Impassibility (from
Latin in-, "not",
passibilis, "able to suffer, experience emotion") describes the
theological doctrine that
God does not experience
pain or
pleasure from the actions of another being. It has often been seen as a consequence of divine
aseity, the idea that God is absolutely independent of any other being, i.e., in no way causally dependent. Being affected (literally made to have a certain emotion,
affect) by the state or actions of another would seem to imply causal dependence.