Does God Suffer?

Since the early twentieth century, and with fresh urgency after the Holocaust, a growing number of theologians have argued that God himself suffers within his divine nature, in love and solidarity with those who suffer. Thomas G. Weinandy takes that consensus seriously, and then asks whether it can be reconciled with the traditional Christian understanding of God, which it plainly contradicts.

What follows is a careful work of historical and systematic theology. Weinandy traces how the Church has thought about God and suffering and mounts a sustained defence of the classical view, without ever making light of the evil and sin that prompted the modern turn. For students of doctrine, clergy and thoughtful lay readers wrestling with how a loving God relates to a suffering world, it is a rigorous and serious companion.