I have spoken before on both the notion of God being ‘being’, and the cosmological argument, and a thought came to me.
Even if the universe was eternal, (which it isn’t), it would still need being as a quality in order to exist, so would have prior causes. Being is (I believe) either irreducible, or can be reduced to something which is irreducible, in order to prevent an infinite regress.
Now according to my thoughts, there is no reason why agent causation shouldn’t be any less relevant here, so the universe could still have a personal cause.
I think it is easier to look out for contingent and necessary things. Contingent things can fail to exist. The universe as we experience it, is material and thus undergoes change. If something undergoes change, it can´t be necessary, because those changes need to be actualized by a deeper hierarchichal thing. This makes the universe a contingent thing. But it also requires to terminate in a necessary being which doesn´t undergo change. This is being itself, what we call God.
The personal attributes of the necessary being come about automatically once the implications of such an underlying being is understood. So the ultimate cause automatically has something like an intellect, although not like we have of course, which makes it personal.