Full Question:

 

Even though I have known of it and even read a couple of articles concerning it, I’m only now being introduced thoroughly to open theism. I have researched process theology quite a bit and found in it much to commend. I always thought many evangelicals, who have a disdain for process, were throwing out the baby with the bath water. A pentecostal minister once told me that a Christian must eat the meat and throw away the bones. I wish evangelicals could learn to do this.

In my opinion, Karl Barth is the most important theologian of this century and deserves a place among the great theologians of the church. (Of course, I know that many evangelicals have a problem with him also.) In the articles on this website, I have seen no mention of Barth unless I am overlooking him. Can he not contribute to this dialogue in some way? There has been some discussion of predestination and election on the website. Couldn’t we incorporate something from Barth’s understanding of election into the open theism debate? There may be some differences of opinion we may find between Barth and open theism, but there seems to be more agreement than disagreement. Care to comment on whether open theists can learn from Barth?

Bruce M.

Reply to Bruce M.:

Boyd’s recent book “Satan and the Problem of Evil” involves a critical approapriation of Barth’s eschatology, which ,of course, is related to his doctrine of election. As for Barth’s place in the history of theology, as far as I know, his dominance as the most influential theologian of the 20th Century is undisputed. Perhaps Evangelicals have been reluctant to acknowledge this, but the scholarly discourse of the last 50 years will bear this out.

Blessings,

Tyler De Armond, Dr. Boyd’s assistant.