We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled…”
“…was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” ~Verbal Kint, The Usual Suspects
Roger Olson reflected a few days ago on the curious absence of any discussion of Satan in modern theology. He even speculated:
I suspect that one reason Greg Boyd, a brilliant theologian, is not taken as seriously as he should be by many evangelicals is his obvious, “up front,” blatant belief in a very personal, very real, very active Satan who has great power in the world. And he believes in “spiritual warfare,” something that scares most evangelicals (to say nothing of mainline, liberal Protestants!).
Roger also suggests a possible role of Calvinism in this downplaying of the reality of Satan:
I think Calvinism tends to downplay the reality and power of Satan by reducing Satan to an instrument of God. Luther said that “The devil is God’s devil.” Calvinism generally agrees with that. The idea is that God alone is sovereign so the devil must somehow be an instrument of God in the “big plan” to glorify himself.
As I read the New Testament, however, Satan is no instrument of God but God’s enemy (and ours). In order to avoid dualism, many intellectual Christians have abandoned Satan altogether or absorbed Satan into God (or at least God’s will and plan). I, too, want to avoid dualism, but I don’t know how or why Satan is real and powerful and “the prince of this world.” All I can say with confidence is that he is a conquered enemy of God who is still causing a great deal of chaos. Why God allows it, I don’t know. That’s God’s business. That he will eventually take away all of Satan’s power and free us from his influence lies at the heart of biblical hope.
You can find the full article here.
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Greg Boyd, Problem of Evil, Roger Olson, Satan, Satan and the Problem of Evil, Theodicy
Related Reading

The Future of Theology
Chris Moore via Compfight Roger Olson recently published a blog arguing that there really are no new ideas out there in the realm of theology. Everything has pretty much been thought of or proposed. That idea or book that’s causing such a stir? Rewarmed material that someone else already thought of. So what is there…

Friday Lights: A Theologian Goes to Hollywood
Each Friday we post content sent to us by our readers that is inspiring, funny, lighthearted or just generally fun. If you’d like more information on submitting content for this feature you can get more information here. However, today’s Friday Light comes from Greg. (The photo above alone seemed like it was worth it.) Greg played a small role…

Sermon Clip: Keeping Christmas
Through Christ, God fulfills all his promises, and by yielding to him and giving up control, we can set ourselves free. Full Sermon here: http://whchurch.org/sermons-media/sermon/keeping-christmas

Sermon Clip: You Are Not The Tree
What do the Gospels, Christmas Trees, and Eastern Spirituality have to do with one another? Greg Boyd explains in this weeks sermon clip. In the full sermon, we explore the Gnostics belief of the church in Colossae and how those relate to the New Spirituality movements rooted in Eastern thought of our day. We explore…

Why God Sometimes “Can’t”
Greg continues his thoughts on sickness and spiritual warfare by addressing the question of why God “can’t” intervene in some circumstances of illness.

What To Do with the Bible’s Talk of Satan
Recently, Roger Olson raised the question on his blog about why Satan is ignored in modern theology. He observed how Greg’s theology takes an “obvious, ‘up front,’ blatant belief in a very personal, very real, very active Satan who has great power in the world.” Because we often have so little to say about Satan…