PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO GOD-DEFINITION QUESTION: THE CONTEXT OF MERCY

Abstract

It is difficult to define God. This definitional intricacy is dependent on two factors: the complexity of definition as a term and the obscurity of God-question. The resultant effect is the divergent voices concerning the nature of God as represented by theists, atheists and agnostics. This research, nonetheless, aligns with theists and so argues for the possibility of attaining a definition of God: via affirmativa (affirmative way), via negativa (negative way), via conjunctiva (way of conjunction) and via analogia (way of analogy). Of specific note, it underscores via analogia as the optimum definitional option for Goddefinition problem. Further, this research notes that the complexity of God-definition question dovetails into contextual definition of God - that is, definition of God from any of his attributes. In this work, the stress is on his attribute of mercy. But the discourse on God from the aperture of mercy, though perspectival, is inkling into an exhaustive theistic definition of God. It subsists as one of the gateways to a more realistic definition of God. Consequently, it complements and reinforces other attributive definition of God essentially and ontologically. Ipso facto, mercy corroborates other divine attributes. Such harmony constitutes the index for conceiving justice-mercy relationship.