Divine passibility and pentecostal healing: Towards an ethical framework of praying for the terminally ill

Abstract

ABSTRACTDivine passibility was one of the theological linchpins in the modern era due to the horrific events of the two World Wars. One of the most influential theologians of that period, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, remarks that in the midst of suffering ‘only a suffering God can help’. Such a position contributed to Moltmann’s groundbreaking work, The Crucified God, where Moltmann amplified divine passibility as the true nature of a loving God and he did this as a polemic against a triumphalist culture. Within this framework, I wish to reflect and connect the ideas of Moltmann on a suffering God to Pentecostal triumphalism in a healing context, specifically during prayer for the terminally ill. Hence, this paper is a theological critique of the triumphalism found in Pentecostal approaches to praying for the sick. This critique helps provide a pastoral response to Pentecostal ministers who wish to accommodate Bonhoeffer’s remark in circumstances that are commonly triumphalistic in nature, where sickness is often spoken against. I will argue for an alternative and liberative approach, a position that will postulate that ‘only a suffering God can help’ and where the most often quoted verse ‘by his wounds we are healed’ (Isa 53:5), seen in the context of divine passibility, could become a reality for the terminally ill.