anthropopathism
{{Short description|Attribution of human emotions to a deity}}
{{wiktionary|anthropopathy}}
{{Other uses|Anthropotheism}}
{{for-multi|the Islamic theological concept|Tashbih}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2024}}
Anthropopathism (from Greek ἄνθρωπος anthropos, "human" and πάθος pathos, "suffering") is the attribution of human emotions, or the ascription of human feelings or passions to a non-human being, generally to a deity.{{Cite web |title=Definition of ANTHROPOPATHISM |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anthropopathism |access-date=2024-01-16 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}
By comparison, the term anthropomorphism originally referred to the attribution of human form to a non-human being, but in modern usage anthropomorphism has come to encompass both meanings.
Religion
This is a technique prevalent in religious writings, where, for instance, human emotion is attributed to God, where he would not normally experience emotion in this sense.{{Cite book |last=Gavrilyuk |first=Paul L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pw9REAAAQBAJ |title=The Suffering of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought |date=2004-03-12 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-153354-9 |pages=15 |language=en}} Anthropopathism existed in the ancient Semitic religion and early Islam.{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Wesley |date=2009 |title=A Body Unlike Bodies: Transcendent Anthropomorphism in Ancient Semitic Tradition and Early Islam |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40593866 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=129 |issue=1 |pages=19–44 |jstor=40593866 |issn=0003-0279}} This technique is also used in the book of Genesis,{{Cite book |last=Knafl |first=Anne K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oDULEAAAQBAJ |title=Forming God: Divine Anthropomorphism in the Pentateuch |date=2014-10-23 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-1-57506-899-2 |language=en}}{{Rp|page=58}} as an example of the theme of God as a personal god.{{Rp|page=60}}{{Vs|date=August 2024}}