The Four: A Survey of the Gospels

Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John

Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture

Jane Austen
(A Biography)

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church

« Previous Post | Next Post »
« Previous post in category | Next post in category »

Theology: Human impassibility

The impassible suffered, the church fathers said.  Why?  To make passible humanity impassible.  As usual (“God became man, to make man God”), a neat chiasm.

But what can human impassibility mean?  Can it mean that we no longer feel?  That’s what it sounds like, but that’s hardly possible.  The church fathers were aware human beings have bodies, and, if not aware of the nervous system, knew that we sense pain and pleasure.   Does it mean that we escape passivity, that we, like God, are incapable of being acted upon?  That can’t work either.  To be created is to be passive in relation to the active God.  Whatever it means for humans, impassibility is a gift, and thus received.

For humans, impassibility must mean that we are no longer subjected to or dominated by what we suffer.  Martyrs are impassible; they suffer, and might even suffer the passion of fear, but that does not make them shrink back.  In Christ, they have become impassible.  In fact, one might draw an even closer analogy between divine and human impassibility: God’s impassibility is not mainly concerned with God’s feelings; He is compassionate and jealous and grieves and pities.  Impassibility has to do with whether He will fall under the control of such feelings, whether He will deviate from His purpose because He is angry or grieving.  And the answer is No: God cannot be derailed from His purpose.  So too human impassibility: Not that we lack feeling, but that, whatever we feel, we are not derailed from the works that the Lord has prepared for us to walk in.