Week 4: Divine Attributes
Presenters
Kate Baxter, Tim May
Biblical Texts
Genesis 1:1-5; Exodus 34:6-7 (and context); Psalm 40:1-3; 139
Additional Resources
The late Colin Gunton was active in re-thinking the relation of the biblical witness to traditional Christian thought regarding divine attributes. His main statement on this is in his book Act and Being: Towards a Theology of the Divine Attributes (London: SCM, 2002). It would even be worth encountering some of the review literature responding to Gunton in preparation for this seminar (you will need to be logged in via EASE to access these links):
- A. Moore, review of C.E. Gunton Act and Being, in Journal of Theological Studies 55 (2004) 780-783. [link]
- P.L. Metzger, review of C.E. Gunton Act and Being, in Scottish Journal of Theology 59 (2006) 106-110. [link]
See also:
- K.L. Noll, "The Kaleidoscopic Nature of Divine Personality in the Hebrew Bible", Biblical Interpretation 9/1 (2001), pp. 1-24 [link].
- The Catholic Encyclopedia on: Divine Attributes and Nature and Attributes of God
- The Jewish Encyclopedia on Attributes
Wolfhart Pannenberg’s autobiographical reflections in this article* set out some of the issues involved in grappling theologically and biblically with the doctrine of God.
* “God’s Presence in History”, Christian Century, March 11, 1981, pp. 260-263
Towards Revision
In Brueggemann’s Theology of the Old Testament, chapter 7 (“Yahweh Fully Uttered”, pp. 267-313) includes some stimulating reflections on the nature of theologizing HB/OT texts, as well as a wide-ranging overview of the “testimony” regarding the character of Israel’s God that contributes quite nicely to the topic of attributes.