Classical Impassibility

(Pastor Quinn)

Modified Impassibility

(Pastor John)

Position

God does not have passions or emotions.

God loves but he cannot suffer.

God does have emotions. 

God chooses to love and suffer.

Key Representatives

Early church 

-Augustine

Medieval church

- Anselm

- Aquinas

Reformers, Puritans, Reformed Orthodox

- John Calvin

- John Owen

- Francis Turretin

- Stephen Charnock

- Herman Bavinck

Modern

- James Dolezal

- Carl Trueman

- James Renihan

- Samuel Renihan 

- Joel Beeke 

- Matthew Barrett

Modern

- DA Carson

- John Piper

- Wayne Grudem

Agreement

- God is not passively acted upon

- God’s being is not emotionally destabilized

- God’s love is real and personal

Major Concerns

- Univocal emotional language

- Underemphasizing simplicity

- Importing creaturely psychology into God

- Stoicism

- Flattening biblical affections

- Leading people to think God is impersonal and distant

Speaking mode

Metaphysical-scholastic precision

Biblical-pastoral emphasis

Emphasis

Simplicity, aseity, immutability,

Reality and vitality of divine love