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Existence of God (Introduction: Concepts of God)
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장부영
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2008-03-31 22:06:17, 조회 : 2,982 |
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Existence of God (Introduction: Concepts of God)
Paul Jang
A STUDY OF THE CONCEPTS OF GOD AND
THE ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF CHRISTIAN
GOD IN PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY
(STUDIES IN SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY)
This paper is a part of the dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Theology (Th. D), "A Study of the Concepts of God and the Arguments for the Existence of Christian God in Philosophy and Theology" written by Dr. Paul B. Jang, This is a syllabus for the lecture at the Theology of Ministry Academy in Orange County, Southern California, U. S. A.
INTRODUCTION
Since ancient times, there has not been any nation in the world which didn't have their God or gods. But most of them, nonetheless, did not believe in God, the Creator. The Bible says: "The fool has said in his heart, 'there is no God,' they are corrupt, they have committed abominable deed; There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one does good, not even one...There are in great dread, For God is with the righteous generation" (Ps. 14:1-5).
This is the warning words from God to the fool, in which He has judged all men to be sinners because they did not understand and did not seek God, while He has urged them to repent of their sins. Here, the men means, the so called, "all the atheists" who say "there is no God."
Atheism is the denial of God as the first principle and is thus antitheism, the opposite of theism. The words atheist and atheism can be found as early as in the works of Plato; they recur in the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians (Eph. 2:12), and in the works of the Father of the Church.
Atheism can be divided into two categories: theoretical atheism and practical atheism. The former is the denial of God based on a system of thought that excludes the possibility of the existence of the Absolute, the latter is the denial of God as reflected in the way one conducts his private and public life, leaving the question of God out of consideration and basing conduct solely on finite value (Britannica, 1977, vol. 2, 258).
In other words, the theoretical atheism is the denial of God based on their philosophical or theological thought, while the practical atheism is the denial of God in their practical life. In the light of this theory, theoretical atheists are found in the philosophical or theological intellectuals, while the practical atheists are found both in the intellectuals and the others, namely unbelievers.
The Concepts and Existence of God
The word "Sein" in German has been called several names, "being," "existence," and "reality" in English according to the background of their thoughts, ages, and methods of its use. "Being" is the quality or state of having existence, "existence" the reality as presented in experience, and "reality" the quality or state of being real (Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1990, 141, 435, 980). The terms, "being," "existence," and "reality" have been differently used according to those users.
Concepts of Being
Looking into the philosophical consideration, "being" assumed to be idealistic nature, "existence" to be incarnational one which emphasizes a character, and "reality" to be totality. For Parmenides, these concepts of God are differentiated a little, and have been put in the same category. In other words, "being" is abstractive and "reality" has totality (Wahl, 1948, 51). According to Jean Whale, it has been dialectically explained that 'existence' was defined to be subjective partiality, 'reality' to be objective totality, and 'being' to be a kind of union of the two (Wahl, 1948, 54).
Shedd said "we define to being, and explain to existence," emphasizing that 'being' has to be applied to explain the essence of God in opposition to materialistic and pantheistic concept, and 'existence' to be applied to refer to the simple question of existence of God in opposition to atheism (Shedd, 1889, 195). Bolden P. Bowne insisted that the three theoretic usages had to be limited to the aspect of essence (Bowne, 1898, 13).
But in the objective meaning, the tree are identified, and those have diversity of meaning according to the background of those thoughts. For examples, 'being' of Plato has an idealistic sense according to the background of his thought, 'reality' of Hegel or Bradley has the meaning of dialectic spiritualism according to the background of their thoughts, and 'existence' of Heidegger or Nietzsche has existential meaning according to the background of their thoughts. In other words, word may be used of good or evil by its user as if a knife may be used good or evil.
Here theological theory itself is apt to be shaken when not to catch the Christian concept of the word. The concept of Christian existence does absolutely depend upon the fact that God exists. Only under the hypothesis of the fact of this 'absolute existence,' the theological basis can be set on. This absolute One is neither that of idealism of Plato, nor that of dialectical reality of Hegel, nor that of existentialism of Heidegger, and nor that of materialism of Feuer Bach.
Benjamin B. Warfield said that it is not enough for us to say "God" because God cannot be limited in a definition by man (Warfield, 1968, 7). Of course, this does not mean the same as the pantheistic conception that means universal frame. In pantheism, God is all in all. God pervades all things, contains all things...in short, pantheism views the world as God and God as the world (Geisler and Watkins, 1983, 79)
The existence of God fully contains the transcendental and immanent concepts, and divinity and personality at the same time. Depending upon such a true concept of the existence of God the meaning of existence may be understood. And only depending upon this concept of existence it is possible to understand the general concept of other existences because God is Creator, that I am who I am as Causer, the First Cause (Ex. 3:14). Cornelius Van Til accepted the secondary ones under the existence of Absolute One (Van Til, 1969, 46).
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선교운동소개
신학 