God is compassionate and vulnerable to us

Leaven, 2012

In this paper I propose that resilience is the very nature of God, and the image of the wounded and traumatized Christ can be reconciled with the victorious Christ the King through resilience. Part 1 of the paper establishes the theology of resilience. I am going to show that God is the source of all resilience for humanity as well as nature. Then, I will describe that resilience and vulnerability are the very nature of God, and how this nature is manifested through His actions as He engages in history and through His plan to redeem and restore humanity and the universe. Part 2 is an analysis of a first-person live experience through the lens of trauma, growth, and resilience. It shows why God’s resilience matters to individuals and beyond.

Thesis, 2022

This work seeks to examine the God-given purpose of emotions, and the way that faith in Jesus Christ impacts the affectivity of our souls. First, I will define the various types of emotional elicitation and expression, arguing against the doctrine of the impassibility of God, which claims his immutability and omniscience render him insusceptible to and incapable of emotion. To bring a holy emotionality into view, I will develop a conception of theopathy that pulls from assertions of Aristotle to Augustine to Aquinas to modern theologians like Peckham and Scrutton. Then, I will identify the value and purpose of emotion in our spiritual formation, as God uses emotional experience in revelation, worship and mission. After this detailed outline of God’s perfect precedent and purposes of emotion, the need for emotional transformation and restoration in the human soul will be evident. I will conclude that God’s wholistic work in the human heart includes regulating the elicitation and experience of emotions through faith.

Matthew Darby, 2024

A reflection on God's knowledge and how that relates to his eternal nature.

This is the question that every religion and every single human philosophy has sought to answer. It is that for which every human who has ever lived wants to have a sufficient answer. This so-called “basic question” seeks an answer about what is inexhaustible, bottomless, eternal in depth, non-human, unseen, likely infinite in scope, and possibly omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, omnitemporal, and every other cosmic term we have in the lexicon! This question is still at the heart of our cultural quests despite that some folks say that the question of God is dead. And, esp. in the case of the USA, not only the question of God, but the ongoing presence of our [cultural] Christianity can be found in nearly every film, book, and cultural artistic expression. This is not always obvious, but the more we pay attention we will see it everywhere (see Anderson and Dyrness, Modern Art and the Life of a Culture). Jesus, for example is on the cover of the special edition of the December 2024 Time magazine and has been on the front of all the major magazines countless times! Over 150 films have been done about Jesus.

Anastasis Review, 2018

In this article, we intend to highlight, as much as possible in a limited number of words and using the texts of the Holy Fathers of the Church, the multifaceted revelation of God"s love for us, specifically: through the entire Creation, through His Son"s unfathomable Incarnation through which He makes evident the true value of man, through His Cross which is the key to the mystery of Christ"s love, through His Resurrection and Ascension, by indwelling us with the Holy Spirit, by giving Himself for and to us as only He Himself could in the Holy Eucharist, through the fact that God always intends the best for man in all His actions and loves each of us to the fullest, etc. Moreover, we have emphasized the fact that the multitude of man"s sins does not exceed God"s love for us. This, of course, should not be understood as an exhortation to continue in sin, because God is merciful and forgives man, but it should be regarded as an exhortation to repent sincerely. God always awaits for the sinner to return to Him, through repentance, to bestow upon him forgiveness and, simultaneously, peace, joy, serenity and eternal blessing. Each page of this article is intended as an invitation to love, and to grow in that love of God and our neighbours.

Lutheran Forum, 2021

This essay canvasses a representative range of options on the theological implications of Hosea 11:7-9, then offers an exegesis of some of its more vexing and difficult aspects. Arguing that the theological context the book establishes for interpreting the phrase "I am God and not a human" (Hos. 11:9) is God's incomparable love, it then closes with a series of theological reflections on the contribution Hosea 11:7-9 makes to our understanding of the nature of God in relation to his redemptive dealings with Israel.

Psychiatry MMC, 2004

IN AN EARLIER study on the first five books of the Bible, the Torah or Pentateuch, relationships between God and people were assessed with the use of a clinical-quantitative method, the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) method. Here, the study is extended to God or Jesus's relationships with people in the New Testament, to obtain the first description of those relationships based on an established measure of relationships. In the New Testament, many different kinds of relationship themes were observed, with benevolent and positive themes as the most frequent. Other results included that: (a) relationships in the New Testament often appeared more positive than in the Torah; (b) New Testament relationships between Jesus and people were less positive than between God and people; and (c) God's relationship with Jesus was more positive than God's relationship with Moses. Relationships with Paul, Peter, and women were also assessed. Relationship patterns were considered within the context of attachment theory, and biblical CCRT patterns were consistent with depiction of both secure and anxious attachments. Biblical relationships portray a variety of models for interpersonal relationships, ranging from the very positive to the very negative.

This article discusses the concept of suffering in the Old Testament. It first looks at passages in the Pentateuch that describe life before the fall, which paints a picture of human existence before suffering. It then examines what the Pentateuch and Proverbs teach about avoiding suffering through living a life of faithful obedience. Next, it examines suffering in the books of Job and Ecclesiastes, which tackle head-on the issue of the suffering of the righteous. It then moves to the New Testament to examine how suffering differs on this side of the cross and how modern-day Christians must live in light of the reality of suffering. The article concludes with few proposals for how to apply the biblical theology of suffering.