Sens pytania o Bożą wszechmoc

Abstract

The Purpose of Considering God’s Omnipotence

In many considerations devoted the topic of God’s omnipotence there seemed to lack any reflection about the purpose of such enterprise. In order to give such reasons the map of possible motivations of considering this subject is provided. Firstly, talking about omnipotence is needed while coping with the theodicy problem. Secondly, with this topic many interesting paradoxes or problems may be combined, delivering either intellectual fun or intellectual challenge. Thirdly it may be important in the context of attacks against theism and apologetics. Finally it is natural to analyze what God’s omnipotence is when we want to know God himself (especially Aquinas is addressed here) and when we want to understand what was said in the revelation which includes the information about omnipotence. In the end I tend to show that in fact the question about God’s omnipotence leads rather to the analysis of the pure concept of omnipotence than to the satisfactory knowledge about God himself.

Keywords: God’s omnipotence, theodicy, theism, knowing God, Leibniz, Hume, Aquinas.