Overview containing a copy of 2 Corinthians 11:33–12:9. This folio dates to between 175 and 225 AD.
Early Christian views of God (before the
gospels were written) are reflected in the
Apostle Paul's statement in
1 Corinthians 8:5–6, during the
Areopagus sermon given by Paul, he further characterizes the early Christian understanding:The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earthPaul also reflects on the relationship between God and Christians: – "...God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit" – appearing throughout his epistles. In John 14:26, Jesus also refers to "the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name". By the end of the 1st century,
Clement of Rome had repeatedly referred to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and linked the Father to creation in 1 Clement 19.2, stating: "let us look steadfastly to the Father and creator of the universe". By the middle of the 2nd century, in
Against Heresies,
Irenaeus had emphasized (in Book 4, chapter 5) that
the Creator is the "one and only God" and the "maker of heaven and earth". From the 2nd century onward,
western creeds started with an affirmation of belief in "God the Father (Almighty)" and the primary reference of this phrase was to "God in his capacity as Father and creator of the universe". This did not exclude either the fact the "eternal father of the universe was also the Father of Jesus the Christ" or that he had even "vouchsafed to adopt [the believer] as his son by grace". God's
aseity makes the Christian God not "a being" but rather "being itself", and can be explained by phrases such as "that which is with no reliance on anything external for its being" or "the necessary condition for anything to exist at all". As time passed, theologians and philosophers developed more precise understandings of the nature of God and began to produce systematic lists of his attributes. These varied in detail, but traditionally the attributes fell into two groups: those based on
negation (that God is impassible) and those positively based on
eminence (that God is infinitely good).
Name YHWH, the name of God written in Hebrew, old church of
Ragunda, Sweden In Christian theology, the name of God has always held deeper significance than purely being a label, considered instead to have divine origin and be based upon divine revelation. The Bible usually uses the name of God in the singular (e.g., Exodus 20:7 or Psalms 8:1), generally using the terms in a very general sense rather than referring to any special designation of God. However, general references to the name of God may branch to other special forms which express his multifaceted attributes. When reading the
Hebrew Bible aloud, Jews replace the Tetragrammaton with the title
Adonai, translated as
Kyrios in the
Septuagint and the Greek New Testament.
Jah (or
Yah) is an abbreviation of Jahweh/Yahweh/Jehovah. It is often used by Christians in the interjection "
Hallelujah", meaning "Praise Jah", which is used to give God glory. In the New Testament,
Theos and
Pater (, "father" in
Greek) are additional words used to reference God. This is reflected in the first petition in the
Lord's Prayer addressed to
God the Father: "Hallowed be thy Name". In the theology of the
Early Church Fathers, the name of God was seen as representative of the entire system of "divine truth" revealed to the faithful "that believe in his name" or "walk in the name of the Lord our God" In Revelation 3:12, those who bear the name of God are "destined for Heaven". John 17:6 presents the teachings of Jesus as the manifestation of the name of God to his disciples. presents the sacrifice of Jesus the
Lamb of God, and the ensuing salvation delivered through it as the glorification of the name of God, with the voice from Heaven confirming Jesus' petition ("Father, glorify thy name") by saying: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again", referring to the Baptism and
crucifixion of Jesus. Other theologians (
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite,
Thomas Aquinas, etc.) state that God has no name.
Justin Martyr stated both that God has no name, and that God's name is Jesus.
