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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Many sorts of mental change in God are ruled out. — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Many sorts of mental change in God are ruled out.

    Divine Attributes
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Scripture amply supports the claim that God is perfect in knowledge, will, and affect.
      ?

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    • 2.Perfection in knowledge, will, and affect seems to rule out many sorts of mental change.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Scripture also depicts God as repenting, grieving, and responding to prayer, suggesting genuine divine mental change.
      ?

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    • 2.A hermeneutic that selectively privileges 'perfection' texts over 'relational' texts requires independent justification beyond consistency with Greek metaphysics.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Process theologians like Whitehead and Hartshorne argue that a God who cannot be affected by creatures is deficient in relational perfection, not exemplary of it.
      ?

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    • 2.If perfection includes maximal responsiveness and love, then the capacity for mental change in response to creatures may be a divine perfection rather than an imperfection.
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    Related

    A hermeneutic that selectively privileges 'perfection' texts over 'relational' t...If perfection includes maximal responsiveness and love, then the capacity for me...Perfection in knowledge, will, and affect seems to rule out many sorts of mental...Process theologians like Whitehead and Hartshorne argue that a God who cannot be...
    +2 moreShow less
    Scripture also depicts God as repenting, grieving, and responding to prayer, sug...Scripture amply supports the claim that God is perfect in knowledge, will, and a...

    Similar

    Perfection in knowledge, will, and affect seems to rule out many sorts...87%The Western God could at most change mentally — in knowledge, will, or...85%Bodies cannot directly cause modifications of minds (or of each other)...77%God does not do anything to cause this extrinsic change; it is a matte...77%

    Source

    AI-extracted2/3 agreementValid
    SEP: immutability
    This perfection seems to rule out many sorts of mental change.
    View source passageHide passage
    For one thing, the Scriptural witness is not really so clearly on the side of divine real intrinsic change. Much that Scripture says of God is clearly metaphor. And it is not hard to show that Old Testament texts which ascribe change to God could be speaking metaphorically. As I note later, one can parse even the Incarnation in ways which avoid divine real or intrinsic change. Standard Western theism clearly excludes many sorts of change in God. Western theists deny that God can begin or cease to be. If God cannot, He is immutable with respect to existence. Nothing can gain or lose an essenti...
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The passage explicitly states that "Scripture amply supports the claim that God is perfect in knowledge, will, and affect" and that "This perfection seems to rule out many sorts of mental change," which directly constitute the two premises supporting the conclusion.

    Confidence: Explicitly stated conclusion.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit