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A Primer on Divine Goodness (Part One: Theological Reflection)

God is goodIt is a common theistic claim that God is good. But what is the justification for such a claim, and further how is it to be understood? In this post, I’ll consider what Scripture has to say about divine goodness. In my next post, we’ll put the resultant conception of divine goodness under philosophical scrutiny.

A Spiritual History of the World

imagesIn Peter Kreeft’s excellent little book Back to Virtue, he attempts to delineate the spiritual history of the (Western) world in 10 steps. I think the picture Kreeft develops is insightful and provides a helpful perspective in which to understand our present times. In this post, I’ll briefly sketch Kreeft’s history and offer a few thoughts of my own at the end.

God-so far yet so near

imagesThe most fundamental distinction of all reality is that between Creator and creature. He makes, we are made; he is original, we are derivative; he is everlasting, we are temporal; he is infinite, we are finite; he exists a se, we ab alio.

Two Roads to Live On

UnknownThoughtful observers are in agreement that our culture is sick. We are morally confused. We are cracked, violated, and vicious. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think we’re much worse than any previous culture. The difference between earlier cultures and ours is not in terms of our lack of virtue, but the lack of knowledge of virtue. As Peter Kreeft so boldly puts it, we are the most freakish culture in the history of the west—because we have loosed our lives from the pursuit of God—and we are the weakest culture in the history of the west—because we no longer act based on objective moral principles, and thus have no objective standard with which to judge and no objective source of power for change.

Man’s Four Hungers

imagesIn his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Blessed—happy—satisfied—whole—are those who hunger and thirst for his righteousness, for they will be filled. This sounds like good news to me! Don’t we all want to be blessed, happy, satisfied, and whole? Surely we all long for such a blessed state of affairs. But then why are so many today broken, fragmented, cracked, and potted?

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