Attributes and nature The theological underpinnings of the attributes and nature of God have been discussed since the earliest days of Christianity. In the 2nd century,
Irenaeus addressed the issue and expounded on some attributes; for example, Book IV, chapter 19 of
Against Heresies states: "His greatness lacks nothing, but contains all things". Irenaeus based his attributes on three sources: Scripture, prevailing mysticism and popular piety. In the 8th century,
John of Damascus listed eighteen attributes for God in his
An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (Book 1, chapter 8). These eighteen attributes were divided into four groups based on time (such as being everlasting), space (such as being boundless), matter or quality and the list continues to be influential to date, partially appearing in some form in various modern formulations. Some such as
Donald Macleod hold that all the suggested classifications are artificial and without basis. Although there is no formal distinction in the Confession, Reformed authors have interpreted in it a specifically Reformed distinction between
incommunicable and
communicable attributes; the former being those which have no unqualified
analogy in created things (e.g., simplicity and eternity), the latter being those which have some analogy in some created things such as
humans (e.g., wisdom and goodness). The relationship between these two classes is such that the incommunicable attributes qualify all the communicable attributes, thus, God is infinite, eternal and unchangeable
in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth, following the classic definition of God in the
Westminster Shorter Catechism. Thus, Article 1 is said to begin by enumerating the incommunicable attributes, but from 'almighty' to 'good' enumerates the communicable attributes. There is a general agreement among theologians that it would be a mistake to conceive of the essence of God existing by itself and independently of the attributes or of the attributes being an additional characteristic of the Divine Being. They are essential qualities which exist permanently in his very Being and are co-existent with it. Any alteration in them would imply an alteration in the essential being of God. Berkhof also starts with
self-existence but moves on to
immutability;
infinity, which implies
perfection eternity and
omnipresence;
unity. He then analyses a series of intellectual attributes:
knowledge-omniscience;
wisdom;
veracity and then, the moral attributes of
goodness (including love, grace, mercy and patience);
holiness and
righteousness before dealing finally with his
sovereignty.
Gregory of Nyssa was one of the first theologians to argue, in opposition to
Origen, that God is
infinite. His main argument for the infinity of God, which can be found in
Against Eunomius, is that God's goodness is limitless, and as God's goodness is
essential, God is also limitless.
Depiction in the
Ascension from the
Drogo Sacramentary, Many early Christians believed that a number of verses within the Bible, were meant to apply not only to God, but to all attempts aiming to depict God. However, early Christian art, such as that of the
Dura Europos church, displays the
Hand of God, a theological symbol representing the right hand of God, and Christ himself, along with many saints, are depicted. The
Dura Europos synagogue nearby has numerous instances of the Hand of God symbol throughout its extensive decorative scheme, and is the only ancient synagogue with an extant decorative scheme. Dating to the mid-3rd century, the symbol was likely adopted into
Early Christian art from
Jewish art. The Hand of God was common in
Late Antique art in both the East and West, and remained the main way of symbolizing the actions or approval of God the Father in the West until the end of the
Romanesque period. In art depicting specific Biblical scenes, such as the
Baptism of Jesus, where a specific
representation of God the Father was indicated, the Hand of God was used increasingly from the
Carolingian period until the end of the
Romanesque. The use of religious images in general continued to increase up to the end of the 7th century, to the point that in 695, upon assuming the throne,
Byzantine emperor Justinian II put an image of Christ on the obverse side of his gold coins, resulting in a rift which ended the use of
Byzantine coin types in the Islamic world. However, the increase in religious imagery did not include depictions of God the Father. For instance, while the eighty second canon of the
Council of Trullo in 692 did not specifically condemn images of the Father, it suggested that
icons of Christ were preferred over Old Testament shadows and figures. The beginning of the 8th century witnessed the suppression and destruction of religious icons as the
Byzantine iconoclasm (literally, "image struggle" or "war on icons") began. Emperor
Leo III (717–741) suppressed the use of icons by imperial edict of the Byzantine Empire, presumably due to a military loss which he attributed to the undue veneration of icons. The edict (which was issued without consulting the church) forbade the veneration of religious images, but did not apply to other forms of art, including the image of the emperor, or religious symbols such as the cross. Theological arguments against icons then began to appear with
