Is the classical Christian picture of God as omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent coherent, and can it survive the challenge of evil and suffering?
Component 1 the nature of God: the attributes (omnipotence, omniscience, omnibenevolence, eternity), personal versus impersonal models, and the challenge that evil poses to God's nature.
An Eduqas Component 1 (Christianity) guide to the nature of God. Covers the divine attributes (omnipotence, omniscience, omnibenevolence, eternity, simplicity), the contrast between a personal and an impersonal God, the tension between omniscience and human freedom, and the challenge evil poses to God's nature, with the evaluation the exam rewards.
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What this dot point is asking
Eduqas Component 1 studies the nature of God in Christian belief: the attributes the tradition ascribes to God and the problems they raise. You learn omnipotence, omniscience, omnibenevolence, eternity and simplicity, the contrast between a personal and an impersonal God, and the tensions these create, especially between omniscience and human freedom and between omnipotence and omnibenevolence and the existence of evil. The exam rewards defining the attributes precisely (AO1) and evaluating whether the classical picture is coherent and can survive the problem of evil (AO2).
The answer
The divine attributes
Personal and impersonal models, transcendence and immanence
Christianity affirms a personal God who knows, loves, wills and acts, addresses humans and can be addressed in prayer, supremely revealed in the person of Jesus. This contrasts with impersonal models (God as the abstract ground of being or first principle). God is also both transcendent, wholly beyond and other than the universe, and immanent, intimately present and active within it. Holding these together (a God who is both infinitely beyond us and personally near) is part of the doctrine's richness and part of its difficulty.
Omniscience and human freedom
The challenge of evil to God's nature
The sharpest objection bundles the attributes together. If God is omnipotent (able to prevent evil), omniscient (aware of it) and omnibenevolent (willing to prevent it), why does evil exist? This is the inconsistent triad: it looks as though at least one attribute must be qualified. The theodicies (covered fully under the problem of evil) try to hold all three by appeal to free will, soul-making or a limited, persuasive God. How well they succeed is exactly what an evaluative question on God's nature turns on.
Examples in context
Try this
Q1. Explain what Christians mean by the omnipotence and omniscience of God. [part (a), AO1, 20 marks]
- What the marker wants. Accurate definitions, Aquinas's restriction of omnipotence to the logically possible, and the classical claim that omniscience includes the future, organised and using specialist terms. AO1 band.
Q2. "The Christian concept of God is internally inconsistent." Evaluate this view. [part (b), AO2, 30 marks]
- Cue. Weigh the inconsistent-triad and foreknowledge problems against the classical replies (logical-possibility, timelessness, theodicy), and judge whether the attributes can be held together. AO2 band, the larger 30-mark tariff.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of WJEC Eduqas exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Eduqas A120 2019 (style)20 marksExplain the main attributes Christians ascribe to God. [part (a), AO1, 20 marks]Show worked answer →
A part (a) AO1 question on the five-band scheme. Explain each attribute accurately and note the issues each raises.
Omnipotence: God is all-powerful (can do anything logically possible; Aquinas excludes contradictions). Omniscience: God knows everything, including the future, which raises the question of human freedom. Omnibenevolence: God is all-good and all-loving, the source of moral goodness. Eternity: God is timeless (Boethius, Aquinas) or everlasting, existing outside or throughout time. Simplicity: God is not composed of parts, so the attributes are one in God. Transcendence and immanence: God is beyond the universe yet present within it. A top band answer defines each precisely and signals the puzzles (omnipotence and the stone paradox, omniscience and freedom).
Eduqas A120 2021 (style)20 marks"If God is omniscient, humans cannot be truly free." Evaluate this view. [part (b), AO2, the full Eduqas tariff is 30 marks; the worked answer below is scaled to a 20-mark exemplar.]Show worked answer →
A part (b) AO2 question; the top band rewards balanced argument and a justified conclusion.
For the view: if God already knows infallibly what I will do tomorrow, then it is fixed that I will do it, so I cannot do otherwise and am not free; foreknowledge seems to entail predestination. Against: Boethius and Aquinas argue God is timeless and sees all events in an eternal present, so God does not foreknow in advance but knows as an observer knows what is happening, which does not cause it; knowledge is not the same as determination. Weigh whether timeless knowledge really dissolves the problem or merely relocates it, and conclude. Links to determinism and free will (Component 3).
Related dot points
- Component 1 the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one God in three persons, the biblical roots and creedal development, the heresies it excludes, and its significance for worship.
An Eduqas Component 1 (Christianity) guide to the doctrine of the Trinity. Covers Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one God in three persons, the biblical foundations and creedal development, the heresies (Arianism, modalism) the doctrine excludes, the charge of incoherence, and the significance of the Trinity for worship, with the evaluation the exam rewards.
- Component 1 the atonement: the models of how Christ's death saves (ransom and Christus Victor, satisfaction and penal substitution, moral exemplar), their biblical roots, and their strengths and weaknesses.
An Eduqas Component 1 (Christianity) guide to the atonement. Covers the models of how Christ's death reconciles humanity to God (ransom and Christus Victor, satisfaction and penal substitution, moral exemplar), their biblical roots, the moral objections to penal substitution, and their strengths and weaknesses, with the evaluation the exam rewards.
- Component 1 the Bible as a source of wisdom and authority: models of biblical authority (literalist, conservative, liberal), Scripture and tradition and reason, and the Bible in worship, ethics and decision-making.
An Eduqas Component 1 (Christianity) guide to the Bible as a source of wisdom and authority. Covers literalist, conservative and liberal models of biblical authority, the relationship between Scripture, tradition and reason, sola scriptura, and how the Bible functions in worship, ethics and personal decision-making, with the evaluation the exam rewards.
- Component 2 the problem of evil and suffering: the logical and evidential problem, the Augustinian theodicy, the Irenaean (Hick's soul-making) theodicy, and the process theodicy (Whitehead, Griffin), with strengths and weaknesses.
An Eduqas Component 2 (Philosophy of Religion) guide to the problem of evil and the theodicies. Covers the logical and evidential problem of moral and natural evil, the Augustinian theodicy (the Fall and privation), the Irenaean soul-making theodicy (Hick), and the process theodicy (Whitehead, Griffin), with the strengths and weaknesses the exam asks you to evaluate.
- Component 3 religious concepts of predestination: Augustine on grace and the Fall, Calvin's double predestination, the relation to divine omniscience and human freedom, and the implications for justice and responsibility, with strengths and weaknesses.
An Eduqas Component 3 (Religion and Ethics) guide to religious concepts of predestination. Covers Augustine on original sin and grace, Calvin's double predestination and the elect, the relation to divine omniscience and human freedom, Arminian and free-will responses, and the implications for justice and responsibility, with the evaluation the exam rewards.
Sources & how we know this
- Eduqas A Level Religious Studies specification (A120QS) — WJEC Eduqas (2016)