Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T09:39:04.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements in the Philosophy of Religion

God and Emotion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2020

R. T. Mullins
R. T. Mullins
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland

Summary

An introductory exploration on the nature of emotions, and examination of some of the critical issues surrounding the emotional life of God as they relate to happiness, empathy, love, and moral judgments. Covering the different criteria used in the debate between impassibility and passibility, readers can begin to think about which emotions can be predicated of God and which cannot.
Get access

Keywords

GodEmotionImpassibilityEmpathy
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in the Philosophy of Religion
Online ISBN: 9781108688918
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 08 October 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Bibliography

Aquinas, Thomas. 1993. The Collected Works of St. Thomas Aquinas. Electronic Edition, ed. Deely, John N.. Charlottsville: InteLex Corporation.Google Scholar
Arminius, James. 1986. The Works of James Arminius. Trans. James Nichols. Vol. 2. London: Baker Book House Company.Google Scholar
Augustine, Saint. 1991. The Trinity. Trans. Edmund Hill. Hyde Park: New City Press.Google Scholar
Bates, William. 1999. The Whole Works of the Rev. W. Bates, ed. Farmer, W. Vol. 1. Harrisonburg: Sprinkle Publications.Google Scholar
Bauckham, Richard. 2008. Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament’s Christology of Divine Identity. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Bavinck, Herman. 1979. The Doctrine of God. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust.Google Scholar
Bird, Michael F. 2013. Evangelical Theology: A Biblical and Systematic Introduction. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.Google Scholar
Blackwood, Christopher. 1658. Expositions and Sermons Upon the Ten First Chapters of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, According to Matthew. London: Henry Hills.Google Scholar
Brady, Michael S. 2013. Emotional Insight: The Epistemic Role of Emotional Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brasnett, Bertrand R. 1928. The Suffering of the Impassible God. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Carson, D.A. 2006. How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.Google Scholar
Carson, D.A. 2000. “Love.” In New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, eds. Desmond Alexander, T, Rosner, Brian S., Carson, D.A., and Goldsworthy, Graeme. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.Google Scholar
Charnock, Stephen. 1864. The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock. ed. M’Cosh, James. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: James Nichol.Google Scholar
Clore, Gerald L. 2011. “Psychology and the Rationality of Emotion.” Modern Theology 27: 325–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craig, William Lane. 2001. God, Time, and Eternity: The Coherence of Theism II: Eternity. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Creel, Richard E. 1997. “Immutability and Impassibility.” In A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, eds. Quinn, Philip L. and Taliaferro, Charles. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Creel, Richard E. 1986. Divine Impassibility: An Essay in Philosophical Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cuneo, Terence. 2007. The Normative Web: An Argument for Moral Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Brian. 2006. The Reality of God and the Problem of Evil. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Davies, Brian and Evans, G.R.,. 2008. Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works. New York: Oxford University.Google Scholar
Deng, Natalja. 2018. God and Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deonna, Julien A. and Teroni, Fabrice. 2012. The Emotions: A Philosophical Introduction. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diller, Jeanine and Kasher, Asa. 2013. Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodds, Michael J. 2008. The Unchanging God of Love: Thomas Aquinas and Contemporary Theology on Divine Immutability. 2nd ed. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar
Dolezal, James E. 2019. “Strong Impassibility.” In Divine Impassibility: Four Views of God’s Emotions and Suffering, eds. Matz, Robert J. and Chadwick Thornhill, A. Downers Grove: IVP Academic.Google Scholar
Dolezal, James E. 2017. All That Is In God: Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books.Google Scholar
Fiddes, Paul. 1988. The Creative Suffering of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fretheim, Terence E. 1984. The Suffering of God: An Old Testament Perspective. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Shaun. 2017. “Empathy and Theories of Direct Perception.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, ed. Maibom, Heidi L.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gavrilyuk, Paul L. 2004. The Suffering of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hartshorne, Charles. 1964. Man’s Vision of God and the Logic of Theism. Hamden: Archon Books.Google Scholar
Hasker, William. 2016. “Is Divine Simplicity a Mistake?” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 90: 600–725.Google Scholar