iconoclasts arguing that icons could not represent both the divine and the human natures of Jesus at the same time. In this atmosphere, no public depictions of God the Father were even attempted and such depictions only began to appear two centuries later. The
Second Council of Nicaea in 787 effectively ended the first period of Byzantine iconoclasm and restored the honouring of icons and holy images in general. However, this did not immediately translate into large scale depictions of God the Father. Even supporters of the use of icons in the 8th century, such as
John of Damascus, drew a distinction between images of God the Father and those of Christ. In his treatise
On the Divine Images, John of Damascus wrote: "In former times, God who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see". The implication is that insofar as God the Father or the Spirit did not become man, visible and tangible images and portrait icons would be inaccurate, and that what was true for the whole Trinity before Christ remains true for the Father and the Spirit, but not for the Word. John of Damascus wrote: If we attempt to make an image of the invisible God, this would be sinful indeed. It is impossible to portray one who is without body: invisible, uncircumscribed and without form. Around 790,
Charlemagne ordered a set of four books that became known as the
Libri Carolini ("Charles' books") to refute what his court understood to be the iconodule decrees of the Byzantine
Second Council of Nicaea regarding sacred images. Although not well known during the Middle Ages, these books describe the key elements of the Catholic theological position on sacred images. To the
Western Church, images were just objects made by craftsmen, to be utilized for stimulating the senses of the faithful, and to be respected for the sake of the subject represented, not in themselves. The
Council of Constantinople (869) (considered ecumenical by the Western Church, but not the
Eastern Church) reaffirmed the decisions of the Second Council of Nicaea and helped stamp out any remaining coals of iconoclasm. Specifically, its third canon required the image of Christ to have veneration equal with that of a Gospel book: We decree that the sacred image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the liberator and Savior of all people, must be venerated with the same honor as is given the book of the holy Gospels. For as through the language of the words contained in this book all can reach salvation, so, due to the action which these images exercise by their colors, all wise and simple alike, can derive profit from them. Images of God the Father were not directly addressed in Constantinople in 869. A list of permitted icons was enumerated at this Council, but symbols of God the Father were not among them. However, the general acceptance of icons and holy images began to create an atmosphere in which God the Father could be symbolized. Prior to the 10th century, no attempt was made to use a human figure to symbolize
God the Father in
Western art. '' by
Andrea del Verrocchio and
Leonardo da Vinci, 1472 By the 12th century depictions of God the Father had started to appear in French
illuminated manuscripts, which as a less public form could often be more adventurous in their iconography, and in
stained glass church windows in England. Initially the head or bust was usually shown in some form of frame of clouds in the top of the picture space, where the Hand of God had formerly appeared; the
Baptism of Christ on the famous
baptismal font in Liège of
Rainer of Huy is an example from 1118 (a Hand of God is used in another scene). Gradually the amount of the human symbol shown can increase to a half-length figure, then a full-length, usually enthroned, as in
Giotto's
fresco of c. 1305 in
Padua. In the 14th century the
Naples Bible carried a depiction of God the Father in the
Burning bush. By the early 15th century, the
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry has a considerable number of symbols, including an elderly but tall and elegant full-length figure walking in the
Garden of Eden, which show a considerable diversity of apparent ages and dress. The
"Gates of Paradise" of the Florence Baptistry by
Lorenzo Ghiberti, begun in 1425 use a similar tall full-length symbol for the Father. The
Rohan Book of Hours of about 1430 also included depictions of God the Father in half-length human form, which were now becoming standard, and the Hand of God becoming rarer. At the same period other works, like the large Genesis
altarpiece by the Hamburg painter
Meister Bertram, continued to use the old depiction of Christ as
Logos in Genesis scenes. In the 15th century there was a brief fashion for depicting all three persons of the Trinity as
similar or identical figures with the usual appearance of Christ. In an early Venetian school
Coronation of the Virgin by
Giovanni d'Alemagna and
Antonio Vivarini, (c. 1443) The Father is depicted using the symbol consistently used by other artists later, namely a patriarch, with benign, yet powerful countenance and with long white hair and a beard, a depiction largely derived from, and justified by, the near-physical, but still figurative, description of the
