Anthropopathism
attribution of human emotions to a deity

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.
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. Anthropopathism existed in the ancient Semitic religion and early Islam. This technique is also used in the book of Genesis, as an example of the theme of God as a personal god.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Anthropopathism” as attribution of human emotions to a deity. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as attribution of human emotions to a deity. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2853054. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Anthropopathism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.