Ever since those first encounters with moral philosophy, metaphysics and then philosophical theology I have wrestled like Jacob with the angel of the Lord, with the notion of divine impassibility. What is necessarily a question of philosophical and theological importance becomes a matter of pastoral significance and existential urgency when we encounter human suffering, our own, that of those we love, or of those other human beings in our world whose suffering demands response as well as explanation. It comes down to what we could possibly mean by the phrase, "the suffering of God".
Does God suffer? As recently as the 1970's, following the publication of Jurgen Moltmann's The Crucified God, which itself followed on the work of Kozah Kitamori, The Theology of the Pain of God, modern Western theology has been similarly wrestling with those urgent, existential questions about the nature of the Christian God. This is not the classic problem of theodicy, How can an all powerful and all loving God co-exist with evil and the suffering of His creation? Either he can change it but won't, in which case is he all loving? Or he cannot change it however much he desires to do so, in which case he is not all powerful. This is a subtle variation of the same dilemma, but one which is inescapable to one who offers himself in pastoral care to others within a Christian community. It is also one which cannot be evaded or ignored in a faithful preaching ministry about the love of God, the human condition, the reality of evil and the nature of the Christian Gospel of God incarnate, crucified and risen in Christ.
In other words the question of whether God suffers takes us to the Cross and what happened there, and to whom. Enter Frances Young, until retirement Henry Cadbury Professor of Theology at Birmingham University. (Yes you're right, THAT Cadbury, the dairy milk kind!) And just to say, Frances Young is a mother who for over 40 years has cared for her son Arthur who was born with cerebral palsy and has significant disabilities; she is a Methodist minister and preacher; she is a world class patristic scholar and leading authority on ancient Christianity. She knows about theology; she lives in a context where suffering and limitation are daily realities; she has preached when her own heart is breaking; and in her recent book, God's Presence, she argues passionately and with immensely persuasive honesty, for a view of God adequate to Christian theology and to the lived realities of our lives.
For we all suffer, and witness suffering. We all love and care and are anxious for others. We grieve and suffer catastrophic loss – but we also live and discover the joy and wholeness that can overcome brokenness. We discover in our suffering grace, understanding, strength and sheer unlooked for kindness, where and when we least expect it. God's Presence is an expansion of the Bampton Lectures, and is an exploration of Christian theology as it developed in the first few centuries. But it is also a practical theology in which each substantive claim of Christian faith is road tested in the practicalities of the human journey; and each chapter includes sermon material she has preached, and finishes with a postlude, which is a prose poem of her own composition, soliloquy, prayer, reflection, all in one. This is a rich book, and one which challenges the sentimentalised pleading of those whose idea of God is one of hand-wringing anguish over evil and suffering in a world out of God's control; she also challenges the hard edged theology of divine sovereignty and providence which attributes every shrieking nerve of creation to a God impassive in omnipotence, and inscrutable of purpose. Between these two admittedly extreme caricatures, there exists a view of God shaped over centuries and founded on biblical revelation about 'all the nations of the earth being blessed', 'He was wounded for our transgressions', God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself', 'He is not here, he is risen', 'nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus', and 'behold I make all things new.'
In a day or two, I'll post more this book, which is the magnum opus of a remarkable mother, theologian, Christian and pastor. Meanwhile, if you want to hear her talking about the early Church Fathers and today's questions you can do so over here and if you want a really quick word from her about questions and thinking, go to minute 4.
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