Ancient of Days....the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. (
Daniel 7:9)In the
Annunciation by
Benvenuto di Giovanni in 1470, God the Father is portrayed in the red robe and a hat that resembles that of a Cardinal. However, even in the later part of the 15th century, the symbolic representation of the Father and the Holy Spirit as "hands and dove" continued, e.g. in
Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ in 1472. In Renaissance paintings of the adoration of the Trinity, God may be depicted in two ways, either with emphasis on The Father, or the three elements of the Trinity. The most usual depiction of the Trinity in Renaissance art depicts God the Father using an old man, usually with a long beard and patriarchal in appearance, sometimes with a triangular
halo (as a reference to the Trinity), or with a
papal crown, specially in Northern Renaissance painting. In these depictions, the Father may hold a globe or book (to symbolize God's knowledge and as a reference to how knowledge is deemed divine). He is behind and above Christ on the Cross in the
Throne of Mercy iconography. A dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit may hover above. Various people from different classes of society, e.g. kings, popes or martyrs may be present in the picture. In a Trinitarian
pietà, God the Father is often symbolized using a man wearing a papal dress and a papal crown, supporting the dead Christ in his arms. They are depicted as floating in heaven with angels who carry the
instruments of the Passion. Representations of God the Father and the Trinity were attacked both by Protestants and within Catholicism, by the
Jansenist and
Baianist movements as well as more orthodox theologians. As with other attacks on Catholic imagery, this had the effect both of reducing church support for the less central depictions, and strengthening it for the core ones. In the
Catholic Church, the pressure to restrain religious imagery resulted in the highly influential decrees of the final session of the
Council of Trent in 1563. The Council of Trent decrees confirmed the traditional Catholic doctrine that images only represented the person depicted, and that veneration to them was paid to the person, not the image. The Council also reserved the right of bishops, and in cases of new artistic novelties, the Pope, to suppress images deemed non-canonical or heretical. Traditional artistic depictions of God the Father which followed the conventions of the church were relatively uncontroversial in Catholic art thereafter, but less common, unusual depictions of the
Trinity were condemned. In 1745
Pope Benedict XIV explicitly supported the
Throne of Mercy depiction, referring to the "Ancient of Days", but in 1786 it was still necessary for
Pope Pius VI to issue a
papal bull condemning the decision of an Italian church council to remove all images of the Trinity from churches, including standard canonical ones. God the Father is symbolized in several Genesis scenes in
Michelangelo's
Sistine Chapel ceiling, most famously
The Creation of Adam (whose image of near touching hands of God and Adam is iconic of humanity, being a reminder that Man is created in the Image and Likeness of God ()).God the Father is depicted as a powerful figure, floating in the clouds in
Titian's Assumption of the Virgin in the
Frari of Venice, long admired as a masterpiece of
High Renaissance art. The
Church of the Gesù in Rome includes a number of 16th century depictions of
God the Father. In some of these paintings the
Trinity is still alluded to in terms of three angels, but
Giovanni Battista Fiammeri also depicted God the Father as a man riding on a cloud, above the scenes. In several of his painting, such as the
Last Judgment,
Rubens depicted God the Father using the image that by then had become widely accepted—a bearded patriarchal figure above the fray. While representations of God the Father were growing in Italy, Spain, Germany and the Low Countries, there was resistance elsewhere in Europe, even during the 17th century. In 1632 most members of the
Star Chamber court in England (except the
Archbishop of York) condemned the use of the images of the Trinity in church windows, and some considered them illegal. Later in the 17th century
Sir Thomas Browne wrote that he considered the representation of God the Father using an old man "a dangerous act" that might lead to, in his words, "Egyptian symbolism". In 1847,
Charles Winston was still critical of such images as a "
Romish trend" (a derisive term used to refer to Roman Catholics) that he considered best avoided in England. In 1667 the 43rd chapter of the
Great Moscow Council specifically included a ban on a number of symbolic depictions of God the Father and the Holy Spirit, which then also resulted in a whole range of other icons being placed on the forbidden list, mostly affecting Western-style depictions which had been gaining ground in Orthodox icons. The Council also declared that the person of the Trinity who was the "Ancient of Days" was Christ, as
Logos, not God the Father. However some icons continued to be produced in
Russia, as well as
Greece,
Romania, and other
Orthodox Christian-majority countries. == Kingdom of God and eschatology ==