Divine Impassibility
Can God suffer? The ancient conviction that nothing outside him can move his nature
Divine impassibility teaches that God does not undergo change of emotion or suffering in his divine nature caused by anything outside himself. Writers such as Clement and Cyril of Alexandria upheld it as part of God's perfection and freedom. The doctrine is contested in modern theology: passibilist theologians argue that God genuinely suffers with creation, whereas the patristic consensus affirmed impassibility.
How it traveled
- A Plea for the ChristiansAlexandria · 190explains
- Three Fragments from the Homily on the Cross and Passion of Christ.— · 311explains
- A Treatise on the Anger of God Addressed to Donatus— · 325applies
- On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia. (De Synodis.)Alexandria · 373explains
- Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.)Alexandria · 373explains
- Against EunomiusNyssa · 395explains
- Answer to Eunomius' Second BookNyssa · 395explains
- The Great CatechismNyssa · 395explains
- The Homilies of St. John ChrysostomConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and PhilemonConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- A Commentary on the Apostles' CreedAquileia · 411explains
- City of GodHippo Regius · 430redefines
- Expositions on the Book of PsalmsHippo Regius · 430explains
- Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the ManichæansHippo Regius · 430explains
- Letters of St. AugustinHippo Regius · 430explains
- The ConfessionsHippo Regius · 430explains
- On the Morals of the ManichæansHippo Regius · 430explains
- The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of TheodoretCyrrhus · 458explains
- The Letters and Sermons of Leo the GreatRome · 461explains
- John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox FaithDamascus · 749explains
- ProslogiumCanterbury · 1109explains
- Anselm's Cur Deus HomoCanterbury · 1109explains
- Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26])Paris · 1274explains
- Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59)Paris · 1274explains
- Treatise on Man (qq[75]-102)Paris · 1274explains
Key passages(20)
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
3. The authors of this patchwork and incongruous heresy at one time assert that God the Word was made flesh, and at another declare that the flesh underwent a change into nature of Godhead. Either sta
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
“When therefore you hear of the Lord being betrayed, do not degrade the divine dignity to insignificance, nor attribute to divine power the sufferings of the body. For the divine is impassible and inv
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
Orth.—Very right. But it is also important to recognise the fact that no confusion of natures results from both having one name. Wherefore we are endeavouring to distinguish how the same being is Son
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
“The flesh which received the Godhead, and which through the resurrection was exalted with the Godhead, is not formed of another material, but of ours; so, just as in the case of our own body, the ope
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A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed · Rufinus of Aquileia
5. Now whereas we said that the Eastern Churches, in their delivery of the Creed, say, “In one God Deum,not, as before, Deo. God is called Almighty because He possesses rule and dominion over all th
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A Plea for the Christians · Athenagoras
But should it be said that they only had fleshly forms, and possess blood and seed, and the affections of anger and sexual desire, even then we must regard such assertions as nonsensical and ridiculou
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A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. · Novatian
Chapter V. Argument.—If We Regard the Anger, and Indignation, and Hatred of God Described in the Sacred Pages, We Must Remember that They are Not to Be Understood as Bearing the Character of Human Vic
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Answer to Eunomius' Second Book · Gregory of Nyssa
But, says he, since God condescends to commune with His servants, we may consequently suppose that from the very beginning He enacted words appropriate to things. What, then, is our answer? We account
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
“And the truth is that His conjunction with the body does not take place by circumscription of the Word, so that He has nothing beyond His incorporation. Wherefore even in death immortality abides wit
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
Orth.—And He that is could never become non-existent. Eran.—Away with the thought! Orth.—Nor yet could the Father become Son. Eran.—Impossible. Orth.—Nor yet could the unbegotten become begotten.
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
Orth.—Now, in the passages which you have just read, the divine Scripture makes no mention of the body, but as far as the words used go, signifies soul as well as body. We however make the proper dist
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
Orth.—We do say so; that God is absolutely immortal. He is immortal not by partaking of substance, but in substance; He does not possess an immortality which He has received of another. It is He Himse
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Three Fragments from the Homily on the Cross and Passion of Christ. · Methodius
III. The Same Methodius: How Christ the Son of God, in a Brief and Definite Time, Being Enclosed by the Body, and Existing Impassible, Became Obnoxious to the Passion. For since this virtue was in H
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Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26]) · Thomas Aquinas
We next consider those things that pertain absolutely to the will of God. In the appetitive part of the soul there are found in ourselves both the passions of the soul, as joy, love, and the like; and
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Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) · Athanasius of Alexandria
33. Who will not admire this? or who will not agree that such a thing is truly divine? for if the works of the Word’s Godhead had not taken place through the body, man had not been deified; and again,
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
Eran.—Then the Christ is only a man. Orth.—God forbid. On the contrary, we have again and again confessed that He is not only man but eternal God. But He suffered as man, not as God. And this the div
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
“As by entering the Virgin’s womb He did not lessen His power, so neither by the fastening of His body to the wood of the cross is His spirit defiled. For when the body was crucified on high the divin
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
“For when the Word was conscious that in no other way could the ruin of men be undone save by death to the uttermost, and it was impossible that the Word who is immortal and Son of the Father should d
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
Orth.—In the case of Isaac, of the prophets, of the man sick of the palsy, and of the rest, we did so without destroying the natural union of the soul and of the body; we did not even separate the sou
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
But of this no more for the present. I will however mention the sacrifice in which two goats were offered, the one being slain, and the other let go. Lev. xvi Eran.—Do you not think it irreverent to
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