Who is God?

Rite of Christian Initiation

Church of St Francis Xavier, PJ

If you could picture God, how would you imagine

him to look like?

Some Images of God

• Fearsome God

• Kill-Joy God

• Policeman God

• Feel Good God

• Santa Claus God

How do we come to know about God?

General Revelation

Specific Revelation

History of Religion Primitive Experience

Mythical religions

3 ways of moving beyond the myth

Mysticism Monotheistic Revolution

Enlightenment

(Spiritual Experience)

(The Divine Call) (Rational Knowledge)

Christian Notion of God

• Characteristics of God

1. Spirit

2. Personal Being – not impersonal force

3. Omnipotent, Omnipresence, Omnisience, Omnibenevolent, Immutable

4. God is free, perfect and eternal

5. God is Truth

A Relational God

• God is LOVE

• God is Creator

• God who reveals himself

• God is Forgiving

• God is Faithful

• God is our Father

• Transcendent & Immanent

Goal of Human Life

• Why did God make you?

• “To know Him, to love Him, to serve Him and be with Him in paradise forever.

God and Suffering

• Syllogism

1. God is Good

2. There is Suffering

3. God is not good OR God does not exist

• God is not the cause of evil & suffering

• Christian answer to suffering: God embraces our suffering to free us from it

How do we speak of God?

VIA POSITIVA• God is truth

• God is just

• God is Love

VIA NEGATIVA• God’s truth is beyond

any human truth• God’s justice is

beyond human justice• God’s love is greater

than any human love

GOD IS MYSTERY

In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son … Heb 1:1ff

JESUS CHRIST