Blackwell Reference Online

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According to the traditional idea of God, God is the greatest being possible. Traditional theism, as formulated in the Middle Ages by such philosophers as Anselm, Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas (see Chapter 9, The Christian Contribution to Medieval Philosophical Theology ; and Chapter 11, The Jewish Contribution to Medieval Philosophical Theology ), maintains that God possesses certain great-making properties, such as omnipotence, omniscience, moral perfection, and necessary existence (see Chapter 28, Omniscience ; Chapter 30, Goodness ; and Chapter 33, Necessity ). In the case of omnipotence, at least, there is biblical authority for including it among the divine attributes. Yet, reflection on the concept of omnipotence raises puzzling questions which concern whether or not a consistent notion of omnipotence implies limitations on the power of an omnipotent agent. Our goal here is to provide an account of the concept of omnipotence which resolves all of the puzzles surrounding this concept. One of the concerns of recent philosophy of religion is to investigate the coherence of the divine attributes, considered individually and in combination. Of course, omnipotence is one of these attributes. According to some philosophers, omnipotence should be understood in terms of the power to perform tasks , for instance, to kill oneself, to make 2 + 2 = 5, or to make oneself non-omniscient ... log in or subscribe to read full text