Abstract

According to Japanese theologian Kitamori Kazoh’s (1916-1998) Theology of the Pain of God, God’s pain is the essence of God. The pain of God is the paradox between God’s anger and God’s love. On the one hand, God hates sins while sin destroys God-man relationship, so God is therefore angry with humans. On the other hand, God is merciful and therefore gives His Son Jesus Christ to save the world and so manifests God’s love. This paradox constitutes God’s pain and is manifested through God the Father’s sacrifice of God the Son, where Jesus died and was resurrected for the sinners, in order to save them. However, if Christ’s death and resurrection has already forgiven humans’ sins and reconciled the God-man relation, then God’s anger should perish, and therefore God’s pain should also cease to exist. Nevertheless, the absence of God’s pain has not prevented God’s existence. Therefore, God’s pain is not God’s essence. Since Kitamori is influenced by both the Kyoto School, Continental Philosophy (especially Kierkegaard) and Lutheran theology, this article aims to correct Kitamori’s theoretical weakness by arguing that the pain of God comes from the God- man relationship as an aidagara, and therefore as God’s pain is not persistent, it cannot be God’s essence.