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In the philosophy of most Western Monotheistic Religion s, omnipotence is listed as one of God's characteristics among many, including Omniscience , Omnipresence , and Benevolence . MEANINGS OF OMNIPOTENCE Between people of different Faith s, or indeed even between people of the same faith, the term ''omnipotent'' has been used to connote a number of different positions. These positions include, but are not limited to, the following: #God is able to do anything, i. e. the answer to "can God do x" is always "yes", regardless of what x may be. However this leads to Obvious Contradictions and is not a view held by philosophically aware theologians. Although it can be argued that to try and rationalize God's omnipotent power is a vain undertaking, since we cannot ever really understand God's power, and is perhaps better to take it on faith.(see Kierkegaard ) #God is able to do anything that is logically possible for God to do eg Aquinas ''Summa Theologica'' link here . #God is able to do anything that God chooses to do eg St Augustine ''City of God''. #God is able to do anything that is in accord with his own nature (thus, for instance, if it is a logical consequence of God's nature that what God speaks is truth, then God is not able to Lie ). Under many philosophical definitions of the term "God", senses 2, 3 and 4 can be shown to be equivalent. However, on all understandings of Omnipotence, it is generally held that God is able to intervene in the world by superseding the laws of physics, since they are not part of his nature, but the principles on which he has created the physical world. However many modern scholars (such as John Polkinghorne ) hold that it is part of God's nature to be consistent and that it would be inconsistent for God to go against His own laws unless there were an overwhelming reason to do so. This is a consistent theme of Polkinghorne's work, see eg Polkinghorne's ''Science and Religion''. Scholastic definition Thomas Aquinas acknowledged difficulty in comprehending God's power. Aquinas wrote that while "all confess that God is omnipotent...it seems difficult to explain in what God's omnipotence precisely consists." In the scholastic understanding, omnipotence is generally understood to be compatible with certain limitations upon God's power, as opposed to implying infinite abilities. There are certain things that even an omnipotent God cannot do. Medieval theologians drew attention to some fairly trivial examples of restrictions upon the power of God. The statement "God can do anything" is only sensible with an assumed suppressed clause, "that implies the perfection of true power." This standard scholastic answer allows that creaturely acts such as walking can be performed by humans but not by God. Rather than an advantage in power, human acts such as walking, sitting or giving birth were possible only because of a ''defect'' in human power. The ability to Sin , for example, is not a power but a defect or an infirmity. In response to questions of God performing impossibilities (such as making square circles) Aquinas says that "Nothing which implies contradiction falls under the omnipotence of God." {Link without Title} In recent times, C.S. Lewis has adopted a scholastic position in the course of his work The Problem Of Pain . Lewis follows Aquinas' view on contradiction: REJECTION OR LIMITATION OF OMNIPOTENCE Some monotheists reject the view that God is or could be omnipotent, or take the view that, by choosing to create creatures with freewill, God has chosen to limit divine omnipotence. In Conservative and Reform Judaism , and some movements within Protestant Christianity , including Process Theology and Open Theism , God is said to act in the world through persuasion, and not by coercion (for open theism, this is a matter of choice--God could act miraculously, and perhaps on occasion does so--while for process theism it is a matter of necessity--creatures have inherent powers that God cannot, even in principle, override). God is manifest in the world through inspiration and the creation of possibility, not necessarily by Miracle s or violations of the laws of nature. The rejection of omnipotence often follows from either philosophical or scriptural considerations, discussed below. Philosophical grounds Process theology rejects unlimited omnipotence on a philosophical basis, arguing that omnipotence as classically understood would be less than perfect, and is therefore incompatible with the idea of a perfect God. The idea is grounded in Plato's oft-overlooked statement that "Being is power."
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