ABSTRACT
The line to contemporary theologians who argue against a suffering God starts with Plato and Aristotle and passes through Thomas Aquinas. In the cosmology of the Greek philosophers, the immutable substances are separated from the material ones. The realm of Being has no contact with the realm of Becoming. The Highest Substance, God, cannot enter into a relationship with the transient world. The actus Purus tenet necessarily implies that there is no change in God. God is sheerly actual; there is no potential in God. This absolutely dynamic relational life of the Trinity is extended to the world. God is at work in the world drawing human persons into this rich inner life. The story of the suffering of God manifested in God's covenantal relationship with Israel reaches a climax in the passion and death of Jesus.
