Impassibility
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Impassibility (from Latin in-, "not", passibilis, "able to suffer, experience emotion") describes the theological doctrine that God does not experience pain or pleasure from the actions of another being. Some theological systems portray God as a being subject to many (or all) emotions; in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, however, it is understood that God is not subject to sin. Biblical scholars do not take anthropomorphisms in the Bible with absolute literalism; neither do biblical scholars take phrases like "the finger of God" or "the hand of God" to mean that God literally has a hand or finger. Still, it is true that some ancient religious interpretations of the world considered thunderstorms and sunshine to be indicative of God's wrath and happiness, respectively.
In Greek myths Zeus is portrayed as experiencing lust. Ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Plato challenged these ideas and introduced the concept of God as a perfect, omniscient, timeless, and unchanging being not subject to human emotion (which represents change and imperfection). The concept of impassibility was developed by medieval theologians like Anselm and continues to be in tension with more emotional concepts of God.
