On Dehumanizing Theology

Hi Pastor Boyd,

Just stopping by to express my gratitude for your work. For some time now, I’ve been undergoing some deep crises of faith because of the doctrine which Calvinists seem to ironically find so much comfort in: predestination. The idea of predestination has troubled me to a point that I think exceeds my ability to express, but we’ll just say that my sanity was taking a nosedive because of it.

I was presented with Molinism as an alternative, especially as envisaged by William Lane Craig. Suffice it to say, I perceived it as Calvinism for those who delight in semantics. The idea that there’s only one future that can exist and as a result, all suffering and pain must happen was so dehumanizing and trivializing. I think I can find no other word better to describe how Calvinism and Molinism made me feel: dehumanized.

In some final desperate attempts to salvage my quickly diminishing worldview, I looked up open theism, expecting to only find incoherent, wishful thinking by those who simply hadn’t thought about the problem enough. I’m overjoyed to say that I found the exact opposite upon finding your site!

I needed real, convincing answers by people I could reasonably believe weren’t just wishful thinkers, but arrived where they did precisely because of the very same things I had thought and worried about. And that’s what I found!

So, I just wanted to say thank you. For a while there, I genuinely felt like life had lost its meaning, and if you’ve ever known what that’s like, I’m sure you also know the ineffable joy that comes with ditching that sort of spiritual burden. Literally felt like a cancer patient being told they were in remission.

Geoff