%0 Journal Article
%T What is it like to be a god? A philosophical clarification of instances of divine suffering in the Psalter
%A Jaco W. Gericke
%J Verbum et Ecclesia
%D 2012
%I AOSIS
%X There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce. (Mark Twain)In philosophy of religion, there is a long history of belief that divine reality is immutable, although this has changed recently. In this article, the author takes a closer look at what some texts in the Psalms assumed about what it feels like for a god to suffer mentally. By paying attention to what is presupposed in language about negative divine emotions, the nature of mental anguish in the life of a deity is elucidated from examples in the text in which Yhwh is said to have states of mind involving anger, hate, compassion, jealousy and grief.
%K god
%K philosophical clarification
%K Psalter
%K Thomas Nagel
%K What is it like to be a bat?
%U http://www.ve.org.za/index.php/VE/article/view/700/984