The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of GodVoted one of Christianity Today's 1995 Books of the Year! The Openness of God presents a careful and full-orbed argument that the God known through Christ desires "responsive relationship" with his creatures. While it rejects process theology, the book asserts that such classical doctrines as God's immutability, impassibility and foreknowledge demand reconsideration. The authors insist that our understanding of God will be more consistently biblical and more true to the actual devotional lives of Christians if we profess that "God, in grace, grants humans significant freedom" and enters into relationship with a genuine "give-and-take dynamic." The Openness of God is remarkable in its comprehensiveness, drawing from the disciplines of biblical, historical, systematic and philosophical theology. Evangelical and other orthodox Christian philosophers have promoted the "relational" or "personalist" perspective on God in recent decades. Now here is the first major attempt to bring the discussion into the evangelical theological arena. |
Contents
| 11 | |
Historical Considerations | 59 |
Systematic Theology | 101 |
A Philosophical Perspective | 126 |
Practical Implications | 155 |
Notes | 177 |
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Common terms and phrases
action affirm the open attributes Augustine believe Bible biblical biblical-classical synthesis Calvinism Calvinists change his mind changeless Christ Christian Clark Pinnock classical theism compatibilist conception create a world creation creatures David Basinger decisions Demiurge dependent divine repentance divine simplicity divine timelessness dynamic Eerdmans eternal example existence experience fact faith Father freedom future genuine God's knowledge God's love God's plan God's power Grand Rapids Greek happen human idea immutability and impassibility important incarnation interaction involved Israel J. I. Packer Jesus libertarian LORD means metaphysical middle knowledge Molinism Moses neo-Platonic NRSV omniscience open model open view passages perfect perspective petitionary prayer Philo philosophical Plato possible predestination problem of evil process theists process theology proponents of specific reality reject relation relationship response revelation salvation Scripture sense simple foreknowledge suffering Systematic Theology temporal texts theologians things thought tradition transcendence Trinity triune understanding unilaterally William Hasker
Popular passages
Page 18 - This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Page 19 - If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Page 19 - LORD loves you, and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Page 19 - But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Page 18 - Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not: love does not know God, because God is love.