God as a Moral Agent (1)

This article reports the first part of extensive research on the ‎nature of God's agency. The two main questions of this research are:‎‎(1) Is God a moral agent?‎‎(2) If so, is divine morality the same as human morality or does it differ from human morality, either wholly or ‎partially?‎Regarding the first question, the author examines three rival theories: ‎‎"God as an autocratic‎ agent", "God as a pragmatic agent" and "God as ‎a moral agent". In this research, the idea of God as a moral agent will ‎be argued for, and the other two conceptions of the nature of divine ‎agency will be argued against. Regarding the second question, the ‎author defends the theory that divine morality and human morality ‎have no difference in terms of their “normative content”, although ‎they have considerable differences in other respects.‎The first part of this research, presented in this article, after stating ‎the preliminaries, deals with the theory of “God as an autocratic ‎agent” and critically examines some of the arguments made or that ‎could be made in favor of this conception of the nature of God. The ‎second and third parts of this research, which will be published as ‎separate articles in forthcoming issues of this journal, will elaborate ‎on the other two conceptions of the nature of divine agency.