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Divine Compassion and the Meaning of Life1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 January 2009
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When people meet each other for the first time, they often ask questions about each other's profession. In my case, it requires some courage to reply frankly to such questions. Those who are not put off by my admission that I am a philosopher of religion and ask me for my special field of interest, almost invariably betray horror at my answer that I concentrate on the suffering of God. Divine passibility may be theologically en vogue, it is simply not done to be concerned with such a topic day in, day out for several years. It is not only that for many people some kind of taboo seems to be imposed upon abstract thinking; people's aversion is too strong to be based on this alone. The heart of the matter seems to be that to many people prolonged reflection upon the suffering of God seems to be positively morbid; they would not trust their children with a man engaged in it! It is not my intention entirely to remove these misgivings here, but I do hope that my reflections at least will not reinforce them. I will focus on three issues: (1) the alleged importance of divine passibility for the project of theodicy; (2) the importance of divine passibility for our coping with suffering and (3) the relevance of the assertion of divine passibility in the light of the general sense of purposelessness that is characteristic for Western society in our time. This means that I will approach divine passibility from the backgrounds that motivate my interest in it, thus hoping to be able to convey something of the inspiration that prompted me to carry on with this seemingly morbid topic during the past few years.
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- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1995
References
2 Japanese edition 1967; English translation by William Johnston, 1969. My attention was drawn to this historical novel by Hall, Douglas John, God and Human Suffering: An Exercise in the Theology of the Cross (Minneapolis 1986)Google Scholar. He gives an excellent summary of the story of Rodrigues on pp.114–6. The summary which I give here is a slightly revised and adapted version of Hall's summary, from which I have extensively quoted, leaving out, however, all references to the contrast between Western Christianity and Japanese culture, important in Endo's story but not for the points I want to introduce and illustrate by it. The summary as I give it highlights only certain points; in order to form a well-founded opinion about Endo's story one should consult the original novel. My own copy of it is a Quartet pocket edition that does not specify the year or place of publication. The numbers between brackets in the text refer to this edition.
3 For references, see my God, Possibility and Corporeality (Kampen 1992)Google Scholar and “De passibilitas Dei in de hedendaagse Westerse theologie: Een literatuuroverzicht,” Kerk en Theologive 40/3 (1989) 196–206Google Scholar where I provide reasoned reviewsof the literature on divine passibility. The Scottish Journal of Theology has a long-standing tradition of publishing articles in the passibilist tradition; two of them, Pollard's, T. Evan ‘The Impassibility of God’, SJTh 8 (1955) 353–364CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Woollcombe's, Kenneth J. ‘The Pain of God’, SJTh 20 (1967) 129–148 have become classics.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 See Jones, E. Stanley, Christ and Human Suffering (London 1933), pp. 168–169Google Scholar. I have argued for this view on the relationship between the suffering of Christ and the suffering of God simpliciter in: ‘Suffering of Christ, Suffering of God?’, Theology 95 (1992) 113–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar; God, Passibility and Corporeality (Kampen 1992), pp. 91–96Google Scholar. There I also cite the most important literature on this issue.
5 Surin, Kenneth, ‘The Impassibility of God and the Problem of Evil’, Scottish Journal of Theology 35 (1982), p. 105CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for references to some of the many authors holding the same opinion, see my God, Passibility, pp.96–7 n.70.
6 Boxer, Charles R., The Christian Century in Japan 1549–1650 (1951; Berkeley21967), p. 353.Google Scholar
7 On ‘noble suffering’, see Norton, David L., Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism (Princeton 1976), pp. 228ff.Google Scholar
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9 Hartshorne, Charles E., Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism (Chicago 1941), pp.203–204Google Scholar. On the suffering God in process theology, see Vanhoutte, Johan, ‘God as Companion and Fellow-sufferer’, Archivio di Filosofia 56 (1988) 190–225.Google Scholar
10 See Weil, Simone, ‘The Love of God and Affliction’, in: Waitingon God (1951; rpt. London 1971), pp. 76–94Google Scholar and cf. Springsted, Eric O., Simone Weil and the Suffering of Love (Cambridge, MA 1986), esp. pp.37–52Google Scholar and Allen, Diogenes, ‘Natural Evil and the Love of God’, in: Adams, Marilyn McCord & Adams, Robert Merrihew (eds.), The Problem of Evil (Oxford 1990), esp. pp.198–204.Google Scholar
11 Cf. The Notebooks of Simone Weil (London 1956), p.294Google Scholar: ‘If there were no affliction we should be able to believe ourselves in Paradise. Horrid possibility.’ [Quoted by: Springsted, , Simone Weil, p.39.Google Scholar]
