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impassibility of God
impassibility of God. Orthodox theology has commonly held that God is not subject to suffering caused by action from without, changing emotions from within, or feelings of pain or pleasure caused by another being. In Christianity there is, however, tension between the idea of the immutability, perfection, and all-sufficiency of God, which would seem to exclude all passion, and the central conviction that God in His essence is love, and that His nature is revealed in the Incarnate Christ, not least in His Passion. Some modern theologians therefore question whether it is legitimate to speak unreservedly of God's impassibility. In the 20th cent. Divine impassibility has been challenged by philosophers as incoherent, by Process theologians as a relic of an outmoded metaphysics, and by J. Moltmann and others as a blasphemous irrelevance in the light of modern suffering under totalitarian regimes.
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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "impassibility of God." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "impassibility of God." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-impassibilityofGod.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "impassibility of God." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-impassibilityofGod.html |
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Impassibility of God
Impassibility of God. The belief that because God is immutable, unchanging, and unchangeable, he cannot suffer or be affected by what happens in, e.g., his creation. This view has dominated Christian theology for most of its history. However, this is far removed from the biblical picture of God as one who feels and responds, and who can hardly be unaffected by the crucifixion of Jesus, if Jesus is indeed the Son of the Father. Process theology reversed this emphasis by insisting that becoming is a necessary condition of being. Others have retained the traditional emphasis on the unchanging/unchangeable nature of God, but have insisted that change, suffering, petition, intercession, etc., are consequential to God and evoke response, but to and from one whose nature it is to make such response without his own nature changing.
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Cite this article
JOHN BOWKER. "Impassibility of God." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Impassibility of God." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-ImpassibilityofGod.html JOHN BOWKER. "Impassibility of God." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-ImpassibilityofGod.html |
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