Abstract
This chapter aims to set out some agreements and some disagreements with Professor Fiddes?s concept of the freedom and suffering of God. First, it suggests that God is not free in the sense that God can be whatever God chooses. God has a ?given? nature. For instance, God necessarily exists and is powerful and loving. Secondly, God is dipolar, necessarily possessing such properties, but contingently free in the way God exercises creativity and love. Thirdly, God is changed by creation, and suffers in empathy with the sufferings and evils of creation. Fourthly, there is a distinction between what God wills and what God creates by necessity, which explains how God can oppose much evil and suffering in creation. Fifthly, although God suffers, there is no desolation or alienation in the divine being, since the victory of goodness is assured. This is true even, or especially, of the cross of Christ.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Within the Love of God : Essays on the Doctrine of God in Honour of Paul S. Fiddes |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Pages | 134-143 |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2014 |