Goddelijk lijden bij Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Samenvatting
This article analyzes and evaluates Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s statements about divine suffering, an important theme in his published work through the last of his letters from
prison. The evaluation proceeds from the question: In what sense can we speak about
divine suffering? This is followed by conceptual clarification, biblical-theological
remarks, comments on discussions from the history of theology on patripassionism,
theopaschitism and the ‘communicatio idiomatum’. The article concludes that it is
possible to speak about the suffering of God in Christ, because one person of the holy
Trinity suffered for us in the flesh (christological theopaschitism), and because God
voluntarily accepted suffering out of holy love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit
(theological theopaschitism). In the light of these conclusions the article evaluates
Bonhoeffer’s views, especially failure to make distinctions about the Trinity, and agrees
that Bonhoeffer’s thought about divine suffering enriches Christian theology.
