Different ideas about the divine (AQA GCSE Religious Studies A): Revision Note

What is meant by the nature of God?

• Christians believe that God has various qualities. Some of God’s qualities are not possible for humans to achieve, but others are

• Five important qualities of God are:

  • Omnipotence

  • Just

  • Omnibenevolence

  • Immanence

  • Transcendence

How are these qualities demonstrated by God?

• Omnipotence is demonstrated because, for religious believers, God created the universe and everything in it:

  • For Christians, God’s omnipotence is seen through His miracles performed by Jesus

  • The Bible says: “Nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37)

• Christians believe that God also demonstrates being just:

  • With unlimited power and authority, God is believed to be the perfect giver of justice

  • As God is all-loving, He will never support injustice, ill treatment, prejudice or oppression

  • God gave Moses the Decalogue, outlining how He expected people to behave

  • In the Bible, God said, “Let justice roll like a river”. (Amos 5:24)

  • In the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, Jesus taught that God would judge all people according to how they had cared for others

• God is also seen as omnibenevolent in Christianity for many reasons:

  • God created humans in His image (Genesis 1:27), highlighting His love for His creation

  • God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, highlighting that God was willing for Jesus to be crucified to save humanity

  • In the teaching known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

• Christians see God as immanent:

  • God’s immanence refers to His presence within His creation

  • A belief in God’s immanence holds that God is present in all of creation, while remaining distinct from it. In other words, there is no place where God is not

• However, God is also seen as transcendent:

  • God has control and authority over His creation

  • God is outside of humanity’s full experience, perception or grasp

Why are these qualities important to believers?

• Omnipotence:

  • Christians will show determination and resilience when faced with a problem

  • God has a plan for everyone. Therefore, Christians should trust in and be guided by God

• Just:

  • Christians will work for justice in society to demonstrate God’s qualities of being just and compassionate

  • They will think about the consequences of their actions, as they will want to be rewarded by God on the Day of Judgment. They believe that any bad actions will be addressed and made fair

• Omnibenevolence:

  • Christians will try to love each other in their daily lives by following the Golden Rule

  • Christians will “love their enemies” to demonstrate agape

• Immanence:

  • God’s immanence gives Him the awareness of, and compassion for, our suffering and sin

  • Christians believe that God is present, and this provides comfort

• Transcendence:

  • God’s transcendence gives Him the power to heal, rescue and redeem

  • It means He is beyond the limits of all we understand; He can perform miracles to change the fortunes of those who are struggling

• There are also other characteristics that are attributed to God:

  • God can be viewed as personal or impersonal:

    • A personal God is believed to have human-like characteristics

    • This allows for a relationship with God through prayer and experience

    • An impersonal God is beyond human understanding and has no human characteristics

  • God is also understood as being eternal:

    • God has always existed and always will

    • God is not like humans and is not limited by time

How can the descriptions of God’s nature lead to challenges for religious believers?

• There are many challenges that relate to the qualities that are given to God:

  • One of the main challenges is the existence of evil and suffering in the world:

    • This leads to the question, “If God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent, why does evil exist?”

    • The existence of natural disasters, wars and diseases calls into question why an all-loving God would allow these things to happen if they could be prevented

  • Another issue is that there seem to be contradictions between God’s attributes:

    • If God is omniscient (knows the future), do humans really have free will?

    • If God is transcendent, how can He also be immanent and personal?

    • If God is all-loving but also just, how can eternal punishment exist?

  • Scientific explanations, such as the Big Bang Theory and evolution explain the origin and development of the universe without needing an omnipotent creator:

    • Some argue that nature doesn’t always show love because of how some animals hunt and kill others, and some species become extinct

  • Religious pluralism is also a challenge to the descriptions of God’s nature:

    • Different religions may have different ideas about the nature of God

    • For example, the Trinity in Christianity and Tawhid in Islam

    • This could raise questions about which idea, if any, is correct

  • The language used when describing God could also cause tensions within and between religions:

    • Describing God in human terms (father, king, shepherd) might limit understanding of a being who is beyond human comprehension

    • Also, in Islam, Allah is beyond comparison (Qur’an 42:11)