Perfection
I think its time to drag myself out of my emotional phunk and get back to myself.
Anyway, I have recently been thinking about what perfection means. God being perfect is probably a safe doctrine to espouse, at least until what perfection means comes up. For does perfection mean mutability or immutability? Or to phrase that in non-jargonistic language can perfection encompass change or does it by definition exclude the very possibility of change? The ancient Greeks (I think Plato or Aristotle) reasoned that perfection could not change, or was immutable. If something is perfect then since it cannot change for the better (because if it could change for the better then it there would be another level of perfection higher than it) and if it changes for the worse then it is no longer perfect. In concrete attributes this clearly is logical. There is perfect knowledge which knows all and there is perfect power which is unstoppable, there is a perfect love that loves the beloved no matter what. However, for such a fluid concept as emotion is there such a thing as immutable perfection. There is a time for anger which in ferocious fire seeks to purify the beloved, however, if this anger were to continue unabated it would consume the beloved. There is a time for regret which weeps for the fate of the beloved, however, if this regret were to continue it would immobilise from any possibility of salvation.
Obviously I am talking about God here. Can God's emotions change?
Anyway, I have recently been thinking about what perfection means. God being perfect is probably a safe doctrine to espouse, at least until what perfection means comes up. For does perfection mean mutability or immutability? Or to phrase that in non-jargonistic language can perfection encompass change or does it by definition exclude the very possibility of change? The ancient Greeks (I think Plato or Aristotle) reasoned that perfection could not change, or was immutable. If something is perfect then since it cannot change for the better (because if it could change for the better then it there would be another level of perfection higher than it) and if it changes for the worse then it is no longer perfect. In concrete attributes this clearly is logical. There is perfect knowledge which knows all and there is perfect power which is unstoppable, there is a perfect love that loves the beloved no matter what. However, for such a fluid concept as emotion is there such a thing as immutable perfection. There is a time for anger which in ferocious fire seeks to purify the beloved, however, if this anger were to continue unabated it would consume the beloved. There is a time for regret which weeps for the fate of the beloved, however, if this regret were to continue it would immobilise from any possibility of salvation.
Obviously I am talking about God here. Can God's emotions change?
2 Comments:
You think theology is giving you nightmares I've got a level 7 exegetical exam to study for, Gospel of John.
Hm... perhaps mutability could be seen not as a matter of changing for the better against some eternal standard, but of being adaptable to changes of circumstance. i.e. what's best now is not necessarily still the best in 10 years' time, or 10 minutes' time. So God could have the characteristic of perfect adaptability, which means He is always perfect, though not always the same. But then does the characteristic of adaptability become subject to itself, and cease to be once it's no longer needed, or is it a constant? Blah, tangent. I may be being mildly heretical here.
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