The Puzzle of Evil by Peter Vardy

Author:Peter Vardy [Vardy, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781317455066
Google: rcrKBgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 28021978
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1993-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Kenny rejects this definition because he maintains that it could also be applied to a human being who had very limited capacities and he therefore substitutes a definition more specifically related to God:

The possession of all logically possible powers which it is possible for a being with the attributes of God to possess.

Kenny concentrates on “possible powers” rather than “possible actions” which God can perform and this is helpful. On this basis God cannot commit suicide, as this would mean going out of existence and this would be against his nature; God cannot sin, as this would mean him being less than perfect; and cannot swim, as this would entail him having a body. It permits God to have all the powers that it is logically possible for a being with the nature of God to have. God, then, cannot go against his own nature.

This idea of God as a supreme power figure has been very important in Christian theology. It is not, however, a strictly biblical idea, rather it came from the Greek philosophic idea of God’s insurpassibility combined with the view of some early Church Fathers that God should not in any way be limited by lack of power. God should be able to do anything he wished in the world. On the face of it this seems to be obviously true. God, if he is to be God, must be able to do anything at all. This was part of the point of the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine and also his walking on water — to show that he had power over the physical elements. God’s providential care of his people, therefore, cannot be held to be limited by lack of power.

Aquinas maintained that God was literally timeless but, although outside time, he was nevertheless omniscient and omnipotent. God was in complete charge of the whole of his creation and brought his purposes about in this world as he decreed. God’s providence governed all things and the whole of life was in the hands of God. No theologian seriously challenged this view. It has been endorsed uniformly by Catholic theologians and both Luther and Calvin strongly supported it. They all accepted that God’s providence governed all.

However, what it means to talk of God’s providence is much more complicated than first appears. Certainly God’s sustaining care maintains the universe in existence and he sends the rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). Every person, creature and part of creation is dependent on God. This does not necessarily mean, however, that God is in full control of history and of the day-today details of human lives. God numbers every hair of the disciples’ heads. In other words he is omniscient and knows all that happens. However, numbering of each hair is not the same as bringing about when each hair will fall out! If theologians seriously wish to claim that every event in the world is brought about by God then firstly there are

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