Who is God is a hard question since there is no real, valid answer. God is not someone that people are able to see in the flesh. God is something greater than this world and is a divine presence. Ratzinger believes this is an important question today. Many people believe that God is dead or cast doubt about faith and what is actually truth. However, the talk of God, “has left its stamp on the whole history of humanity and right to the present” (Ratzinger 103). People have been intrigued by this thought of God and have many different practices and beliefs about God.
God takes on different forms in various religions. Ratzinger notes that God takes on three different forms. He can be in monotheism, polytheism, and atheism. Monotheism is the belief in one God like Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. Polytheism is the belief in many gods like Hinduism. Lastly, atheism is the, “dismissal of the subject of God…it represents a form of man’s concern with the question of God” (104). Each of these beliefs all identify a God whether or not they believe in one or many. Ratzinger believes these all show the, “unity and uniqueness of the absolute; where they differed is only in their notions of the manner in which man has to deal with the absolute or, alternatively, of how the absolute behaves toward him” (109).
Being Catholic, I believe that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. This means God has total power and knowledge and is also always active in our lives. Through the Bible we see God’s power. For example, God sends a flood to wipe out all of civilization except Noah. We also see God’s mercy and forgiveness. In Exodus, the Israelites are being oppressed by the Egyptians. God then sends Moses to save the Israelites from slavery.
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