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| Attributes of God in Christianity |
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| Emotions expressed by God |
Impassibility (fromLatinin-, "not",passibilis, "able to suffer, experience emotion") describes thetheologicaldoctrine thatGod does not experiencepain orpleasure from the actions of another being. It has often been seen as a consequence of divineaseity, the idea that God is absolutely independent of any other being, i.e., in no way causally dependent. Being affected (literally made to have a certain emotion,affect) by the state or actions of another would seem to imply causal dependence.
Some theological systems portray God as a being expressive of many (or all)emotions. Other systems, mainly Christianity, Judaism and Islam, portray God as a being that does not experience suffering. However, in Christianity there was an ancient dispute about the impassibility of God (seeNestorianism). Still, it is understood in allAbrahamic religions, including Christianity, that God is "without passions", because God isimmutable. So in Christianity, while the human nature of Christ is mutable and passable, theGodhead is not. (Bible, book of James, chapter 1 verse 17: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (King James Version).
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TheCatholic Church teachesdogmatically that God is impassible.
Impassibility ofGod the Father is mentioned in theAquileian Creed (before the 4th century).[1][2] As the Aquileian Creed affirms, this faith was shared by the Christian Churches ofRome,Alexandria of Egypt andJerusalem.
The impassibility of God is also indirectly affirmed by theFirst Vatican Council's apostolic constitutionDei Filius, which emphasizes the ineffability of God:
The holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church believes and confesses that there is one true and living God, Creator and Lord ofheaven and earth, almighty, eternal, immense, incomprehensible, infinite in intelligence, in will, and in all perfection, who, as being one, sole, absolutely simple and immutable spiritualsubstance, is to be declared asreally and essentially distinct from the world, of supreme beatitude in and from Himself, and ineffably exalted above all things which exist, or are conceivable, except Himself.
— Dei Filius, Chapter I
The divine nature accordingly has no emotions, changes, alterations, height, width, depth, or any other temporal attributes. While Jesus Christ's human nature was complete, and thus Christ possessed a human body, human mind and human soul, and thus human emotions, this human nature washypostatically united with the timeless, immutable, impassible divine nature, which retained all of its divine attributes without alteration, just as his human nature retained all of its human attributes.In Catholic doctrine, it would be erroneous and blasphemous to attribute changes or emotional states to God, except by analogy. Thus scriptural expressions which indicate "anger" or "sadness" on God's part are considered anthropomorphisms, mere analogies to explain mankind's relationship to God, who is impassible in his own nature.Some objecting to this claim assert that if God cannot have emotions, then God cannot love, which is a central tenet of Christianity. However, Catholics would point out that love is not an emotion except in a secondary sense, and is far more than simply a changeable emotion. Furthermore, the human nature of Christ expressed emotional love as well as possessing the timeless, unconditioned "agape" of God.
| Part of a series on the |
| Attributes of God in Christianity |
|---|
|
| Core attributes |
| Overarching attributes |
| Miscellaneous |
| Emotions expressed by God |
Theodoret, an early Christian bishop and theologian, wrote, "wild and blasphemous are they who ascribe passion to the divine nature," in his Demonstrations bySyllogism.[3]
Augustinism, one of the chief Christian schools of thought associated most often withRoman Catholicism andCalvinistProtestantism, strongly asserts the impassibility of God, as well as hisimpeccability.[4] It also defends the notion ofacts of God and divineintercession, such as the miracles of theScriptures.
Martin Luther and especiallyJohn Calvin were heavily influenced by Augustine, and their theologies are similar in many respects in regard to divine impassibility.
Generally, scholars do not take anthropomorphic phrases in the Bible like "the finger of God" or "the hand of God" to mean that God literally has a hand or finger. Rather, it is interpreted as an allegory for theHoly Spirit and an expression ofGod's sovereignty over and intervention into the material world.
Other Christian views portray a God who does have emotions and emotional reactions to creation, but these emotions should not necessarily be viewed as altogether similar to human emotions. Genesis 1 says that humans were made in God's image, but human emotions, originally a reflection of God's emotional capacity, have been marred by thefall of man.
Human emotions are subject to time, space, and circumstance. God's emotions are always in keeping with God's character as described by the scriptures and in the person of Jesus Christ, according to Christian scholars and the Bible. A few examples are found in Genesis, chapter 8, in the account of the Flood.
God is "grieved" at the pervasive evil of mankind, yet "pleased" with Noah's faithfulness. After the flood, God is "pleased" by Noah's burnt offering.[5] Traditional Christian interpretation understood such depictions of changing emotion in God to be simply an anthropomorphic way of expressing his pleasure or displeasure with human actions. They believed God's eternal will for mankind and love for mankind in Christ does not undergo alteration; God is immutable.
Although there are differing opinions in Christian circles about the impassibility of God, Christian scholars consent that Jesus was completely human and completely God, and so expressedsanctified emotions and was subject to the same physical limitations as humanity, such as hunger or exhaustion. Most Christians traditionally believed these experiences to be proper only to Jesus' human nature.
The New Testament says inHebrews, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin."[6] For this reason, God accepted Christ's sacrifice on man's behalf and so is able to offeratonement through Christ.
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Some early adepts ofgnosticism held that Jesus did not have a living body and was not able to suffer the Passion. This debate occupied a great deal of early Church Fathers, who took labours to prove that Jesus really did have a human body.
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A rival doctrine is calledtheopaschism, which highly insists on the suffering of the Lord Jesus at the Passion. However, theopaschism, along withpatripassionism, has often been rejected by theologians as a form ofmodalism.
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Jews generally hold to the impassibility of God and do not believe that theMessiah is divine or spiritual, but rather that he is political. The belief indivine simplicity is at the heart of Judaism, and thegender of God (i.e., God the Father) is not specified.
The Islamic religion is based on the notion of the absolute impassibility of God, an impassibility which is only matched by transcendence. Islam does not believe inincarnation,passion,Holy Trinity andresurrection andGod the Father because it is seen as an attack on divine impassibility.[citation needed]
Although love and mercy are attributed to God, it is emphasised that God is completely dissimilar to created things.Al-Rahman & Al-Raheem, the Merciful, is one of the primarynames of God in Islam, but meant in terms of God being beneficent towards creation rather than in terms of softening of the heart. The latter implies a psychological change, and contradicts God's absolute transcendence.[7]
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Many polytheistic traditions portray their gods as feeling a wide range of emotions. For example,Zeus is famous for hislustfulness,Susano-o for his intemperance, andBalder for his joyousness and calm. Impassibility in the Western tradition traces back to ancientGreekphilosophers likeAristotle andPlato, who first proposed the idea of God as a perfect,omniscient, timeless, and unchanging being not subject to human emotion (which represents change and imperfection). The concept of impassibility was developed by medieval theologians likeAnselm and continues to be in tension with more emotional concepts of God.
