Theistic Personalism Definition & Meaning

Definition

A view of God that says that God is in the category of being a person like you and me, but without the finite limitations of humans. This view contrasts with classical theism, which asserts that there is a Personal Reality that is Ultimate. In other words, for classical theism, God can’t be reduced to a category or sub-category; there would be no such distinction in God.

Discussion

The implication of this is that theistic personalism tends to reject attributes of God like simplicity, immutability, timelessness, impassibility, etc: classical theism affirms these attributes of God.

So, how does theistic personalism contrast with classical theism? What is the difference between theistic personalism and classical theism? When it comes to characterizing theistic personalism vs classical theism, theistic personalists see God as exemplifying the property of personhood and goodness. On the other hand, for classical theism, God is the Ultimate source of Personhood and Goodness because God is Goodness itself. There’s nothing more fundamental than God on classical theism. This view of God is quite different from the caricatures you see from many atheists or skeptics.

It’s commonly objected that classical theism makes God impersonal, unfeeling, or unloving. But as we’ve seen, this is false; the objection is, therefore, based on a strawman. Since on classical theism, God is Love itself, the objection is absolutely ridiculous!