Does God Suffer?

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Thomas G. Weinandy is here to answer the question for us. Actually, he isn't "here" per se, but over at First Things, with an article based on his book, Does God Suffer?

I have not read the book, but judging from the article it is definately worth my time to do so and this task has been added to my to-do list. As for the article, it is a very fine discussion of the question of whether ornot God is impassible, and precisely what is at stake in answering this question. In addition to my recommendation of this article to all those who are interested in this question, I should like to make two comments. First, it seems to me that Weinandy is too quick to lump T.F. Torrance and Karl Barth in with Jurgen Moltmann on this question. But, we can forgive him since he is only doing a quick overview in this article. Hopefully his book is a little more nuanced here. Second, I have not decided as to how far I can go with Weinandy on the specifically Christological sections of this article. I think we can be sure that this section is greatly extended in the book, and I look forward to examining that at a latter date.

That said, do check out this article.

Thanks to my buddy Shane for bringing this article to my attention.

Comments

Unknown said…
This is a very fine article you've brought to our attention; thank you.

As far as the moves Weinandy makes in reference to Christology, it felt very much live Calvin's discussion of Christ's righteousness. It is not the righteousness of God with which we are declared righteous (as Osiander had it), but it is the righteousness of Christ earned in his human nature. In the same way, for TGW, it is not God who suffers in himself, but it is the suffering of Christ in his humanity (and ultimately his resurrection) that gives us hope and consolation.

In some ways, our desire to make God the co-sufferer is our desire to make ourselves divine.
August 11, 2006 4:43 PM
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