How Classical Theology Gets It Wrong
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Classical Theism, Cruciform Theology, Philosophy
Topics: Attributes and Character
Classical theology has conceived of God as altogether necessary, simple, timeless, unchanging and unknowable. This view of God requires us to conclude that biblical images of God do not reflect the way God truly is…
God Became What He is Not To Reveal What He Is
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, God, Salvation
Topics: Attributes and Character
We are saved because Jesus became the curse of the law for us (Gal. 3:13). So too, the way Christ freed us from the condemnation of sin and enabled us to “become the righteousness of…
How to Interpret the Law of the Old Testament
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, God, Jesus, Law, Old Testament
Topics: Attributes and Character, Biblical Interpretation
While there are multitudes of passages in the OT that reflect an awareness that people are too sinful to be rightly related to God on the basis of the law, there is a strand that…
Crucifying Transcendence
Category: General
Tags: Church Fathers, Cross, Cruciform Theology, God, Jesus, Philosophy, Platonism, Transcendence
Topics: Attributes and Character
The classical view of God’s transcendence in theology is in large borrowed from a major strand within Hellenistic philosophy. In sharp contrast to ancient Israelites, whose conception of God was entirely based on their experience…
Creating God in Our Own Image
Category: General
Tags: Character of God, God, Greg Boyd, Jesus, Power, The Work of the People, Travis Reed
Topics: Attributes and Character
How have we created God in our own image? In this short video produced by The Work of the People, Greg reflects on various ways that humans typically think about God in terms of power, and how…
How Much Does the Cross Really Matter?
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion, God, God's Character, Jesus, Persecution, Power, Suffering
Topics: Attributes and Character
The cross is as foolishness and weakness to nonbelievers, but Paul wrote that to those who are being saved it is both “the power” and “wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:18, 24). In sharp contrast…
God is Different Than You Think
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion, God, Jesus, Love, Sacrifice
Topics: Attributes and Character
The revelation of “[a] God humiliated even unto the cross,” as Pascal put it, flies in the face of what most Jews of Jesus’ time, and of what most people throughout history, have expected God…
Does The Open View Limit God?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Divine Foreknowledge, Future, God of the Possible, Open Theism
Topics: Attributes and Character, Responding to Objections
Suppose you and I both agree that God is omniscient and thus knows all of reality, but we disagree over, say, the number of trees on a certain plot of land. I say there are…
Is God Immutable? Part II
Category: Q&A
Tags: Attributes of God, God's Character, time
Topics: Attributes and Character
Yesterday, we looked at the common understanding of divine immutability and the problems inherent to it. Click here to read that post. Today, let’s look at what the immutability of God actually means. Instead of…
Is God Immutable? Part I
Category: Q&A
Tags: Attributes of God, Character of God, God, Jesus, time
Topics: Attributes and Character
For a number of reasons, Plato believed that something changes only to become better or to become worse (Rep. II). Since a perfect being can’t be improved or diminished, he argued, God must be completely…
Is God Personal?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Apologetics, God, Letters from a Skeptic, Love
Topics: Attributes and Character
Hamed Saber via Compfight How can we trust that God is personally involved in our lives? Are our seemingly “small” lives significant enough for God to get involved when you consider the vastness of all…
Why Doesn’t God Make Himself Obvious?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Apologetics, Doubt, Free Will, God, Letters from a Skeptic
Topics: Attributes and Character, Hearing God, Prayer
Why is faith so difficult? Why isn’t God more obvious? Why doesn’t God come out and provide irrefutable proof that he is God so that there is no more doubt? Greg’s father raised such questions…
Why Isn’t God More Clear?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Belief, Faith, God, Hearing God, Knowledge, Prayer, Video Q&A
Topics: Attributes and Character, Hearing God, Prayer
Ever wonder why God isn’t more clear and obvious? Here’s Greg’s take on that question.
If God anticipates each possibility perfectly, how does he differ from the “frozen God” of classical theism?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Foreknowledge, God, Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Attributes and Character, Defending the Open View
Question: If God anticipates each and every possibility as if each were only possibility, how does God ever experience novelty and adventure? It seems that a God who perfectly anticipated (from all eternity) every single…
In light of Einstein’s conclusion that time is relative, how can you believe that God is not above time?
Category: Q&A
Tags: God, Open Theism, Q&A, Science
Topics: Attributes and Character, Defending the Open View
Relatively Theory basically stipulates that whether an event is viewed as being in the past, present or future depends on where one is in relation to the event in question as well as how fast…
What is the “classical view of God” and what about it do you find objectionable?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Classical Theism, God, Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Attributes and Character
The “classical view of God” refers to the view of God that has dominated Christian theology since the earliest Church fathers. According to this theology, God is completely “immutable.” This means that God’s being and…
What do you think of the classical view that God is impassible?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Classical Theism, God, Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Attributes and Character
The classical view has historically held that God is impassible, meaning he is above pathos (passion or emotions). The main reason the church came to this view was that, following the Hellenistic philosophical tradition, they…
Do you believe God is pure actuality?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Classical Theism, God, Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Attributes and Character
The basis of the classical view of God as pure actuality (actus purus) is the Aristotelian notion that potentiality is always potential for change and that something changes only because is lacks something else. So,…
What do you think of Thomas Aquinas’ view of God?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Classical Theism, God, Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Attributes and Character
Question: You have written (in Trinity and Process) that the relational God of the Bible is the antithesis of the immutable God of Thomas Aquinas. Could you explain this? Answer: Aquinas and much of the…
What is omni-resourcefulness?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Free Will, God, Open Theism, Predestination, Q&A
Topics: Attributes and Character
Question: What do you mean when you refer to God’s omni-resourcefulness? Can you support this with Scripture? Answer: I and others use the term omni-resourcefulness to highlight a feature of God in Scripture that the…