Wounds of the emptied god

Abstract

"There can be little doubt that twentieth century Christian theology saw an unprecedented movement toward the consideration—and, in many quarters, acceptance—of the idea of a God who can and does suffer.1 Over and against more traditional conceptions of God (i.e. what Charles Hartshorne termed “classical theism”) many modern theologians have consistently sought to repeal the notions of divine immutability and impassibility. This turn in theological formulation has been spurred on in part by the specter of two World Wars, accompanied by death and suffering on a scale never before seen. In the face of such pain, a God who is unmoved by the sufferings of his creation began for some to seem well-nigh monstrous.2 With this shift in the understanding of God’s being and relation to the world, other concentrations within theology began to undergo gradual renovation,3 with the admittance of a passible deity engendering relational categories in the study of cosmogony, eschatology, and even Christology. In the case of the latter category, two theologians of markedly different circumstances and backgrounds have made impactful statements by approaching the concept of divine suffering in tandem with a kenotic approach to Christology"