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The immense suffering caused by sin and evil within the modern world, especially in the light of the Holocaust, has had a profound impact on the contemporary understanding of God and his relationship to human suffering. Since the early part of this century there has been a growing consensus among theologians that God himself, within his divine nature, suffers in solidarity and love with those who suffer. This present theological position contradicts the traditional Christian understanding of almost two thousand years that God is impassible and so does not experience negative emotional states, such as suffering.
Thomas Weinandy, O.F.M., resolutely challenges this contemporary view of God and suffering. Calling upon scripture, and the philosophical and theological tradition of the Fathers and Aquinas, Weinandy creatively and systematically addresses all of the contemporary concerns. He strongly advocates the incarnational truth that the Son of God actually does experience, as man, all that pertains to living an authentic human life, and so does indeed suffer.
This book is both a challenge to much received contemporary philosophical and theological wisdom, and a scholarly, original, and refreshing account of the Christian Gospel. It is one of the most comprehensive Christian presentations of God and human suffering available today.
“The only defense of God in the face of a suffering world must be a dogmatic one which asks who he is as he is made known through his Church in the midst of the earth and how He responds in this identity to our suffering. Weinandy’s book is a rare and strong example of a traditional dogmatic response to it, we would all do well, therefore, to follow his argument closely both in order to understand how the Church expressed the mystery of the cross in the past and in order to understand why another approach to the question of Christ’s cry might be needed now.” —St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly
Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M., Cap., is the Warden of Greyfriars and tutor and lecturer in History and Doctrine in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford. He is the author of The Sacrament of Mercy: A Spiritual and Practical Guide to Confession and The Father's Spirit of Sonship: Recovering the Trinity.