Christianity
Christian theologian Alister McGrath writes that there are good reasons to suggest that a "personal god" is integral to the Christian outlook, but that one has to understand it is an analogy. "To say that God is like a person is to affirm the divine ability and willingness to relate to others. This does not imply that God is human, or located at a specific point in the universe."
In the case of the Christian belief in the Trinity, whether the Holy Spirit is an impersonal god – that is, a "force...often likened to electricity" by some – or a personal one, is the subject of dispute, with experts in pneumatology debating the matter. Jesus (or God the Son) and God the Father are believed to be, by different groups, two persons or aspects of the same god: Jesus is of the same ousia or substance as God the Father, manifested in three hypostases or persons (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).
Moreover, the belief in Holy Communion and Last Supper implies an intensely communal understanding of religion which very often goes beyond the boundaries of individuality, in what theologians have called the "mystical body".
Nontrinitarian Christians dispute that Jesus is a "hypostasis" or person of God.
Read more about this topic: Personal God
Famous quotes containing the word christianity:
“With two thousand years of Christianity behind him ... a man can’t see a regiment of soldiers march past without going off the deep end. It starts off far too many ideas in his head.”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961)
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