God In Professor Johnson's Portrait Of God

Stephen Prothero’s “God Is Not One” is a survey of world religions, comprising vital information on a vast array of different sets of belief. As someone who has never studied religion before, nor belongs to a particular faith, the variability within these religions is staggering. One might be satisfied to define religion as “how a person goes about believing in God,” but soon finds that even that definition has its holes. Thankfully, “God Is Not One” does an amazing job of cluing its reader into the nuances that are sometimes forgotten about the religions it approaches.

In the reading by Abraham Heschel God is portrayed as a very personable and caring God. He has similar feelings as do parents with their own children. When they are doing well or have had good things going on, he feels joy and gratification. When they are acting out or have had something negative happen in their life, he feels sadness and anger. He is said to not judge based on just the bare facts.

     Throughout these chapters we see many portrayals of God’s character: The destroyer, the ever-judging, a God with expectations, a God that grieves, feels pain, repents, a God that demands justice; a self-evaluating, ruling and omnipotent God whom also passes on saving grace to the deserving.

Our God is loving, kind and merciful, but there is another side to His personality, the side that defends and fights for His people. Paul declares we must know the “goodness and severity of God.” To understand the full character of God we must read the entire Bible. God is a lover of His creation and He is a warrior who fights for those whom He loves. The author makes an excellent point that since we are made in His image we must take on every aspect of the character

God can be a very controversial subject depending on who you are talking to in this day and time; some people believe, some believe in other Gods and then there are other groups who do not believe in anything beyond this life. God has always had to deal with those who do not believe. God has been persecuted since the beginning of time and has proven over and over that is very much who he says he is. This paper will give you a better understanding of who God is, how humanity is affected by their beliefs, who Jesus is and how he is the way to the heavenly father and creator as well as how restoration will impact our lives as well as the beliefs I hold in God and how everything he created relies on the next in some way to survive.

A proper assessment from a biblical-anthropological perspective needs to take into account the image of God as part of human nature. The three dimensions of the image of God (relational, structural and functional) form the core of human nature. Humans are relational beings with the structural capacity to relate to others and fulfill their purpose in this life. These three dimensions were damaged or affected after the Fall. As discussed previously, normality and pathology are connected with the sinful human condition.

God is not only there-an actually existent being; he is personal and we can relate to him in a personal way” (Alin, 2015).

Process theism, as defined by Barbour, is the theological idea that God is the leader of our community (the world), and is the prominent being of this community, but does not have total control (p.615). According to process theism, the world is composed of individual beings who interact with one another, and God acts as the overseer who guides people rather than directs. On the contrary, the monarchical model is a more conservative, and classical model that views God as having absolute power over the world, and God is essentially unfazed by the world. Clearly, there are many reasons why this model is not ideal to gain a clear understanding of God, such as how it portrays God as superior to all, which makes all other beings seem almost useless, and utterly dependent on God. Additionally, Barbour explains that the monarchical model supports masculinity rather than femininity, and that God’s goodness is tainted by the portrayal of God as omnipotent (p. 589). It is for these reasons that the monarchical model must be rejected, and a reformed model to understand God and his interaction with the universe must be considered.

Genesis is the first book of the Bible.  It begins with the story of God’s creation of the universe.    The Lord is the Almighty Creator of the world, skies, heavens, seas, animals, man, and woman.  He governs the universe and develops relationships with man.  Throughout Genesis, God acknowledges the fact that human beings make mistakes, and accepts their imperfection.  Throughout Genesis, God changes from one who does not tolerate disobedience, to one who shows clemency.  Early on in Genesis, God punishes Adam and Eve for disobedience.  After making the mistake of flooding the world, the Lord realizes that even He is not perfect, and does not allow Jacob’s deceit of his father to taint his future.

Lauren Olamina adapts her own version of God to the heinous world she lives in. She explores God's significance and essence. She theorizes “God is Power—Infinite, Irresistible, Inexorable, Indifferent. And yet, God is Pliable—Trickster, Teacher, Chaos, Clay. God exists to be shaped.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens or known as Mark Twain was a famous American author who published a great novel. Mark Twain wrote Twain's Letter from the Earth after experiencing a serious tragedy where he also lost his religious faith thus making him atheism. In the past people do believe that humans are the center of the universe, Mark Twain uses Satan as himself questioning god, and there is an there are things that I agree and disagree about Mark Twain's Letter from the Earth.

•     Impersonal – an Impersonal view of God’s perception is that God is some form of spirit or force, not particularly there for you personally

In Uys’ (1980) film, The God’s Must Be Crazy, a tribal community of South African Bushmen who live independently away from any contact with the outside world. When a Coke bottle is dropped from a plane, this “beautiful” and “useful” thing becomes a tool that is adopted into a variety of uses by the family (Uys, 1980). When the family begins to fight over the bottle, Xi, decides that although the bottle has been given to them by the gods, this now “evil thing” must be thrown off the edge of the world (Uys, 1980). The film then captures Xi’s experiences and interactions with other people and modern society as he sought to accomplish his task.

Vast, all-knowing, creator, so much more. How do you define your God? The Father is so much more than human kind can grasp, therefor, being nearly impossible to fully define without using opinion and imagination. The knowledge of God is the largest piece of shared information among humans throughout time and space. I will explore my personal thoughts of God, humanity and Jesus, as well as reflect on Christian worldview.

The mystery of God's existence has been a crucial element of many religious studies and traditions. Who is God? What is God? Where is God? To effectively discuss the existence of God, it is necessary to illustrate the notion of faith. People of faith believe that God does exist, and that relationship with God gives meaning to their lives. Others who are skeptical point to God as an obsolete hope of an ignorant human race. People today live in a world distinguished by sophisticated technology in which modern science has been a strong agent in questioning the existence of God.