Divine Attributes

C. Peckham John

Description

This book offers a clear and constructive account of the nature and attributes of God. It addresses the doctrine of God from exegetical, historical, and constructive-theological perspectives, bringing the biblical portrayal of God in relationship to the world into dialogue with prominent philosophical and theological questions. The book engages questions such as: Does God change? Does God have emotions? Does God know the future? Is God entirely good and loving? How can God be one and three? Chapters correspond to the major metaphysical and moral attributes of God.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 04 mai 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493429417
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Endorsements
“In this accessible and engaging work, John Peckham outlines and engages with many of the ongoing debates in philosophical theology about God’s attributes, exploring the biblical warrant for many of classical theism’s claims about what God must be like if he is indeed maximally great. What emerges from Peckham’s own biblically rooted approach is an immensely attractive picture of a God who is ‘great’ in terms of his capacity for, and commitment to, relationships of love. This book covers a tremendous amount of ground in a short space and is very useful as a resource for ongoing discussions of perfect being theology. The book also serves as a penetrating challenge to rethink the question of whether our starting point for a doctrine of God should be philosophical ideas of perfection or biblical themes of covenant. Thoughtful, informative, and highly recommended.”
— Kevin Kinghorn , Asbury Seminary
“This book provides an excellent exposition and defense of moderate classical theism. Peckham displays vast knowledge of a wide range of biblical, philosophical, historical, and contemporary sources. He offers sagacious evaluation of controversial issues, and his covenantal approach is a significant contribution. After reading this book one feels a deep sense of gratitude for gaining a better understanding of the God whom we worship.”
— Andrew T. Loke , Hong Kong Baptist University
“Peckham’s Divine Attributes offers a much-needed voice in contemporary debates over the nature of God. For quite some time, the debates seem to be between those who wish to maintain a strict classical conception of God and those who affirm an open and relational model of God. What Peckham offers is a genuine middle ground between these two views that affirms traditional understandings of divine foreknowledge but also offers a relational and covenantal God with the rich emotional life that Scripture proclaims. Divine Attributes will be a game changer for debates about the nature of God. Strict classical theists and open theists must deal with the powerful biblical case that Peckham presents. If you are looking for a theology text that is faithful to the biblical witness and sensitive to the philosophical challenges that arise from thinking about the nature of God, then Divine Attributes is the book for you.”
— R. T. Mullins , Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2021 by John C. Peckham
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2941-7
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled JPS are from the Jewish Publication Society Version.
Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations labeled NASB are from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
Scripture quotations labeled NKJV are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Dedication
To Fernando Canale, my Doktorvater
Contents
Cover i
Endorsements ii
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction: The Covenantal God of Scripture 1
1. The God of Scripture and the God of the Philosophers 19
2. The Unchanging God Who Suffers in Love: Aseity, Immutability, and Qualified Passibility 39
3. The God of the Past, Present, and Future: Omnipresence and Eternity 73
4. The God Who Knows Everything: Omniscience and Foreknowledge 111
5. The Almighty Sovereign Who Creates, Sustains, and Covenants: Omnipotence and Providence 141
6. The Goodness of God and the Problem of Evil: Faithfulness and Omnibenevolence 175
7. Trinity of Love: A Canonical Exploration of Divine Triunity 209
8. The God of Covenantal Theism 249
Bibliography 269
Scripture Index 295
Name Index 309
Subject Index 315
Back Cover 323
Acknowledgments
W ithout the help and support of many people, I could not have written this book. First, I’d like to thank Dave Nelson at Baker Academic for his interest in this project and for his great support and guidance throughout the process. I am also grateful to Melisa Blok, who did a fantastic job guiding this project through the editing process. Many thanks are also due to the rest of the Baker Academic team, with whom it has been a joy and a privilege to work on this book.
I’d also like to thank my colleagues in the Theology and Christian Philosophy department of the seminary of Andrews University. It is my privilege to work with such great colleagues and friends. Thanks are also due to those who read part or all of this work and provided feedback and encouragement and to my students who have shown interest in the doctrine of God and encouraged me along the way.
I am also deeply grateful to my family. I cannot thank my parents, Ernest and Karen, enough for their untiring and constant support in so many ways. I am thankful to my nine-year-old son, Joel, for providing so much joy in my life. Thank you for being my best buddy. I am so glad you are my son. Last, but certainly not least, there are no words to express my love, gratitude, and appreciation for my amazing wife, Brenda, my best friend and the most wonderful wife and mother anyone could hope for.
Abbreviations
General ANE ancient Near Eastern chap(s). chapter(s) DSS Dead Sea Scrolls LXX Septuagint MT Masoretic Text NT New Testament OT Old Testament v(v). verse(s)
Scripture Versions JPS Jewish Publication Society Version KJV King James Version NASB New American Standard Bible NIV New International Version NKJV New King James Version NRSV New Revised Standard Version
Secondary Sources ABD The Anchor Bible Dictionary . Edited by David Noel Freedman. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992. ACCS Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers AUSS Andrews University Seminary Studies BDAG Bauer, Walter, Frederick W. Danker, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979. BDB Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. Brown-Driver -Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon . Oxford: Clarendon, 1977. BSac Bibliotheca Sacra CD Karl Barth. Church Dogmatics . Edited by Geoffrey W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance. 14 vols. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1936–69. EDNT Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament . Edited by Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider. 3 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990–93. ERT Evangelical Review of Theology HALOT Koehler, Ludwig, Walter Baumgartner, and Johann Jakob Stamm. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament . Translated and edited under the supervision of Mervyn E. J. Richardson. 4 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1994–99. HBT Horizons in Biblical Theology HTR Harvard Theological Review IJST International Journal of Systematic Theology JATS Journal of the Adventist Theological Society JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JBTM Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament L&N Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene A. Nida, eds. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains . 2nd ed. New York: United Bible Societies, 1989. LCL Loeb Classical Library NIB The New Interpreter’s Bible . Edited by Leander E. Keck. 12 vols. Nashville: Abingdon, 1994–2004. NIDNTT New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology . Edited by Colin Brown. 4 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975–78. NIDOTTE New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis . Edited by Willem A. VanGemeren. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997. NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers . Edited by Philip Schaff. 14 vols. Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1885–87. NTS New Testament Studies TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament . Edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. 10 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–76. TDOT Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament . Edited by G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren. Translated by John T. Willis, G. W. Bromiley, and D. E. Green. 15 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974–2006. TLNT Theological Lexicon of the New Testament . C. Spicq. Translated and edited by J. D. Ernest. 3 vols. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994. TLOT Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament . Edited by Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann. Translated by Mark E. Biddle. 3 vols. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997. TWOT Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament . Edited by R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke. 2 vols. Chicago: Moody, 1980.
Introduction
The Covenantal God of Scripture
T his book addresses some core questions about the nature and attributes of God, focusing on what we have biblical warrant to affirm with respect to such questions, in order to better understand the living God whom Christians worship and to whom Christians pray. These questions include: Does God change? Does God have emotions? Does God know everything, including the future? Is God all-powerf