3rd–5th centuries

The Impassibility and Immutability of God as a Common Axiom

Pelikan shows that Christian theologians usually accepted as an axiom the philosophical doctrine of God's impassibility – his freedom from change and suffering – without much concern for biblical support: it runs through Gregory Thaumaturgus, Tertullian, Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria, Apollinaris and Gregory of Nyssa. Different authors reconciled it in different ways with the wrath of God and the crucified Christ. According to Pelikan, this is connected with "de-Judaization": in Judaism immutability was understood as faithfulness to the covenant, while in Christianity it became an ontological axiom on which both sides of the christological controversies built opposite conclusions. Clement saw impassibility as an ideal also for the Christian Gnostic; Lane considers this ideal alien to the Bible.