The eternally passible God : a theological study on the compatibility of divine passibility and immutability

Abstract

This thesis aims to answer the compelling question: ‘Can God be both immutable and passible?’ Drawing on the work of Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, it will submit that an eternal God can be conceived of as being affected whilst remaining unchanged. The line of argumentation is that construing the way God exists regarding temporality and atemporality has significant implications for the broader discussion of divine being. This argument allows other doctrines associated with classical theism (such as Divine Simplicity) to be maintained (whilst not being a strictly classical theology) whilst upholding passibility. As such, this thesis generates Christological and trinitarian questions as to what a view of ‘God’ means for the existence of Father, Son, and Spirit, as revealed and worshipped in the Christian tradition.

The argument concludes with a discussion of the topic of prayer as a practical outworking of the proposed doctrine of God presented throughout this thesis. This answers the question ‘What is prayer?’ according to the view of God outlined in the first four chapters, namely that God is eternal, immutable, and passible. It suggests a significant reconsideration of the outworking of a given theological practice and a new understanding of the purpose and theological underpinning of prayer according to an eternal God.