The Books Page

On this page you will find various books regarding Open Theism and related topics from a number of authors.

All books on this page are available through Barnes and Noble Booksellers, on line.  When you click the link below each book, it will take you to B&N's page for that particular book.  Enjoy!

Choose your section
Section I has books about Openness theology proper Section II has books written on other points of theology, from an Openness perspective Section III has books written from an opposing point of view from Open Theism (we include these to help you better study and understand our position)

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Section I

The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God
Clark Pinnock  John Sanders  Richard Rice  William Hasker  David Basinger

The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God

Annotation
Written by five scholars whose expertise extends across the disciplines of biblical, historical, systematic, and philosophical theology, this is a careful and full-orbed argument that the God known through Christ desires "responsive relationship" with his creatures.Clark Pinnock and others argue for a new perspective on God and his work in the world, both rejecting process theology and demanding reconsideration of classical doctrines of God's immutability, impassibility and foreknowledge. 

From the Publisher
Presents A Careful and Full-Orbed Argument that the God known through Christ desires "responsive relationship" with his creatures. While it rejects process theology, the book asserts that such classical doctrines as God's immutability, impassibility and foreknowledge demand reconsideration. The authors insist that our understanding of God will be more consistently biblical and more true to the actual devotional lives of Christians if we profess that "God, in grace, grants humans significant freedom" and enters into relationship with a genuine "give-and-take dynamic." The Openness of God is remarkable in its comprehensiveness, drawing from the disciplines of biblical, historical, systematic and philosophical theology. Evangelical and other orthodox Christian philosophers have promoted the "relational" or "personalist" perspective on God in recent decades. But here is the first major attempt to bring the discussion into the evangelical theological arena.

 

The God Who Risks: A Theology of Divine Providence
John Sanders

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Format: Paperback, 356pp.
ISBN: 0830815015
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Pub. Date: October  1998

The God Who Risks: A Theology of Divine Providence

What People Are Saying
Dr. Sanders has waded into a deep theological issue with great learning matched by immense pastoral sensitivity. This book is an important act of courage that invites readers to new, courageous thinking. —Walter Brueggemann

Motivated by a deep desire to be faithful to biblical revelation. . . evidences a rare combination of philosophical clarity and biblical and theological erudition. Many will find things to disagree with in this book, but everyone should agree that it has significantly raised the level of discussion. —Stephen C. Evans

From the Publisher
In The God Who Risks, theologian John Sanders mounts a careful and challenging argument for positive answers to both of these profound theological questions. His powerful book not only will contribute to serious theological discussion but will enlighten pastors and laypersons who struggle with questions about suffering, evil and human free will.

From The Author, April 17th, 1999, Exclusively for the Open Theism Information Site
A relational understanding of divine sovereignty. 
This book further develops the model of God described in a previous book: "The Openness of
God." According to the openness model (or relational theism) the triune God of love creates beings
designed to enter into the divine love and to reciprocate that love. God enters into genuine
give-and-take relations with us such that God not only initiates, but God also is able to receive from
us and be affected by us. Because love cannot be forced, God sovereignly decides to make himself
vulnerable to those he loves--God takes the risk that we may not respond to the divine love with
love of our own. God risks that we may not love God, other humans and care for the creation as we
should. All this is in opposition to the no risk view of divine providence in which everything that occurs in our lives is exactly what God wanted to happen. In the risk view, God has sovereignly decided not to tightly control everything. Hence, some things happen which God does not want to happen but works to redeem these situations. In the risk model, our actions and prayers, or lack of them, genuinely make a difference regarding our relationship with God. 

A constructive view of God, highlighting the divine wisdom, love, responsiveness, power and
faithfulness, is developed in order to show how God resourcefully works in human lives, taking into
account our actions and our prayers. 

The book includes lengthy chapters covering the Old and New Testament materials showing that
God's revelation teaches this understanding. It also includes an overview of church history detailing
how this model of God agrees and disagrees with other Christian thinkers. Next, it interacts with
philosophical sources in order to clarify what is meant by risk, sovereignty, love, omnipotence,
omniscience and human freedom. The book concludes with an in-depth application of this model of
God to the Christian life: salvation, suffering and evil, why our prayers really matter, and guidance. 
-- John Sanders

God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God
Gregory A. Boyd Ph.d

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Format: Paperback, 176pp.
ISBN: 080106290X
Publisher: Baker Books
Pub. Date: March  2000

God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God

Reviews
From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly  
This exceptionally engaging and biblically centered text defends a theological claim that is generating heated controversy among evangelicals: that from God's perspective, the future is partly open, a realm of possibilities as well as certainties. Boyd, professor of theology at Bethel College (St. Paul, Minn.) and author of Letters from a Skeptic and God at War, displays a remarkable ability to make "open theism" accessible to a wide audience. Open theism usually receives a cool reception among evangelical theologians, whose views of divine foreknowledge often echo Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin, as well as Hellenistic philosophical theology. This classical tradition interprets God's perfection as eternal changelessness, ruling out the possibility that God could learn new information, or that God's intentions could change. Boyd sidesteps the more abstruse theological

Predestination and Free Will: Four Views of Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom
David Basinger  Randall Basinger

 
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Format: Paperback, 180pp.
ISBN: 0877845670
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Pub. Date: January  1986

Predestination and Free Will: Four Views of Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom

From the Publisher
David and Randall Basinger present four different answers to the question "If God is in control, are people really free?" Contributors include proponents of foreordination, foreknowledge, self-limited power, and self-limited knowledge.

