Divine Immutability : A Critical Reconsideration

Occasioned by the nineteenth-century kenotic christological controversy, Isaak Dorner’s essay–which is here completely translated into English for the first time–remains one of the most extensive historical, philosophical, and theological treatments of immutability to date. Dorner was initially attracted to kenoticism–that the incarnation as a divine self-divestment implies that God undergoes change–but rejects it in Part One. Part Two is a historical survey of the classical doctrine from the patristic period to Schleiermacher which shows the longstanding connection between divine immutability, God’s goodness, and soteriology. Dorner concluded that this formulation was not mistaken, but extreme and one-sided, making positive relations between God, time, and history implausible. Part Three offers Dorner’s reconstruction.