The Emotionality of God

Abstract

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.