Open theism


Open theism, also known as openness theology and free will theism, is a theological movement that has developed within Christianity as a rejection to the synthesis of Greek philosophy and Christian theology. Open theism is typically advanced as a biblically motivated and philosophically consistent theology of human and divine freedom, with an emphasis on what this means for the content of God's foreknowledge and exercise of God's power.
Noted Open Theist theologian Thomas J. Oord identifies four paths to open and relational theology:
  1. following the biblical witness,
  2. following themes in some Christian theological traditions,
  3. following the philosophy of free will, and
  4. following the path of reconciling faith and science.
Roger E. Olson said that open theism triggered the "most significant controversy about the doctrine of God in evangelical thought" in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Exposition of open theism

In short, open theism says that since God and humans are free, God's knowledge is dynamic and God's providence flexible. While several versions of traditional theism picture God's knowledge of the future as a singular, fixed trajectory, open theism sees it as a plurality of branching possibilities, with some possibilities becoming settled as time moves forward. Thus, the future as well as God's knowledge of it is open. Other versions of classical theism hold that God fully determines the future, entailing that there is no free choice. Yet other versions of classical theism hold that even though there is freedom of choice, God's omniscience necessitates God foreknowing what free choices are made. Open theists hold that these versions of classical theism do not agree with:
  1. the biblical concept of God
  2. the biblical understanding of divine and creaturely freedom
and/or result in incoherence. Open Theists tend to emphasize that God's most fundamental character trait is love, and that this trait is unchangeable. They also tend to hold that the biblical portrait is of a God deeply moved by creation, experiencing a variety of feelings in response to it.

Comparison of open and Reformed theism

The following chart compares beliefs about key doctrines as stated by open theists and Calvinists after "the period of controversy" between adherents of the two theisms began in 1994. During this period the "theology of open theism… rocked the evangelical world".
DoctrineOpen TheismCalvinism
Scripture . "In the Christian tradition, the Old and the New Testaments are considered Holy Scripture in that they are, or convey, the self-revelation of God.""Committed to affirming the infallibility of Scripture"Scripture is "the infallible Word of God".
God's Power. "God's power is limited only by God's own nature and not by any external force.""God is all-powerful.""God is all-powerful."
God's Sovereignty. "God's ultimate Lordship and rule over the universe".Portraying God as ordaining whatever happens reduces "humans to robots"."Nothing that exists or occurs falls outside God's ordaining will. Nothing, including no evil person or thing or event or deed."
God's Perfection. "God as lacking nothing and free of all moral imperfection".Believes in " the absolute perfection of God."Believes that, because "Scripture says" it, God "will always do what is right".
God's Foreknowledge. "God's knowing things and events before they happen in history"."God is omniscient" about "settled" reality, but the future that God "leaves open" can be known only as open "possibility" without specific foreknowledge.Classically Augustinian-Calvinist view: "God knows the future because he preordains it."
The Fall. "The disobedience and sin of Adam and Eve that caused them to lose the state of innocence in which they had been created. This event plunged them and all mankind into a state of sin and corruption."God "does not unilaterally and irrevocably decide what to do". God's decisions are influenced by "human attitudes and responses"."Ultimate reason" for the Fall was "God's ordaining will".
Free Will. "The term seeks to describe the free choice of the will which all persons possess. Theological debates have arisen over the ways and to the extent to which sin has affected the power to choose good over evil, and hence one's 'free will'."Promotes incompatibilism, the doctrine that "the agent's power to do otherwise" is "a necessary condition for acting freely".Promotes compatibilism, the doctrine that "freedom" of the will requires only "the power or ability to do what one will to do" without constraint or impediment, even if what one wills is determined.
Free Will and God's Sovereignty. A "caustic debate" began about 1990 over "God's sovereignty and human free will".Saying that God governs human choices reduces "angels or humans to robots in order to attain his objectives."God governs "the choices of human beings", but without "cancelling freedom and responsibility".
Theodicy issue. "The justification of a deity's justice and goodness in light of suffering and evil".To meet the "conditions of love", God exercises "general rather than specific sovereignty, which explains why God does not prevent all evil". Also, God "does not completely control or in any sense will evil" because the world is "held hostage to a cosmic evil force".Because "Scripture says" it, God "will always do what is right".

