Does God Suffer? by Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M.Cap. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 311 does not a husband give himself up precisely in the exercise of an agapic headship in which he thinks not of himself but his beloved? It is also ironic that Watson, in order to deny any Christological grounding of male headship, severely questions the primacy of nuptial imagery for the relationship of Christ to the Church preferring the neutral body image (243-47). Yet as he closes his work he concluded that Jesus' "disclosure of the original nature of marriage makes it possible for marriage, the relation of man and woman as husband and wife, to bear witness to him in his relation to the church" (256). But it can only bear witness if there is a fundamental correspondence which Paul emphatically enunciates in Ephesians 5:22: the great mystery. Profoundly, and yet contradictory to the logic of this own thesis, Watson states: "Rooted and grounded in the love of Christ for the ekklesia, the love of man and woman becomes an acted parable of that love" (257). It is precisely this community of Christ's love for His Body, the Church, in which He is the agapaic Head laying down His life for His Bride, that grounds the human relationship between male and female. Asymmetry is hardly a creaturely construct but rather appears to be an ontological and redemptive given. Despite its flaws, Watson's work is valuable in that (1) it provides an excellent critique of the modern myth of sex from within the framework of Freudian orthodoxy and (2) opens up a question which could prove to be of extreme theological importance: How does eros relate to agape? This may very well be a genuine key to an authentic Christian sexual ethic. But as Milgrom said about the monumental work of Jacob Neusner on Jewish purity rites, he is owed a debt because he raised the right question but the work is so flawed it has to be redone. JOSEPH C. ATKINSON Pope john Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Washington, D.C. Does God Suffer? By THOMAS G. WEINANDY, 0.F.M.Cap. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000. Pp. 320 $22.95 (paper). ISBN 0-268-00890-6. Not long ago, a person involved in pastoral ministry told me that pastoral concern requires overcoming the old classical attributes of God as omnipotent and omniscient in favor of a new paradigm of God as "fellow sufferer." As Thomas Weinandy makes clear in the first chapter of his new book, my friend is by no means alone in this assessment. Indeed, the twentieth century, with its incredible legacy of bloodshed and atrocity, has witnessed in theology an astonishing turn toward a God whose grief and pain seemingly parallel our own. 312 BOOK REVIEWS This growing consensus marks a remarkable reversal of an almost twothousand -year-old theological tradition, during which the impassibility of God was almost axiomatic. Not least among the merits of Weinandy's study is his evident sympathy with the concerns that have impelled this development and his willingness to give careful heed and voice to its advocates. Yet at the end of the chapter in which he sets forth their concern and arguments, he summarizes his own position. "I believe a passible God is actually less personal, loving, dynamic and active than an impassible God" (26). The remaining nine chapters of the book mount a cogent, cumulative, intellectually challenging argument in support of his thesis. A dense, if clearly written text, is complemented by extensive, frequently fascinating, footnotes that extend and develop facets of the argument. Weinandy begins by sketching his understanding of the task of theology. Drawing upon Marcel's well-known distinction between "problem" and "mystery," he sees theology's task as one of discerning the mystery that is lived and celebrated in the Church. This discernment makes use of reason's best resources; but it resists the temptation of a rationalistic reduction. Hence orthodoxy confesses the "both/and" of the union of divinity and humanity in the Incarnation, rather than the more superficial "either/or" represented by docetism or adoptionism. In terms of the present study, the soul-stretching affirmation is that God is both...