This book is both a survey of recent thought about the suf fering of God, and a proposal for a way forward in this im portant area of Christian theology. The theme that God suffers with his world has become a familiar one in recent years, overturning centuries of tradtiional belief in an impassible God. But a careful examination is needed of what it means to talk about the suffering of God, avoiding the danger of a merely sentimental belief. In this book, we are invited to think consistently about a God who suffers supremely and yet is still God, and to think about a God who suffers universally and yet is still present uniquely in the cross of Christ. The main trends of recent thought are dis cussed, including a study of Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Jurgen Moltmann, and process theology. Throughout the book the author develops an idea of divine suffering, affirming that God freely chooses to limit himself, to suffer change, to journey on the path of time, and even to experience death, while remaining the living God.
