What are the Characteristics of a NT Christian?

[Neo-Scholastic]

For example, due to the fact that I possess emotions, irrationality is simply a part of my being: IMO, the best that I can do is to try and find a constructive balance between emotion and reason. With that said, does god possess emotions? If it does, then would this mean that it is irrational in some aspects, as emotions do not strictly obey logic and reason?

First, I do not share your opinion that emotions are necessarily irrational. It is rational to fear a poisonous spider, while irrational to fear a lady bug. For us limited human beings, one goal is to seek harmony between our emotions and our reason – to desire what is good based on what is true. In the case of God the harmony between what is good, beautiful and true is complete.

Does God possess emotions? That is a very difficult and long debated question.

The classical view is that God is impassible, capable of neither pain nor pleasure. The reasoning goes that if God could experience emotion then He would actualize a potential not already present in Himself. If so, then He is a contingent being, not God. The problem with this reasoning (and why I think it is wrong) is that it assumes that emotions are just passive responses. I do not believe that all emotions are passive. Love is indeed something people feel in response to others, but it is also a feeling (grace and charity) we initiate towards others. So IMHO it is entirely consistent for God to eternally and actively feel love for His creation, to share in our sorrows and endure the pain of the Cross. Nevertheless it is an important question.

Also, my aim is to engage in a dialog (I've tried to ask more questions and make less statements) here and not a debate. ..Hence, I wish to engage in a dialog here, so I apologize if I have come off as contradicting that aim.

You are clearly a person of goodwill. I never sensed anything else from you.

We reason from faith (or the lacks thereof) and not towards it.

If practitioners of theism are to start from faith and reason from it, and god's love is a big part of that faith, then, IMO, it seems that emotion is a big part of that starting point. Hence, as people reason from that starting point, do they carry rational (logic) and irrational (emotional) qualities with them? Is this a "properly basic" attribute of faith?

Believer’s apprehend the divine in a way that is similar to having a memory. If I look through a photo album, the pictures will prompt my memory. It is proper for me to believe my recollections a true in a basic way. Memories are properly basic beliefs but that doesn’t mean they are always warranted. There are times when our memories fail us. They are warranted only in the absence of valid objections and defeaters.

In the same way, when a Christian reads the gospel, it prompts within them the “sensus divinitatis” to see the work of God in its message. But at the same time, MysticKnight (for example) reads the Koran and has the same experience. MK’s belief is properly basic for him too. So what are we to do? I say, that neither MK nor I should disregard our sense of the divine; but rather, we should each use our faith as the starting point from which we both examine possible defeaters and the implications of our respective faiths. This would be like comparing our recollections about a shared experience, like a birthday party we both attended. Indeed. MK and I have areas of broad agreement with respect to the general revelation. We agree that the world has a creator and sustainer, that the existence of moral facts depends on a transcendent good, that personal identity stands in relation to the divine, etc. Of course we have many differences about special revelation. Faith is not an impediment to resolving those differences. To the contrary, it is essential for MK and me to constantly reflect on whether the doctrines we espouse are consistent with our internal sense of the divine.