Episode 48 - Open Theism – What Does God Know?

Doubts Aloud Podcast

Episode 48– Show Notes
This month we discuss Open Theism which is based on the idea that God doesn’t know the future choices that free agents will make. It is a relatively new idea within the history of Christianity and it has received increasing attention in recent years with thinkers such as Greg Boyd promoting it. The narratives in the Old Testament tend to indicate this view of God’s knowledge as God is a more human type of character when compared to the ‘omni’ God of classical Theism which follows from classical Greek philosophy such as Aristotle. We discuss the implications on issues such as prayer and changing God’s mind, prophecy which requires God to know the future and the Problem of Evil. We end with a quick discussion of how Islam and Judaism fit in with this.
Links:
We mentioned a few links and sources:
Dr William Hasker being interviewed on Open Theism
https://youtu.be/csGWj1pgrxE
The Unbelievable Show episode on this from May 2016 with James White & John Sanders
https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Is-Open-Theism-a-heresy-James-White-vs-John-Sanders
The extract from John Sanders that Andrew played was this (from another debate with James White):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQBECHTVCDM&t=1751
Andrew suggested Greg Boyd’s website as a good place to get the case for Open Theism:
Visit https://reknew.org/ and put ‘Open Theism’ in the ‘Search the Site’ facility
A key 20thC theologian on Open Theism was Clark Pinnock, eg see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Pinnock
We mentioned several Bible passages, most were easily found stories, but the one we looked at as a possible counter-text for Open Theism is Isaiah 46 v9-11.
Finally we briefly discussed ‘God’s Body’ as rather more than an artistic metaphor in the early texts. This podcast will explain more:
The Bible For Normal People - Episode 147: Benjamin D. Sommer - Does God Have a Body?
Find it here (or via your podcast app):
https://peteenns.com/podcast/
Doubts Aloud Links:
Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review.
Or give feedback and ask questions using : [e-mail]
Join the Facebook Group discussions:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/
Meet us all in person (after Covid19) at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London