God, Time, and Knowledge 
William Hasker

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Format: Paperback, 209pp.
ISBN: 0801485452
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Pub. Date: April  1998

God, Time, and Knowledge

From the Author, William Hasker, Sept. 25, 1999.

God, Time, and Knowledge is a sustained discussion of the issues concerning divine foreknowledge and human freedom. The argument for the incompatibility of free will and comprehensive divine foreknowledge is developed and defended against numerous objections. Other topics include middle knowledge, divine timelessness, and the providential uselessness of "simple foreknowledge." The final chapter, "God and the Open Future," develops the conception of God in relation to time that is foundational for the open view. Some sections of the book are philosophically technical.

The Case for Freewill Theism: A Philosophical Assessment
David Basinger

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Format: Paperback, 204pp.
ISBN: 0830818766
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Pub. Date: October  1996

The Case for Freewill Theism: A Philosophical Assessment

 
From the Publisher
Can God intervene in this world, and if so, to what extent? If God intervenes, can we initiate such intervention by prayer? And if God can intervene, why is evil so persistent? Taking up such practical but profound questions, a coauthor of the much-discussed The Openness of God here offers a probing philosophical examination of freewill theism. This controversial view argues that the God of Christianity desires "responsive relationship" with his creatures. It rejects process theology, but calls for a reassessment of such classical doctrines as God's immutability, impassibility and foreknowledge. David Basinger here especially considers divine omniscience, theodicy and petitionary prayer in freewill perspective. His careful and precise argument contributes to a growing and important discussion within orthodox Christian circles.

TAKING UP SUCH PRACTICAL BUT PROFOUND QUESTIONS, a coauthor
of the much-discussed The Openness of God here offers a probing philosophical examination of freewill theism. This controversial view argues that the God of Christianity desires "responsive relationship" with his creatures. It rejects process theology, but calls for a reassessment of such classical doctrines as God's immutability, impassibility and foreknowledge.

David Basinger here especially considers divine omniscience, theodicy and petitionary prayer in freewill perspective. His careful and precise argument contributes to a growing and important discussion within orthodox Christian circles.

The Grace of God, the Will of Man: A Case for Arminianism
Clark H. Pinnock

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Format: Paperback, 352pp.
ISBN: 031051231X
Publisher: Zondervan Publishing House
Pub. Date: December  1989

Grace of God Will of Man

Annotation
This work carries on the ancient debate about the scope of God's saving purposes and the manner of his effecting salvation in human beings. This is a Lightening Print, Inc., print-on-demand title and can be ordered only from Spring/Arbor.

From the Publisher
"The Grace of God, the Will of Man: A Case for Arminianism" was written by an impressive team of evangelical scholars from many traditions. This work carries on the ancient debate about the scope of God's saving purposes and the manner of his effecting salvation in human beings. It defends the proposition that God is a dynamic personal Agent who respects the freedom he chose to delegate to his human creatures and relates sensitively to us in the outworking of his plans for the whole of history. God is love and expresses his power by working salvation among us under conditions of genuine mutuality.

The contributors to this volume are Christian scholars who are eager to present this evangelical model as an alternative to deterministic theology. They do not claim to have said the last word on the subject but want at least to keep the ball of theological discussion in play.

Note to the reader, from the Webmaster:  It may seem odd that this work claims to be a piece of Arminian Thinking, but you should not be daunted by it.  There is an ongoing debate both inside and outside Open Theist circles as to whether Open Theism is a "hybrid," or "subsection" of Arminianism, or, an entirely new position in relatively to Arminianism and Calvinism.  Either way, it is the same teaching.

The Coherence of Theism 
Richard Swinburne

 The Coherence of Theism

Photograph currently unavailable

From The Publisher
This book investigates what it means, and whether it is coherent, to say that there is a God. The author concludes that, despite philosophical objections, the claims which religious believers make about God are generally coherent; and that although some important claims are coherent only if the words by which they are expressed are being used in stretched or analogical senses, this is in fact the way in which theologians have usually claimed they are being used. This revised edition includes various minor corrections and clarifications.

Format: Hardcover, 2nd ed., 322pp.
ISBN: 0198240694
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Pub. Date: April  1993
Edition Desc: Rev. ed