God’s Foreknowledge – A philosophical investigation

Traditionally, God is considered to have four primary characteristics: Omnipotence (all-powerful), Omnipresence (everywhere at once), Omnibenevolence (all-loving) and Omniscience (all-knowing). God’s foreknowledge is a subset of God’s Omniscience and refers to his knowledge of the future. Many authors have discussed this idea and the philosophical soundness of the concept. They include St. Augustine, John Calvin, David Hunt, Luis de Molina and Gregory Boyd. From these writings, four positions have emerged: the Augustinian-Calvinist position, Simple-Foreknowledge, Molinism (Middle-knowledge) and Open Theism. In my paper, I introduce these philosophical concepts; to evaluate and comment on their successes, failures and religious implications. These implications are essential for those who believe God does have Omniscience as they impact the fundamental beliefs held by Christians. I conclude that these beliefs are affected and can be contradicted by the beliefs of the faithful. For example, is God free to reject His knowledge like agents can, or must He abide it? Agents can discard the knowledge of, for example, experts, politicians and so forth to pursue what they deem desirable. If this is the case (that God can deny His knowledge to pursue what He wants), then when (or what) can God reject?

Name dc:type.qualificationname

mres

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Salt, Tim

• B Athroniaeth (Cyffredinol)

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:2224