Heil, John. 2018. “Dispositionality and Mentality.” In The Ontology of Emotions, eds. Naar, Hichem and Teroni, Fabrice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Helm, Bennett W. 2015. “Emotions and Recalcitrance: Reevaluating the Perceptual Model.” Dialectica 2015: 417–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helm, Bennett W. 2001. “Emotions and Practical Reason: Rethinking Evaluation and Motivation.” Nous 35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helm, Paul. 2014. “Impassionedness and ‘So-called Classical Theism’.” In Within the Love of God: Essays on the Doctrine of God in Honour of Paul S. Fiddes, eds. Clarke, Anthony and Moore, Andrew. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Helm, Paul. 2010. Eternal God: A Study of God Without Time. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helm, Paul. 1990. “Impossibility of Divine Passibility.” In The Power and Weakness of God, ed. Nigel M. de S. Cameron. Edinburgh: Rutherford House Books.Google Scholar
Herdt, Jennifer A. 2001. “The Rise of Sympathy and the Question of Divine Suffering.” Journal of Religious Ethics 29: 367–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kauppinen, Antti. 2017. “Empathy and Moral Judgment.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, ed. Maibom, Heidi L.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kennett, Jeanette. 2017. “Empathy and Psychopathology.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, ed. Maibom, Heidi L.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kraay, Klaas J. 2010. “Theism, Possible Worlds, and the Multiverse.” Philosophical Studies 147: 355–68.Google Scholar
Lane, Tony. 2001. “The Wrath of God as an Aspect of the Love of God.” In Nothing Greater, Nothing Better: Theological Essays on the Love of God, ed. Vanhoozer, Kevin J..Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Lindberg, Carter. 2008. Love: A Brief History Through Western Christianity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lister, Rob. 2013. God is Impassible and Impassioned: Toward a Theology of Divine Emotion. Wheaton: Crossway.Google Scholar
Lombard, Peter. 2007. The Sentences Book 1: The Mystery of the Trinity. Trans. Giulio Silano. Ontario: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.Google Scholar
Maibom, Heidi L. 2017. “Affective Empathy.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, ed. Maibom, Heidi L.. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mawson, T.J. 2018. The Divine Attributes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mawson, T.J. 2008. “Divine Eternity.” International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion 64: 35–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConnell, Francis J. 1927. The Christlike God: A Survey of the Divine Attributes From the Christian Point of View. New York: Abingdon Press.Google Scholar
McConnell, Francis J. 1924. Is God Limited? London: Williams & Norgate.Google Scholar
Moberly, R.W.L. 2013. Old Testament Theology: Reading the Hebrew Bible as Christian Scripture. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.Google Scholar
Moberly, R.W.L. 1998. “God is Not a Human That He Should Repent (Numbers 23:19 and 1 Samuel 15:29).” In God in the Fray: A Tribute to Walter Brueggemann, eds. Linafelt, Tod and Beal, Timothy K.. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.Google Scholar
Moltmann, Jurgen. 2001. The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology. London: SCM.Google Scholar
Mozley, J.K. 1926. The Impassibility of God: A Survey of Christian Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Muis, Jan. 2011. “Can Christian Talk About God Be Literal?” Modern Theology 27: 582–607.Google Scholar
Mullins, R.T. 2018. “Why Can’t the Impassible God Suffer?” TheoLogica 2: 3–22.Google Scholar
Mullins, R.T. 2016a. The End of the Timeless God. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mullins, R.T. 2016b. “The Difficulty of Demarcating Panentheism.” Sophia 55: 325–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullins, R.T. 2014. “Doing Hard Time: Is God the Prisoner of the Oldest Dimension?” Journal of Analytic Theology 2: 160–85.Google Scholar
Nagasawa, Yujin. 2017. Maximal God: A New Defense of Perfect Being Theism. Oxford : Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nagasawa, Yujin. 2013. “Models of Anselmian Theism.” Faith and Philosophy 30: 3–25.Google Scholar
Nagasawa, Yujin. 2008. God and Phenomenal Consciousness: A Novel Approach to Knowledge Arguments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagasawa, Yujin. 2003. “Divine Omniscience and Knowledge de se.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 53: 73–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha C. 2001. Upheavals of Thought: Intelligence of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O’Connor, Kathleen M. 1998. “The Tears of God and Divine Character in Jeremiah 2–9.” In God in the Fray: A Tribute to Walter Brueggemann, eds. Linafelt, Tod and Beal, Timothy K.. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.Google Scholar
Oord, Thomas Jay. 2019. God Can’t! New York City: SacraSage Press.Google Scholar
Oord, Thomas Jay. 2010. The Nature of Love: A Theology. St Louis: Chalice Press.Google Scholar
Peckham, John C. 2019. “Qualified Passibility.” In Divine Impassibility: Four Views of God’s Emotions and Suffering, eds. Matz, Robert J. and Chadwick Thornhill, A. Downers Grove: IVP Academic.Google Scholar
Peckham, John C. 2015. The Love of God: A Canonical Model. Downers Grove: IVP Academic.Google Scholar
Pereboom, Derk. 2016. “Libertarianism and Theological Determinism.” In Free Will and Theism: Connections, Contingencies, and Concerns, eds. Timpe, Kevin and Speak, Daniel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pink, Arthur W. 1975. The Attributes of God. Grand Rapids: Baker Books.Google Scholar
