Creation Made Free Open Theology Engaging Science – Thomas Jay Oord

Terence Fretheim, God and the World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation (Nashville: Abingdon, 2005) 41. 17. See also James Barr, Biblical Faith and Natural Theology: The Gifford Lectures 1991 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). Barr asks rhetorically, “When it says that God saw all his work, that it was good, is this something that was to be changed when humanity fell? . . . For, if the goodness of creation was destroyed through human sin, then how does it help us to know that creation was (originally) good but no longer is so?”

(64) 18. I borrow this felicitous phrase from Kenneth R. Miller, Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution (New York: Harper-Collins, 1999) 57. 19. The traditional example here is the work of Thomas Aquinas who held that truth, being, goodness, and beauty were all “convertible” terms. Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Ia.5,1, ad1. 20. Occasionally philosophers speak of “supervenience” with reference to the term “goodness,” because it denotes a judgment about the act or item in question.

21. John Sanders, The God Who Risks: A Theology of Divine Providence, 22nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2007) 197. 22. Pierre Laplace, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities, trans. F. W. Truscott and F. L. Emory (New York: Dover, 1951) 4. 23. Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam, 1988) 140–41. 24. Keith Ward, Divine Action: Examining God’s Role in an Open and Emerging Universe (Philadelphia: Templeton, 2007) 100.

25. Ibid., 111. 26. Fretheim, God and the World in the Old Testament, 56. OceanofPDF.com Evolution as Cosmic Warfare A Biblical Perspective on Satan and “Natural” Evil1 Gregory A. Boyd In 1856, Darwin wrote to his friend Joseph Hooker the following classic lines: “What a book a Devil’s Chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horridly cruel works of nature.”2 The massive violence, suffering, and waste exemplified in the evolutionary process and that continues to characterize nature today struck Darwin as more reflective of the Devil’s character than that of an all-good Creator.

Open Theology Engaging Science Copyright © 2009 Wipf and Stock Publishers. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401. Pickwick Publications An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3 Eugene, OR 97401 www.wipfandstock.com isbn 13: 978-1-60608-488-5 eisbn 13: 978-1-62189-492-6 Cataloging-in-Publication data: Creation made free : open theology engaging science / edited by Thomas Jay Oord.

viii + 272 p. ; 23 cm. Includes index. isbn 13: 978-1-60608-488-5 1. God—attributes. 2. Religion and science. 3. I. Oord, Thomas Jay. II. Title. bl240.2 .c74 2009 Manufactured in the U.S.A. Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. OceanofPDF.com Contributors Dean G. Blevins, Nazarene Theological Seminary Gregory A.

Boyd, Woodland Hills Church Craig A. Boyd, Azusa Pacific University Anna Case-Winters, McCormick Theological Seminary Michael Lodahl, Point Loma Nazarene University Brint Montgomery, Southern Nazarene University Thomas Jay Oord, Northwest Nazarene University Alan G. Padgett, Luther Seminary Clark H. Pinnock, McMaster Divinity College Alan R. Rhoda, University of Notre Dame Richard Rice, Loma Linda University John Sanders, Hendrix College Karen Strand Winslow, Azusa Pacific University OceanofPDF.com Introducing Open Theology and Science For some time, scholars of religion and theology have discussed the ideas at the core of Open theology.1 Many of these ideas are found in ancient Greek philosophers such as Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, and Plato.

Most Open theists argue, however, that the themes and stories found in the Bible contain the most authoritative material for their theological work. Open theism is a biblically-oriented theology, and its tenets fit well with central Christian practices and experiences. Open theologians typically contrast their views with some theological ideas found in Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Carl F. H. Henry, and their heirs. In these classical or conventional theologies, God is not often regarded as open.

Conventional theologies portray deity as wholly transcendent, a predestiner, unrelated to creation, wholly nontemporal as “outside” time, and an all-controlling king. Open theologians propose ways of thinking about God that they believe are more faithful to central themes from the Bible and Christian experience. In addition to appealing to scripture, experience, and reason, Open theologians typically draw from less-emphasized theological traditions. These include, for example, the tradition emerging from sixteenth-century theologian James Arminius’ rejection of divine predestination and emphasis upon creaturely freedom.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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