Suffering of God

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How does God feel? - Rated
As other reviewers have noted, the idea of God's vulnerability is often overlooked in church and theological conversations - the immutability of God and omnipotence of God would seem to contradict the idea of a God who feels, much less suffers, in the way the human beings can understand. Fretheim's wonderful text, part of the Fortress Press series of Overtures to Biblical Theology, explores images and situations found in the Hebrew scriptures that would indicate and illustrate this aspect of the divine.

Fretheim writes about God's relationship with the world - this includes aspects such as human understanding of God (anthropomorphic metaphors), the reality of God's relationship, God's internal relationship with the world, foreknowledge, and God's suffering. Fretheim expands upon this idea significantly - God is a God who suffers because, with, and for creation.

God's suffering because of creation has to do with the idea of covenant and relationship - much of the narrative of the Hebrew scripture is built upon the covenants God makes with humanity (the implicit covenant from the Garden of Eden, the explicit covenants with Noah and Abraham, etc.). The call of the prophets and the lamentations and sorrowful psalms all speak to the breach of these covenants, particularly the covenant of Abraham, and how this causes God to suffer. Fretheim uses passages such as the text of the prophet Hosea to show that God is not like a military leader or political leader dealing with insubordination or rebellion, but more like a loving parent dealing with a troublesome child. Fretheim states that this takes more of the image of mother than father.

God's suffering with the people has roots in the Exodus story, but carries forward in many situations through the narrative strand. 'God sees the suffering from the inside,' Fretheim states. God is not powerless in this situation, but God is intimately aware of the suffering of the people, and this has great implications for later understanding of God. Fretheim shows that this suffering-with is not reserved just for the Israelites - in Isaiah and Jeremiah, God's weeping and mourning for Moab is significant.

God also suffers for the people - while this takes on dramatic form in Christian contexts, where Jesus takes on the suffering for all people, the idea of God taking on the weight of sin and suffering for the wrong-doing of the people is also present in the Hebrew scriptures, particularly in the suffering servant imagery, but also elsewhere.

The comparison with Rabbi Abraham Heschel's monumental work, 'The Prophets', is very apt; companionship with authors such as Reinhold Niebuhr and William Placher ('Narratives of a Vulnerable God') are also worthwhile explorations. This book will expand the way God is understood in dramatic, and dramatically human, ways.