Ep. #200 – Divine Impassibility: Exposition & Defense w/ Dr. Dolezal

Summary

What is divine impassibility, and what are some reasons theists should hold to it? What are some common objections to divine impassibility, and how do we answer them as classical theists? Does a passible God know more than the God of classical theism? Does the doctrine of divine impassibility diminish the greatness of God? Dr. James Dolezal joins us to discuss these topics.

Guest Bio

Dr. James Dolezal serves as Director and Professor of Theology at Radius Theological Institute in Bakersfield, CA. He also teaches in the School of Divinity at Cairn University in Langhorne, PA. He is a graduate of The Master’s College, The Master’s Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary. Additionally, he is the author of two books: God Without Parts: Divine Simplicity and the Metaphysics of God’s Absoluteness (2011) and All That is in God: Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism (2017), and a recent contributor to a 2020 volume on Divine Impassibility. He and his wife live in California with their three children.

Topics

• What is divine impassibility?
• The difference between being passionate about something and caring about something
• How God’s care is not the result of an “undergoing.”
• If God is impassible, how does He love us? And does He love us passionately?
• Since the God of the Bible shows so many emotions, how can He be impassible?
• How can we approach the Bible’s varied language about God?
• Wouldn’t a passible God know more than an impassible God because he has more experiences than the impassible God?
• Can we make an “elevator pitch” for divine impassibility?

Resources

God Without Parts: Divine Simplicity and the Metaphysics of God’s Absoluteness by James Dolezal

All That is in God: Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism by James Dolezal

Divine Impassibility: Four Views on God’s Emotions and Suffering (Dr. Dolezal defends the strong impassibility doctrine in this book)

Academia.edu – Dr. Dolezal’s author page at Academia.edu. Sign up free to access his research.

God without Passions – Presentation (YouTube) by Dr. James Dolezal on January 22, 2021, at the Founders Ministries “The Only God” national conference in Southwest Florida.
Divine Impassibility – Audio presentation by Dr. Dolezal from 2016 on SermonAudio.com. Free downloadable MP3 available.

Related Episodes

Ep. #169 – Trinitarian Challenges to Divine Simplicity w/ Dr. Dolezal

Ep. #149 – Does God Suffer? w/ Fr. Thomas Weinandy

Classical Theism & God Incarnate w/ Dr. James Dolezal – Ep. #144

 Exegetical Support for Classical Theism w/ Dr. Dolezal – Ep. #69

Ep. #82 – Divine Impassibility w/ Dr. Dolezal
Ep. #64 – Absolute Divine Simplicity w/ Dr. Dolezal

Acknowledgments

This show notes page was prepared by Joseph J. of the CT Research Team.