The Suffering of the Impassible God The Dialectics of Patristic Thought [Paperback]

This book provides a major reconsideration of the issue of divine suffering and divine emotions in the early Church Fathers. Patristic writers are commonly criticized for falling prey to Hellenistic philosophy and uncritically accepting the claim that God cannot suffer or feel emotions. Gavrilyuk shows that this view represents a misreading of evidence. In contrast, he construes the development of patristic thought as a series of dialectical turning points taken to safeguard the paradox of God's voluntary and salvific suffering in the Incarnation.

Introduction
1. Testing the fall into Hellenistic philosophy theory
2. The function of divine impassibility in patristic theology
3. The reality of Christ's suffering defended in the struggle with Docetism
4. Patripassian controversy: the Son, not God the Father, is the subject of the Incarnation
5. The orthodox response to Arianism: involvement in suffering does not diminish Christ's divinity
6. The case of Cyril against Nestorius: a theology of divine self-emptying
Conclusion

Paul L. Gavrilyukis Assistant Professor of Historical Theology in the University of St Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota.