Humanities Courses/Introduction to World Religions: Help and ReviewCourse
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Nate Sullivan holds a M.A. in History and a M.Ed. He is an adjunct history professor, middle school history teacher, and freelance writer.
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Sasha Blakeley has a Bachelor's in English Literature from McGill University and a TEFL certification. She has been teaching English in Canada and Taiwan for seven years.
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Learn about the terms omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent in conceptualizations of God. Discover how these attributes influence a perspective on spirituality.Updated: 11/21/2023
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Monotheism and Godly Characteristics: Further Exploration
This lesson taught you about the characteristics associated with some monotheistic interpretations of God. Take a look at the following prompts to consider the issue further.
Monotheism: Comparison
There are a number of monotheistic religions, with Christianity, Judaism, and Islam being the three largest. Though these religions share some common roots, their ways of understanding God are quite different. Do some of your own research to see how these three religions define and understand their deities. Focus particularly on whether each religion describes God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, or whether these terms are more common in one religion than in others. Write your findings in a comparative chart or essay.
Omnibenevolence
One topic raised in this lesson that you may wish to explore further is omnibenevolence, or the belief that God is all good. Look up the theologians associated with this belief and see if you can understand their arguments in favour of omnibenevolence. Do other theologians disagree with them on this issue? And is omnibenevolence a feature of any monotheistic religion besides Christianity? Write down your findings, and your opinions on the subject, in a paragraph or essay.
Other Monotheistic Frameworks
While it may be common for some monotheistic traditions to view God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, there are other ways of thinking about a singular God. For example, Deists believe that while God created the world, he no longer intervenes in human affairs; whether or not he is able to do so becomes immaterial. Look up other, lesser-known monotheistic religions like Babism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism. How do they understand God? Write a compare and contrast essay between the Christian view of God and the view espoused by one of these religions.
What are the attributes generally associated with a god?
The attributes associated with a god depend on the religion in question. In monotheistic religions, God is usually associated with omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.
What is an omnipresent god?
An omnipresent god is a god with the ability to be everywhere all at once. Omnipresence is the least philosophically complex attribute of God.
What is an omniscient god?
An omniscient god is a god who knows everything. Such a god would have the power to know the future, the present, and the past.
What is an omnipotent god?
An omnipotent god is a god with unlimited power. In monotheistic religions, God created the universe and there is nothing that he cannot do.
Table of Contents
- Conceptions of God
- Omnipotent God
- Omniscient God
- Omnipresent God
- Lesson Summary
Religion has been a significant part of human culture since time immemorial. Different cultures have their own ways of conceptualizing their god or gods, including understanding the powers that those gods hold over humans, the world, and the universe. There are many different ways of approaching the concept of the divine. Monotheistic religions, for instance, believe in only one god. Polytheistic religions believe in many. Some of the most prevalent monotheistic religions today include Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, which are collectively known as Abrahamic religions. In these religions and others, God is considered extraordinarily powerful. God is sometimes described as omnipotent, meaning all-powerful; omniscient, meaning all-knowing; and omnipresent, meaning present everywhere at all times. The prefix ''omni'' comes from the Latin for ''all.'' The attributes of God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent have complex philosophical questions attached.
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The idea of an omnipotent god refers to a deity who is infinitely powerful. According to this approach to conceptualizing God, there is nothing that an omnipotent god cannot do. Most monotheistic traditions posit their god as the creator of the universe and the ultimate authority who can bend the entirety of creation to his will. Interestingly, omnipotence raises a paradox that philosophers have worked to solve for centuries. The paradox is if God is able to do anything, can he create a stone that is too heavy for him to lift? A simple yes or no answer to the question leads to problems with omnipotence. If yes, then there is something that God cannot do: he cannot lift the stone. If no, then there is something that God cannot do: he cannot create such a stone. St. Thomas Aquinas resolved this paradox by limiting God's omnipotence to the creation of possible situations. René Descartes resolved it differently by stating that God can create such a stone and lift it.
Examples of an Omnipotent God
The Christian Bible is full of examples of an omnipotent god. In the first book of the Bible, God's omnipotence is on full display. The opening lines of the King James Version of the Bible are:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:1-1:10)
God is powerful enough to create the entire universe, and he continues to display his power throughout the remainder of the text.
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Another important tenet of the approach to God in most monotheistic religions is that God is omniscient, meaning that God is all-knowing. Unlike omnipotence, there is less scriptural precedent in Christianity to explicitly suggest omniscience. However, Christians and members of other Abrahamic religions still typically consider God omniscient because it follows logically from other elements of their conception of him. A perfect, all-powerful being should also have access to infinite knowledge because lacking knowledge would make God less powerful and less perfect. Omniscience presents fewer philosophical problems than omnipotence, but some mathematicians working with set theory have raised some objections. According to most monotheistic theologies, God knows everything about all moments in time, past, present, and future.
Examples of an Omniscient God
In Hebrew scripture, there are several names for God that suggest omniscience. In I Samuel 2:3, God is called the ''God of Knowledge.'' In Genesis 22:14, God is called ''the Lord Who Sees.'' Job 12:13 states that ''With Him are wisdom and might; to Him belong counsel and understanding.'' These verses all suggest that God knows everything, which has become a core tenet of Jewish theology just as it has become important in Christianity and Islam. One possible way to resolve philosophical objections to the concept of omniscience, employed by some theologians, is to say that humans do not have enough knowledge to fully understand what omniscience is or how it works; only God can know those things.
