RE: General questions about the Christian idea of God and love
September 26, 2014 at 1:54 pm
(This post was last modified: September 26, 2014 at 2:04 pm by Neo-Scholastic.)
I’m just now jumping into this thread having only skimmed previous comments. Please forgive me for missing some of the previous subtleties. However, the questions and the order of their presentations give me the opportunity to present my interpretation of Swedenborg’s theology. As background please not that I consider the writings of Swedenborg the high point of a long philosophical tradition that builds on the ground laid by Aristotle, Plotinus, Aquinas and many others.
How do you see God's love or that God is love? It all starts with my conception of God, as the All of Plotinus. Building on this Swedenborg identifies two distinct but inalienable aspects of the Lord: Divine Love (which corresponds with Primal Matter) and Divine Wisdom (which corresponds with Ideal Form). The Divine Love of which Swedenborg speaks seems to align with Plotinus’s idea of divine emanation. Divine Love is that out of which all particular things are made. I believe that in contemporary theological nomenclature this would align with panentheism (not to be confused with pantheism). Thus love is a creative force, the propensity to be.
According to you, is God's love conceived as conditional or unconditional? If it is unconditional, how can one ever divorce themselves from it? From the above it is clear that God’s love, being the basis for all that is, even to the most fundamental features of reality, nothing can be alienable from God’s love.
Does God continue to love those for whom he has reserved hell? Yes, because of his love God never removes from us those attributes by which we are human: the capacity for reason and freedom of choice. The spirits of hell pervert there humanity and become devils and demons. Because evil spirits only spread lies and intend evil, ministering spirits from Heaven keep them from destroying themselves. (All this can be found in Swedenborg’s book ‘Heaven & Hell’)
If God is omnipresent, in what sense is it logical to speak of the absence of his presence in hell? He is never absent, the wicked on earth and the evil spirits in hell turn away from it and do not let themselves receive his love or recognize his truth.
If God is immutable, how can any love he possesses for us ever [i]change into wrath? [/i]Aquinas believes that God is all actuality and hence immutable. I say only the ideal forms are immutable, which are in God’s Divine Wisdom. On the other hand, God’s Divine Love is pure potential and thus manifests God’s Wisdom in response to actions of free agents
How do you see God's love or that God is love? It all starts with my conception of God, as the All of Plotinus. Building on this Swedenborg identifies two distinct but inalienable aspects of the Lord: Divine Love (which corresponds with Primal Matter) and Divine Wisdom (which corresponds with Ideal Form). The Divine Love of which Swedenborg speaks seems to align with Plotinus’s idea of divine emanation. Divine Love is that out of which all particular things are made. I believe that in contemporary theological nomenclature this would align with panentheism (not to be confused with pantheism). Thus love is a creative force, the propensity to be.
According to you, is God's love conceived as conditional or unconditional? If it is unconditional, how can one ever divorce themselves from it? From the above it is clear that God’s love, being the basis for all that is, even to the most fundamental features of reality, nothing can be alienable from God’s love.
Does God continue to love those for whom he has reserved hell? Yes, because of his love God never removes from us those attributes by which we are human: the capacity for reason and freedom of choice. The spirits of hell pervert there humanity and become devils and demons. Because evil spirits only spread lies and intend evil, ministering spirits from Heaven keep them from destroying themselves. (All this can be found in Swedenborg’s book ‘Heaven & Hell’)
If God is omnipresent, in what sense is it logical to speak of the absence of his presence in hell? He is never absent, the wicked on earth and the evil spirits in hell turn away from it and do not let themselves receive his love or recognize his truth.
If God is immutable, how can any love he possesses for us ever [i]change into wrath? [/i]Aquinas believes that God is all actuality and hence immutable. I say only the ideal forms are immutable, which are in God’s Divine Wisdom. On the other hand, God’s Divine Love is pure potential and thus manifests God’s Wisdom in response to actions of free agents
