Can God have feelings?

[tonyrey]

Love and sorrow can be appetitive passions in man, i.e. emotions, but they can also exist as intellectual notions, in which sense they are not emotions. Thus, God and the angels can love, but they cannot have emotions. Love in this abstract sense is simply the recognition and appreciation of a perceived good. Sorrow likewise is the perception of a good from which one is excluded.

I think the concept of heaven as an intellectual state devoid of emotion is sterile and unattractive. We are misguided if we try to apply our human experience too closely to God but love embraces **our **whole being and it is far more than intellectual recognition and appreciation of a perceived good…

St. Thomas lists 11 passions/emotions, awe and gratitude not being among them (though awe would probably be classified under love or joy).

I think it is arbitrary to regard thoughts and emotions as distinct and clearly defined aspects of life. Very often they are inextricably linked and interwoven. The “ghost in the machine” suggests an atomistic view of reality.

 

[Pieman333272]

Two more questions:

1. How can God have free will if he’s unchanging?
2. Can God have desires, i.e a desire to create humanity?

 

[tonyrey]

(1) How can God have free will if he’s unchanging?

“unchanging” does not mean “static”. The nature of God is unchanging because He is perfect, i.e. per-factus = complete and fulfilled. But His nature is to be creative, i.e. dynamic, the Source of beauty and joy. Free will is a form of creativity.

1. Can God have desires, i.e a desire to create humanity?

This is where words are misleading because desires have a physical connotation. We are on safer ground if we think of God’s Will rather than Desire! But Will is not usually associated with Love - which is undoubtedly our best guide to the nature of God. Jesus did refer to joy in heaven. What more do we need to know than that?

 

[Katholish]

I think the concept of heaven as an intellectual state devoid of emotion is sterile and unattractive. We are misguided if we try to apply our human experience too closely to God but love embraces **our **whole being and it is far more than intellectual recognition and appreciation of a perceived good…

Whoever claimed such a thing? Certainly not I. We will certainly have emotion in Heaven as emotion is proper to human nature. We will most certainly experience love not only as an intellectual movement, but as a movement of our whole person (including an emotional response).

I think it is arbitrary to regard thoughts and emotions as distinct and clearly defined aspects of life. Very often they are inextricably linked and interwoven. The “ghost in the machine” suggests an atomistic view of reality.

It isn’t arbitrary if you can define how they are distinct, which we can easily do. Distinct is different from independent. Thought and emotion is very much interwoven in human nature. We haven’t been talking about human nature though. We were talking about the divine nature.

 

[tonyrey]

             *I think the concept of heaven as an intellectual state devoid of emotion is sterile and unattractive. We are misguided if we try to apply our human experience too closely to God but love embraces **our ***

Then God’s love seems to have nothing in common with that of His creatures.
Joy in heaven is experienced only by the blessed. We must be made in His image only with regard to our intellect and free will…

 

[afthomercy]

Happy Christmas everybody!

The allegory of the prism springs to mind. When white light passes through a prism, the colours of the rainbow become visible. So also, when the spark of divinity passes through the prism of human nature, thoughts, feelings, emotions and desires become visible!

Now, working backwards: When we see the colours of the rainbow, we know what white light contains. So also when we see the characteristics of the human nature, we can surmise what the divine nature contains, although we cannot understand how it would be compatible with its unchangeability. Maybe our minds are not equipped to understand it now.

 

[tonyrey]

Happy Christmas everybody!

The allegory of the prism springs to mind. When white light passes through a prism, the colours of the rainbow become visible. So also, when the spark of divinity passes through the prism of human nature, thoughts, feelings, emotions and desires become visible!

Now, working backwards: When we see the colours of the rainbow, we know what white light contains. So also when we see the characteristics of the human nature, we can surmise what the divine nature contains, although we cannot understand how it would be compatible with its unchangeability. Maybe our minds are not equipped to understand it now.

Although God is immutable He is also dynamic and creative.He must cause change because He transformed nothing into everything!

Happy Christmas!
.

 

[Charlemagne_II]

According to Genesis, God made man in his image and likeness. We might infer from this that God not only has intellect, but also will and feelings, in order for the image to be valid.

Off course our reflection of God’s image must be pale by comparison with the original, since God is perfect and we are not. It therefore does not stand to reason that we should equate our feelings with those of God; nor should we equate our intellect or our will. The imperfect feelings we have cannot be God’s feelings. Nor can our imperfect intellect or will be God’s intellect or will.

So when we speak of God’s wrath, we are not speaking of human wrath, but rather of the extreme opposition of God’s will to our own. We have incurred that wrath (opposition); but we should not think of that wrath as an angry response in the sense that humans become angry with each other when they oppose their imperfect and sometimes irrational will to each other.

 

[OrdinaryMelkite]

Love is not a feeling it is a decision. What is the ultimate example of Love? Jesus on the Cross. That was not an emotion, it did not “feel” good. It was a decision to sacrifice for the benefit of another- or for a good.

OK.

 

[tonyrey]

Love is not a feeling it is a decision. What is the ultimate example of Love? Jesus on the Cross. That was not an emotion, it did not “feel” good. It was a decision to sacrifice for the benefit of another- or for a good.

Indeed! Love is more than one decision: it produces many decisions. Perfect love is the giving of oneself entirely to others - like the total identification of the three divine Persons - and your example of Jesus on the Cross.

Happy New Year!