Randles, Marshall. 1900. The Blessed God: Impassibility. London: Charles H. Kelly.Google Scholar
Ravenscroft, Ian. 2017. “Empathy and Knowing What It’s Like.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, ed. Maibom, Heidi L.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Renihan, Samuel, ed. 2015. God Without Passions: A Reader. Palmdale: Reformed Baptist Academic Press.Google Scholar
Rice, Rebekah L. 2016. “Reasons and Divine Action.” In Free Will and Theism: Connections, Contingencies, and Concerns, eds. Timpe, Kevin and Speak, Daniel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Robert C. 2013. Emotions in the Moral Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Robert C. 2011. Thinking Through Feeling: God, Emotion and Passibility. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Roberts, Robert C. 2007. Spiritual Emotions: A Psychology of Christian Virtues. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Roberts, Robert C. and Jay Wood, W. 2007. Intellectual Virtues: An Essay in Regulative Epistemology. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, Katherin. 1996. “The Traditional Doctrine of Divine Simplicity.” Religious Studies 32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scrutton, Anastasia. 2013. “Divine Passibility: God and Emotion.” Philosophy Compass 8: 866–74.Google Scholar
Shafer-Landau, Russ. 2005. Moral Realism: A Defence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shedd, W.G.T. 1888. Dogmatic Theology. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.Google Scholar
Shoemaker, David. 2017. “Empathy and Moral Responsibility.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, ed. Maibom, Heidi L.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Silverman, Eric. 2013. “Impassibility and Divine Love.” In Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities, eds. Diller, Jeanine and Kasher, Asa. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Soteriou, Matthew. 2018. “The Ontology of Emotion.” In The Ontology of Emotions, eds. Naar, Hichem and Teroni, Fabrice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Spaulding, Shannon. 2017. “Cognitive Empathy.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, ed. Maibom, Heidi L.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Strong, Augustus Hopkins. 1907a. Systematic Theology Volume 1: The Doctrine of God. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society.Google Scholar
Strong, Augustus Hopkins. 1907b. Systematic Theology Volume 2: The Doctrine of Man. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society.Google Scholar
Stump, Eleonore. 2018. Atonement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stump, Eleonore. 2010. Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swinburne, Richard. 2016. The Coherence of Theism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ta, Vivian P. and Ickes, William. 2017. “Empathic Accuracy.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, ed. Maibom, Heidi L.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Taliaferro, Charles. 1989. “The Passibility of God.” Religious Studies 25: 217–24.Google Scholar
Timpe, Kevin. 2013. “Introduction to Neo-Classical Theism.” In Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities, eds. Diller, Jeanine and Kasher, Asa. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Todd, Cain. 2014. “Emotion and Value.” Philosophy Compass 9: 702–12.Google Scholar
Ussher, James. 1645. A Body of Divinitie, or the Summe and Substance of Christian Religion. London: M.F.Google Scholar
Wainwright, William J. 2016. Reason, Revelation, and Devotion: Inference and Argument in Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ward, Keith. 2017. The Christian Idea of God: A Philosophical Foundation for Faith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wessel, Susan. 2016. Passion and Compassion in Early Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittmann, Tyler. 2016. “The Logic of Divine Blessedness and the Salvific Teleology of Christ.” International Journal of Systematic Theology 18.Google Scholar
Wolterstorff, Nicholas. 2010. Inquiring About God, ed. Cuneo, Terence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zagzebski, Linda. 2016. “Omnisubjectivity: Why It Is a Divine Attribute.” Nova et Vetera 14: 435–50.Google Scholar
Zagzebski, Linda. 2013. Omnisubjectivity: A Defense of a Divine Attribute. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.Google Scholar
Zagzebski, Linda. 2008. “Omnisubjectivity.” In Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, ed. Kvanvig, Jonathan L.. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zahavi, Dan. 2017. “Phenomenology, Empathy, and Mindreading.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Empathy, ed. Maibom, Heidi L.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Zanchius, Girolamo. 1601. Life Everlasting: Or, The True Knowledge of One Jehovah, Three Elohim, and Jesus Immanuel. Cambridge: John Legat.Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

God and Emotion
  • R. T. Mullins, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Online ISBN: 9781108688918
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

God and Emotion
  • R. T. Mullins, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Online ISBN: 9781108688918
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

God and Emotion
  • R. T. Mullins, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Online ISBN: 9781108688918
Available formats
×