Folia Theologica et Canonica 4. 26/18 (2015)
SACRA THEOLOGIA - László Perendy, God’s impassibility and His compassio in Chrisin the patristic tradition
66 LASZLO PERENDY to God only the emotions which are worthy of him, and which he experiences in a unique way, characteristic only of him. Gavrilyuk emphasizes that God's impassibility must not be examined as an independent characteristic of his, but it should be considered in relation to his other predicates (e.g., immutability, invisibility, incomprehensibility, etc.). The concept of impassibility itself is not a notion taken over in a subservient way, but it is one of the peculiarities which deny the limits of created beings in God, and which also assert the perfections of the creatures in an eminent way. As demonstrated already by Saint John Chrysostom27 28, God’s impassibility can be reconciled with his provident charity. His anger never gets distorted into uncontrolled rage, and his love is free of selfishness, which is often characteristic of human emotions. A sinful person can approach to God with trust exactly because he can be sure in the constancy and purity of his love. Before examining the new situation in the New Testament, we can summarize the teaching of the Old Testament in this respect. There is no contradiction between the possibility of assigning to God some attributes of emotional character and emphasizing his impassibility at the same time. In a sense God is similar to man, created by him, in other respects he is completely different. Along analogous lines we can predicate emotions about God, but already according to the Old Testament we must use the means of apophatic theology, when we emphasize his transcendence also in this regard.“ However, incarnation creates a completely new situation: God reveals himself not in the way treated above, but he takes human nature on him, he is born of a virgin, and he suffers on the cross. The tension between his impassibility and the nàOoç which he experienced in the human nature assumed by him triggered numerous Christological debates and was the source of several heresies in the first centuries of Christianity. From among them now we are going to treat in some detail only the following ones: Docetism, Patripassianism, Aria- nism, and Nestorianism. Numerous passages of the New Testament29, and also the writings of the apostolic fathers and the apologists30 testify that adoration is due to the Crucified. The acts of martyrs often state that Christ is suffering together with the martyrs.31 This universal feature of Christian piety gave rise to incomprehension and ridicule among the pagans, which is attested by graffiti, pamphlets (e.g., 27 Epistula ad Theodorum, 1,4. 28 Gavrilyuk, P. L., The Suffering of the Impassible God, 56-63. 29 E.g., John 20:28; Phil. 2; Rev. 5:12. 30 Cf. Slusser, M., Theopaschite Expressions in Second-Century Christianity as Reflected in the Writings of Justin, Melito, Celsus, and Irenaeus (D. Phil, thesis), Oxford 1975 (Appendix). 31 Cf. Dehandschutter, B., Le Martyre de Polycarpe et le développement de la conception du martyre au deuxième siècle, in Studia Patristica 17/2(1982) 659-668.
