Gregg Allison, Ph.D.: "Historical Theology:" Ch. 10--Character of God, 2...

1.     Character of God, 210-230. At issue: independence, immutability, unchangeableness, eternity, omnipotence, omnipresence, unity/simplicity, spirituality/invisibility, omniscience, wisdom, truthfulness, faithfulness, goodness, love, mercy, grace, patience, holiness, righteousness, justice, jealousy, wrath, will, freedom, perfection, blessedness, beauty and glory.  For the early church: Aristides, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Melito of Sardis, Irenaeus, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Tatian, Arnobius, and Augustine. See Appendix[i] Regarding the medieval period, we get a fly-over with Anselm and Aquinas with relevant quotes, not taking one much further than the ancient church. For the reformation and post-reformation period, we hear from Calvin, Belgic Confession, the Westminster Shorter Catechism (gloriously), Westminster Confession (2.1, even more gloriously than all the divines combined), Turretin, Molina (the half-knowledge fella), Quenstadt the Molinist Lutheran and Stephen Charnock.

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[i] Appendix 4: Doctrine of God in the Ancient Church

 

Aristides, The Apology of Aristides, 1, in ANF, 10:263-64. “God is not born, not made, an eternal nature without beginning and without end, immortal, perfect, and incomprehensible. Now when I say he is ‘perfect,’ this means that there is no defect in him, and he is not in need of anything, but all things are in need of him…He has no name, for everything which has a name is related to created things. He has no form, nor any bodily parts; for whatever possesses these is related to created things. He is neither male nor female. The heavens do not limit him, but the heavens and all things, visible and invisible, receive their limits from him. He has no adversary, for there exists no one who is stronger than he. He does not possess wrath and indignation, for there is nothing which is able to stand against him. There is no ignorance of forgetfulness in his nature, for he is altogether wise and understanding…He needs nothing from anyone, but all living creatures stand in need of him.”

 

New Testament: God’s perfection (Mt. 5.48), mercy (Luke 6.36), goodness (Mk.10.18), omnipotence (Mt.19.26), wrath (Rom.1.18), kindness, tolerance and patience (Rom.2.4) righteousness (Rom.3.21), grace (Rom.3.23-34), wisdom and knowledge (Rom. 11.33), faithfulness (1 Cor. 1.9), blessedness (1 Tim. 1.11), self-sufficiency (Acts 17.24-25), immutability (James 1.17), omniscience (1 John 3.20), and love (1 Jn. 4.8)

 

Tertullian, Against Marcion, 1.3, in ANF, 3:273: “So far as a human being can form [write] a definition of God, I adduce [present] one that the conscience of all men will acknowledge—that God is the great supreme, existing in eternity, unbegotten, unmade, without beginning, without end.”

 

Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.14.1, in ANF, 1:478. Self-sufficiency meaning “that service [rendered] to God does not profit him at all, nor has God need of human obedience. But he grants to those who follow and serve him life and incorruption and eternal glory, bestowing benefit upon those who serve him. He does not receive any benefit from them: For he is rich, perfect, and in need of nothing.”

 

OMNIPOTENCE

 

Augustine, On the Creed, 1.2, in NPNF, 3:369. “I believe in God the Father Almighty,” cited by us Reformed Prayer Book Churchman, believe “God is almighty, and yet, though mighty, he cannot die, cannot be deceived, cannot lie; and, as the apostle says, `cannot deny himself’ [2 Tim. 2.13]. How many things that he cannot do, and yet is almighty! Indeed, for this reason, he is almighty because he cannot do these things.”

 

OMNIPRESENCE

 

Theophilus, To Autolycus, 3, in ANF. 2:95. As to omnipresence, “by no means to be confined in a place; for if he were, then the place containing him would be greater than he; for that which contains is greater than that which is contained. For God is not contained but is himself the place of all.”

 

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 2.2, in ANF, 2:348. “God is not in darkness or in place, but above both space and time, and qualities of objects. Therefore, neither is he at any time in a [particular] place, either as containing it or as being contained, either by limitation or by section…And though heaven is called his throne, he is not contained even there.”

 

Irenaeus Against Heresies, 4.3.1, in ANF, 1:465. Irenaeus on ignorant people in theology thinking in small categories: “They are ignorant what the expression means, that his heaven is his throne and earth his footstool. For they do not know what God is, but they imagine that he sits the way human beings do, and is contained with bounds, but does not contain.”

 

Origen, Against Celsus, 4.5, in ANF, 4:499. God does not “give [up] his place or vacate his own seat, so that one place should be empty of him, and another which did not formerly contain him be filled.”

 

Augustine, Letters 187:14 in Augustine of Hippo: Selected Writings, ed. Mary T. Clark, Classis of Western Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1984), 409. “He is not extended through space by size so that half of him should be in half of the world and half in the other half of it. He is wholly present in the whole of it, as to be wholly in heaven alone and wholly in the earth alone, and wholly in heaven and earth together; unconfined in any one place, he is in himself everywhere wholly.”

 

 

OMNISCIENCE

 

Melito of Sardis, Discourse to Antoninus, in ANF, 8:755. “God is in very country and in every place, and is never absent, and there is nothing done that he does not know.”

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 6.17, in ANF, 2: 517: “God knows all things—not those only which [presently] exist, but those also which will exist—and how each thing will be.”

 

Augustine, The City of God, 12.18, in NPNF, 2:238: “The infinity of number, though there is no numbering of infinite numbers, is still not incomprehensible to him who understanding is infinite. Thus, if everything which is comprehended is defined or made finite by the comprehension of him who knows it, then all infinity is in some inexpressible way made finite to God, for it is comprehensible by his knowledge…comprehends all incomprehensible matters with so incomprehensible a comprehension.”

 

DIVINE ATTRIBUTES IN GENERAL

 

Augustine, Confessions, 1.4.4, in NPNF, 1.46. “Most high, most excellent, most powerful, most all-powerful; most compassionate and most just; more hidden and most near; most beautiful and most strong and sable, yet not contained; unchangeable, yet changing all things; never new, never old; making all things news, yet bring old age upon the proud…always working, yet ever at rest; gathering, and development; seeking, and yet possessing all things. You love but do not burn [with passion]; you are jealous yet free from worry; you repent but have no regrets; your are angry yet peaceful: you change your ways but leave your plans unchanged; you recover what you find, having yet never lost it in the first place; you never need anything, but you rejoice in gain; you do not covet, yet you require usury from your stewards who return interest to you. In order that you may owe, more than enough is given to you; yet who has anything that is not already yours? You pay off debts while owing nothing. And when you forgive debts, you lose nothing.”

 

Augustine, Confessions, 2.6.13, in NPNF, 1:58. Human sins are cheap imitations of God’s attributes which are perfect and truly expressed. Ambition seeks honor, but God alone is honored. Philanthropy present a shadow of generosity, but God is the most gracious Giver of all; and envy fights for excellence, but nothing is more excellent than God. “The soul commits fornication when it turns away from you and seeks apart from you what it cannot find pure and unstained until it returns to you. Thus, everyone perversely imitates you who separate themselves far from you and raises themselves up against you. But even by thus imitating you, they acknowledge your to be the Creator of everything.”