Kitamori Kazoh’s “Theology of the Pain of God”: Main Ideas

Abstract

Kitamori Kazoh (1916–1998) is considered to be one of the most prominent Ja­panese theologists, whose ideas had a wide response from abroad. His main work, “Theology of the Pain of God” (Kami no Itami no Shingaku), became a spiritual breakthrough for the Japanese after the WWII, signifying a new way of development of Christianity in Japan in the postwar period. Kitamori’s idea that people feeling pain and suffering can get closer to understanding God and His pain of loving the unlovable, i.e. sinners deserving His wrath, not love, re­flected the sentiments characteristic of the Japanese who had experienced atomic bombings and defeat in the war. “Theology of the Pain of God” gained much at­tention in the 1970-s with the spread of the so-termed genitive theology, on one hand, and the rise of the interest of theologians in the reevaluation of suffering, on the other. The article aims at analyzing the key statements of “the theology of the pain of God” by Kitamori Kazoh, and the historical and cultural context of its emergence. The author focuses on Kitamori’s idea of the pain of God as emerging on the joint of God’s wrath and God’s love, being the essence of God and the keypoint upon which Christian theology should be built; on the idea of the suffering of the mankind as a symbol of God’s pain, and on Kitamori’s supposition that the Japanese, as a people that has experienced great suffering and sorrow, is chosen by God and is much closer to the understanding of the pain of God and, consequently, of the essence of God