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The third major principle of monotheistic religions' conceptions of God is that God is omnipresent. That means that he is present everywhere at all times, from the universe's beginning until its end. Although God is immaterial according to most monotheistic conceptions, he is still considered to be present within and around all things in the universe. One potential consequence of this belief is a particular consideration of or respect for all things and all people in the world, as they contain a piece of God. Omnipresence is the least philosophically controversial of the three beliefs; few philosophers have raised major objections to it in theory, besides questions about what God is, and if he is immaterial and omnipresent. The omnipresence of God is sometimes used as a way to deter people from committing sins, as God is always present and always watching.
Examples of an Omnipresent God
As in Judaism and Christianity, God is considered omnipresent in Islam. God has no form or gender, and there is no way to see or hear God directly. However, religious faith can allow people to have a closer connection with the god that is already around them. Islam, like most other monotheistic religions, also conceives of God as omnibenevolent, meaning a god who always acts with good intentions. Omnibenevolence raises questions about why evil exists in the world, which theologians from a number of different religions have attempted to resolve in a number of different ways. Although they are distinct religions, there is a lot of overlap in the approaches that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam take in their understanding of God.
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Religions that believe in only one god are called monotheistic religions. They are contrasted with religions that have many gods, which are polytheistic. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are all major monotheistic religions. In these religions, God is said to be omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. All of these words derive from the Latin prefix ''omni,'' meaning ''all.'' Omnipresence refers to a god who exists everywhere all at once. Omnipotence describes an all-powerful god, and omniscience refers to an all-knowing god. A fourth concept, called omnibenevolence, refers to a god who is always good.
These concepts may sound fairly straightforward, but they actually present complex philosophical questions. Omnipresence is relatively uncontroversial philosophically, but omniscience raises questions about what it would actually mean to know everything. Omnibenevolence requires an explanation for the problem of why evil exists in the world, for which there are a number of possible answers. Omnipotence is perhaps the most complex concept, as it raises paradoxes like, can God create a stone so heavy that he cannot lift it? Resolving these paradoxes is theologically challenging, though solutions have been presented.
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Video Transcript
Monotheism
Monotheistic religions are religions that believe in the existence of one single deity. 'Mono' means 'one' or 'single,' and 'theos' translates to 'God.' Therefore, monotheism is the belief in one God. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are the three most popular monotheistic religions in the world.
Scholars within theses religions have, over the course of history, postulated what God is like. These scholars are called theologians. Theologians are individuals who study God. They seek to understand God's nature. In order to describe God's attributes, or characteristics, theologians use three important terms: omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.
Omni is the Latin root, meaning 'all.' This is important to remember as we move along.
Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence
Omnipotence means all-powerful. Monotheistic theologians regard God as having supreme power. This means God can do what he wants. It means he is not subject to physical limitations like man is. Being omnipotent, God has power over wind, water, gravity, physics, etc. God's power is infinite, or limitless.
Omniscience means all-knowing. God is all all-knowing in the sense that he is aware of the past, present, and future. Nothing takes him by surprise. His knowledge is total. He knows all that there is to know and all that can be known.
Omnipresence means all-present. This term means that God is capable of being everywhere at the same time. It means his divine presence encompasses the whole of the universe. There is no location where he does not inhabit. This should not be confused with pantheism, which suggests that God is synonymous with the universe itself; instead, omnipresence indicates that God is distinct from the universe, but inhabits the entirety of it. He is everywhere at once.
Theological Theory
Many theologians regard these three attributes as essential to God's nature. In other words, if God did not have these characteristics, he wouldn't be God. For example, for God to be God, he would need to have supreme power (omnipotence); if he was not omnipotent, he wouldn't be qualified to be God.
The same line of thinking also applies for the other attributes, like omniscience and omnipresence. In the Christian religion, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and others are among the theologians who have written extensively on these three attributes of God. According to these theologians, God also possesses omnibenevolence, which means he is literally all-good, or wholly good, without any trace of evil.
Lesson Summary
Monotheism is the belief in one God. In monotheistic religions, theologians, or individuals who study God, have identified three important terms to describe God's nature. These terms describe God's attributes, or characteristics.
- Omnipotence means God is all-powerful. This means God has supreme power and has no limitations.
- Omniscience means God is all-knowing. This means God knows everything, including the past and future. There is nothing God is unaware of.
- Omnipresence means God is everywhere at the same time. God is distinct from the universe, but inhabits the entirety of it.
For centuries, theologians of monotheistic religions have used these three terms to describe the central characteristics of God.
Monotheistic Deity: Terms & Definitions
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Monotheism | belief in one God |
| Theologians | scholars who study God |
| Omnipotence | God is all-powerful |
| Omniscience | God is all-knowing |
| Omnipresence | God is everywhere at all times |
| Omnibenevolence | God is all-good or without evil |
Learning Outcomes
Review the lesson then put your knowledge to the test:
- Define monotheism
- Identify and discuss the attributes of God according to monotheistic theologians
- Recall the definition of the Latin root word 'omni'
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