Historical development

Open theists have named open theism precursors to document their assertion that "the open view of the future is not a recent concept," but has a long history.
The first known post-biblical Christian writings advocating concepts similar to open theism with regard to the issue of foreknowledge are found in the writings of Calcidius, a 4th-century interpreter of Plato. It was affirmed in the 16th century by Socinus, and in the early 18th century by Samuel Fancourt and by Andrew Ramsay. In the 19th century several theologians wrote in defense of this idea, including Isaak August Dorner, Gustav Fechner, Otto Pfleiderer, Jules Lequier, Adam Clarke, Billy Hibbard, Joel Hayes, T.W. Brents, and Lorenzo D. McCabe. Contributions to this defense increased as the century drew to a close.
The dynamic omniscience view has been affirmed by a number of non Christians as well: Cicero Alexander of Aphrodisias and Porphyry. God's statement to Abraham “Now I know that you fear me” was much discussed by Medieval Jewish theologians. Two significant Jewish thinkers who affirmed dynamic omniscience as the proper interpretation of the passage were Ibn Ezra and Gersonides.
Sergei Bulgakov, an early-20th-century Russian Orthodox priest and theologian advocated the use of the term panentheism, which articulated a necessary link between God and creation as consequence of God's free love and not as a natural necessity. His sophiology has sometimes been seen as a precursor to 'open theism'.
Millard Erickson belittles such precursors to open theism as "virtually unknown or unnoticed."

After 1980

The term "open theism" was introduced in 1980 with theologian Richard Rice's book The Openness of God: The Relationship of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Free Will. The broader articulation of open theism was given in 1994, when five essays were published by evangelical scholars under the title The Openness of God. Recent theologians of note expressing this view include: Clark Pinnock, Greg Boyd, Thomas Jay Oord, John E. Sanders, Dallas Willard, Jürgen Moltmann, Richard Rice, C. Peter Wagner, John Polkinghorne, Hendrikus Berkhof, Adrio Konig, Harry Boer, Bethany Sollereder, Matt Parkins, Thomas Finger, W. Norris Clarke, Brian Hebblethwaite, Robert Ellis, Kenneth Archer Barry Callen, Henry Knight III, Gordon Olson, and Winkie Pratney. A significant, growing number of philosophers of religion affirm it: Peter Van Inwagen, Richard Swinburne, William Hasker, David Basinger, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Dean Zimmerman, Timothy O'Connor, James D. Rissler, Keith DeRose, Richard E. Creel, Robin Collins, J. R. Lucas, Vincent Brümmer,, Richard Purtill, Alan Rhoda, Jeffrey Koperski, Dale Tuggy, and Keith Ward. Biblical scholars Terence E. Fretheim, Karen Winslow, and John Goldingay affirm it. Others include writers Madeleine L'Engle and Paul C. Borgman, mathematician D.J. Bartholomew and biochemist/theologian Arthur Peacocke.

Philosophical arguments

Open theists maintain that traditional classical theists hold the classical attributes of God together in an incoherent way. The main classical attributes are as follows:
Contradictions in the traditional attributes are pointed out by open theists and atheists alike. Atheist author and educator George H. Smith writes in his book that if God is omniscient, God cannot be omnipotent because: "If God knew the future with infallible certainty, he cannot change it – in which case he cannot be omnipotent. If God can change the future, however, he cannot have infallible knowledge of it".
Open theism also answers the question of how God can be blameless and omnipotent even though evil exists in the world. H. Roy Elseth gives an example of a parent that knows with certainty that his child would go out and murder someone if he was given a gun. Elseth argues that if the parent did give the gun to the child then the parent would be responsible for that crime. However, if God was unsure about the outcome then God would not be culpable for that act; only the one who committed the act would be guilty. This position is, however, dubious, as a parent who knows his child was probable, or likely, or even possibly going to shoot someone would be culpable; and God knew that it was likely that man would sin, and thus God is still culpable. An orthodox Christian might try, on the contrary, seek to ground a theodicy in the resurrection, both of Christ and the general resurrection to come, though this is not the traditional answer to evil.