12 For this qualification, see my God, Possibility, pp.97–8.
13 I have argued for this point more extensively in: ‘Auschwitz, Morality and the Suffering of God’, Modem Theology 7 (1991), esp. pp.141–149Google Scholar; God, Possibility, pp.96–101.
14 Bickley, Hugh J., ‘Communications, as Ministry, with the Terminally III’, Abstracts of Research in Pastoral Care and Counseling 8 (1979), p. 108Google Scholar. On the consolation divine co suffering can bring, see my God, Possibility, pp.78–80 and cf. Sia, Santiago, ‘Suffering and Christian Theism: Towards a Praxis-Based Response to Hume's Challenge’, Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift. 47 (1993), 265–275.Google Scholar
15 Cf. Creel, Richard E., Divine Impassibility: An Essay in Philosophical Theology (Cambridge 1986), pp.155–158.Google Scholar
16 See my God, Possibility, p.79.
17 God, Possibility, p.170; cf. Williams, Daniel D., ‘Suffering and Being in Empirical Theology’, in: Meland, Bernard E. (ed.), The Future of Empirical Theology (London 1969), p. 181Google Scholar. In ordinary language, we sometimes use the term ‘suffering’ in a wider sense than I use it here, especially when we also use it for minor pains and discomforts. The description of suffering in the next paragraph is indebted to Weil's description of affliction.
18 On personal identity, see Brümmer, Vincent, The Model of Love: An Essay in Philosophical Theology (Cambridge 1993), Ch.9 §4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19 Cf. Lucas, John, Freedom and Grace (London 1976), pp.60–61.Google Scholar
20 The constant affirmation of the fact that the relationship between God and human beings is a personal relationship of mutual fellowship or love, is characteristic for the kind of philosophical theology done in Utrecht by professor Vincent Brümmer and his pupils. Brümmer's own publication most relevant to the topic of the present paper is The Model of Love. Other recent monographs are: Brümmer, Speaking of a Personal God, Sarot, God, Possibility, van den Brink, Gijsbert, Almighty God (Kampen 1993)Google Scholar; van den Brom, Luco J., Divine Presence in the World (Kampen 1993)Google Scholar.
21 See, e.g., Ayer, Alfred J., ‘The Meaning of Life’, in: id., The Meaning of Life and Other Essays (London 1990), pp. 178–197Google Scholar; Drescher, Johannes, Clück und Lebenssinn: Eine religionsphilosophische Untersuchung (Freiburg 1991)Google Scholar; Hanfling, Oswald (ed.), Life and Meaning: A Reader (Oxford5 1992)Google Scholar; Hanfling, Oswald, The Quest for Meaning (Oxford2 1988)Google Scholar; Luper-Foy, Stephen, ‘The Absurdity of Life’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52/1 (1992) 85–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Vedder, Ben a.o. (eds.), Zin tussen vraag en aanbod: Theologische en wijsgerige beschouwingen over zin (Tilburg 1992)Google Scholar; van der Wai, G.A. & Jacobs, F.C.L.M. (eds.), Vragen naar zin: Beschouwingen over zingevingsproblemaliek (Baarn 1992).Google Scholar
22 See, e.g., Adriaanse, H.J., ‘Het lichtend wereldbouwwerk’, in: Van der Wai, & Jacobs, (eds.), Vragen naarzin, pp. 158–160Google Scholar; in personal discussions, Professor Adriaanse has elaborated this claim.
23 I have tried to contribute to this revision in my God, Possibility.