Theology in Particular Episode 203: Defending Divine Impassibility With James Dolezal
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Jun 23, 2025 
James Dolezal, a visiting professor of theology at IRBS and an expert on divine impassibility, dives deep into the intriguing aspects of God's emotional nature. He discusses how the doctrine suggests that God is unaffected by human passions and emotions. The conversation challenges conventional ideas about God's understanding of human experiences, questioning how an unmoved deity can grasp love and suffering. Dolezal also delves into the implications for worship and morality, reassuring listeners of God's profound, transcendent knowledge.
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What Divine Impassibility Means
- Divine impassibility means God is without passions, experiencing no emotions or changes through causal interactions.
- Passions imply a state caused by another, which contradicts God's nature as uncaused first cause.
Why God Cannot Have Passions
- Passions are caused states of being that imply change and dependency upon an agent.
- God's nature as uncaused first cause is incompatible with having passions or undergoing change.
God's Impassibility and Perfect Care
- God's impassibility does not mean He is uncaring; He is always fully caring and never needs stirring by experience.
- God's care is perfect and needs no actualization, unlike human emotions that require experience.