Varieties of open theists

Philosopher Alan Rhoda has described several different approaches several open theists have taken with regard to the future and God's knowledge of it.
Open theism has been strongly criticized by some Protestant, especially Calvinist, theologians and ministers. Opponents include Bruce A. Ware, Tom Schreiner, John Frame, John Piper, Millard Erickson, and Norman Geisler. Geisler, in his book Creating God in the Image of Man? argues against open theism and in favor of a view which includes all the traditional attributes of God. He quotes Exodus 3:14 and claims that it establishes God's aseity. From there, Geisler deduces Simplicity, Necessity, Immutability, Impassibility, Eternity, and Unity. While Open Theists would affirm God's aseity, they would derive this attribute on other grounds, and deny that it entails all the attributes Geisler thinks it does. Geisler also addresses the claims that the Classical attributes were derived from the Greeks with three observations:
An open theist might respond that all such criticisms are misplaced. As to observation , it is not characteristic of open theists to say that the quest for something unchanging is bad. Indeed, open theists believe God's character is unchanging. As to observation , open theists do not characteristically say traditional forms of classical theism have exactly the same concept of God as the Greeks. Rather, they argue that they imported only some unbiblical assumptions from the Greeks. They also point to theologians of the Christian tradition who, throughout history, did not succumb so strongly to Hellenistic influences. As to observation , open theists do not argue that philosophical influences are bad in themselves. Rather, they argue that some philosophical influences on Christian theology are unbiblical and theologically groundless. Consider John Sanders' statement in The Openness of God :
Opponents of open theism, both Arminians, and Calvinists, such as John Piper, claim that the verses commonly used by open theists are anthropopathisms. They suggest that when God seems to change from action A to action B in response to prayer, action B was the inevitable event all along, and God divinely ordained human prayer as the means by which God actualized that course of events.
They also point to verses that suggest God is immutable, such as:
Those advocating the traditional view see these as the verses that form God's character, and they interpret other verses that say God repents as anthropomorphistic. Authors who claim this can be traced back through Calvin, Luther, Aquinas, Ambrose, and Augustine. Open theists note that there seems to be an arbitrary distinction here between those verses which are merely anthropopathic and others which form God's character. They also note that the immediate sense of the passages addressing God's inalterability ought to be understood in the Hebrew sense of his faithfulness and justice. In other words, God's love and character is unchanging; this, however, demands that His approach to people be flexible.

Literary debate

In the early 18th century, an extended public correspondence flourished around the topic of open theism. The debate was incited by Samuel Fancourt's 1727 publication, The Greatness of Divine Love Vindicated. Over the next decade, four other English writers published polemical works in response. This led Fancourt to defend his views in six other publications. In his 1747 autobiography, in response to some who thought that this controversy had affected his career, Fancourt wrote, "Should it be suggested, that my religious principles were a prejudice unto me—I answer: so are those of every Dissenting Protestant in the Kingdom with some, if he dares to think and to speak what he thinks." Fancourt also names other writers who had supported his views.
In 2005, a "raging debate" among evangelicals about "open or free-will theism" was in place. This period of controversy began in 1994 with the publication of The Openness of God. The debate between open and classical theists is illustrated by their books as in the following chart.
YearOpen theism books and commentsClassical theism books and comments
1980 – Rice was the "pioneer of contemporary evangelical open theism."Critical acclaim, but public mostly unaware of open theism; the controversy had not yet begun.
1989Critical acclaim, but public mostly unaware of open theism; the controversy had not yet begun.
1994 – "ignited a firestorm of controversy.""Provoked numerous hostile articles in academic and popular publications." The "conservative backlash" was "quick and fierce".
1996 – Considers divine omniscience, theodicy, and petitionary prayer in freewill perspective. – Sees open theism as wrong biblically, theologically, and philosophically.
1997 – Made open theism the centerpiece of a theodicy. – Asserts that open theism should be called new theism or neotheism because it is so different from classical theism.
1998 – “The most thorough standard presentation and defense of the openness view of God.” – Accuses open theists of selective use of Scripture and caricaturing classical theism.
2000 – “The most passionate and articulate defense of openness theology to date.”
– “A genuinely evangelical portrayal of the biblical God.”		 – “The most influential critique of open theism.”
2001 – “A renewed defense of open theism” and a theodicy grounded in it.
– “Debate seemed to turn somewhat in favor of classical theism.”
2002–2003 – Attacked classical theists as "blueprint theologians" espousing a "blueprint world view".
– Attacked “open theism as theologically ruinous, dishonoring to God, belittling to Christ, and pastorally hurtful”.
2004–2012 – Contains appendix titled "Replies to my critics". – Book's stated purpose is to “demonstrate the errors of open theism”.
2013–2014 – Argues that proponents of open theism have a right to be called “evangelical”. – Declares that “open theists get God all wrong”.
presentThe Internet brought open theists and their debate with classical theists into public view. – An internet site supporting open theism is The Internet brought classical theists and their debate with open theists into public view. Two internet sites supporting classical theism are: and

Footnotes