God
is identical to the "attributes" of God. ...
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Under divine simplicity, how can God do anything?
The consequence of divine simplicity is that God is being subsisting and can only be immutable.
If so how does God do anything? Or how did he create?
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Absolute Divine Simplicity (ADS) and the Trinity
Though apparent, the framework of the Triune Godhead appears logically incoherent in juxtaposition to the Absolute Divine Simplicity model. Looking through the works of Thomas Aquinas, who is the most ...
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Does Calvinism recognize that it has God working at cross purposes to His stated desire?
Just to set the stage for this question, Jesus said that the gate is narrow and there are few that find it. As this question has to do with the Calvinist understanding of Election (and the flip side ...
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How does one explain God being outside the universe yet on the throne in heaven without violating divine simplicity?
God created the universe. Therefore He transcends the universe. He is outside the universe.
Yet, He has a throne room in heaven:
Revelation 4:2 - Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne ...
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Is penal substitution consistent with divine simplicity?
How do Protestants explain penal substitution being consistent and compatible with divine simplicity given the following discussion?
For most of Church history, most Christians have believed that in ...
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Jesus and Contingency
Let's assume that God is omnipotent in the sense that he can do anything which is logically possible (so that he cannot create square circles because a square circle is a contradiction).
Now it is ...
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How is the Trinity compatible with divine simplicity?
Divine simplicity is the doctrine that God has no parts/composition. It implies that God is equivalent to his attributes and his attributes are equivalent to each other. So God is love and God is ...
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Does divine simplicity imply that God is identical to his attributes?
Scope: Philosophy of orthodox Trinitarianism.
Off the top of my head, the Bible says that God is love, God is light, God is truth,
God is wisdom, and God is Spirit.
Is it a more general ...
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What is the Biblical basis for divine simplicity?
Wikipedia defines divine simplicity this way:
In theology, the doctrine of divine simplicity says that God is
without parts.
Euthyphro, God's Nature, and the Question of Divine Attributes, which ...
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