In this episode we discuss Japanese theologian Kazoh Kitamori’s book, Theology of the Pain of God. Kitamori focuses attention on God’s willing love of the unlovable and of His own enemies through Christ—an embrace that, following Jeremiah 31:20 and Isaiah 63:15, causes God pain. But what exactly does it mean to talk about God “in pain”? Is it sheer anthropomorphism or worse yet patripassianism? Does it make God into a sentimental figure, suffering helplessly by our side? Or are we seeing here a genuine development in doctrine?
Notes:
1. Here’s an essay I wrote some years ago about Kitamori (for an anthology that apparently fell through).
2. Tokyo Lutheran Church
3. Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church
4. Kyodan (United Church of Christ in Japan) Confession of Faith
5. Moltmann, The Crucified God.
6. Kosuke Koyama was another Japanese theologian, though better known in the U.S. than in Japan because he published mainly in English and spent most of his career stateside. Among his other significant works are Water Buffalo Theology and Mount Fuji and Mount Sinai.
7. Dorothee Soelle discusses Kitamori in her book Suffering.
8. Vítor Westhelle talks about hybridity in After Heresy: Colonial Practices and Post-Colonial Theologies.
9. Adding to Kitamori’s use of Jeremiah 31 and Isaiah 63, Dad mentioned Hosea 11:8, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.”
10. Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks about costly grace in The Cost of Discipleship and about the suffering of God and time for silence in Letters and Papers from Prison.
11. Robert Jenson, Unbaptized God.
12. Hegel, The Philosophy of Religion.
13. Johannes Rist’s hymn “O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid” (1641) includes the line Gott selbst liegt tot, “God Himself lies dead.”
14. Martin Luther, Confession Concerning Christ’s Supper.
15. Tome of Leo (yep, Fourth Council, not Third).
16. Dad discusses the concept of patiency throughout Beloved Community.
17. Albert Schweizer, The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle.
More about us at sarahhinlickywilson.com and paulhinlicky.com!
2021 Bonus 4: Sarah‘s talk on The Sermon on the Mount for CCET
2021 Bonus 3: Dad‘s Galatians Bible Study
The Book of Revelation
How to Hack the Law (But Also Why You Shouldn‘t)
Powers and Principalities
Revival and Renewal with the Blumhardts
Evangelical Hagiography
Justification by Faith Revisited
Faith. Just Faith.
Jonah
Pastoral Authority
Sarah's book "To Baptize or Not to Baptize"
Pragmatism, or, Yet Another Great Thing With a Terrible Name
Galatians, Part 2
Galatians, Part 1
The New Language of the Spirit
The Empiricists Strike Back
Critical Social Theory
In Which We Recapitulate Irenaeus
2021 Bonus episode 1: Sarah's book "I Am a Brave Bridge"
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Hello Heaven Podcast
Cast The Word
Let Me Be Frank | Bishop Frank Caggiano’s Podcast | Diocese of Bridgeport, CT
The Kingdom Power Fellowship Podcast
The Bible Recap
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)