Responding to 150+ Amipotence Essays

In early 2025, two massive volumes of edited essays were published exploring the idea of amipotence. Between the two books, there are 150+ essays!

The first of the two volumes is titled Amipotence: Support and Criticism. The second is Amipotence: Expansion and Application. Essayists responded to my book, The Death of Omnipotence and Birth of Amipotence, but I have explained amipotence in other books too.

I invented the word “amipotence” to replace omnipotence. By it, I mean the power of God’s uncontrolling love. The idea is that God always loves everyone and everything, and because divine love never controls, God can’t control anyone or anything.

“Ami” means “love” in Latin, and “potence” means “power” or “influence.” The word is pronounced “am” (like “amity”), with a short “i” (like “it”), and “potence” (like “moments”).

The essays in these two books are simply outstanding! I strongly recommend that you get copies of one or both. The subject matter of the essays ranges widely, and I learned a great deal reading them.

As the books’ subtitles suggest, essays add, expand, and/or apply the idea of amipotence. But about 20% of the essayists wrote criticisms of the idea or its implications. There’s no bad essay in either book!

I spent 2025 responding to each essay, and my responses are now posted online. Most of my responses are drabbles, which are statements exactly 100 words long. But on a few essays, I wrote longer responses. Click the links on the essay titles below to see them; you’ll also see suggestions for further reading.

I cite a number of the amipotence essays in my forthcoming book, A Systematic Theology of Love: God and Creation, volume one. I’m sure I’ll cite more of essays in later volumes in the systematic theology.

I thank the executive editor, Brandon Brown especially for administrating both volumes. And I thank book editors Chris Baker, Steve Fountain, Fran Stedman, Melissa Owens Stewart, Deanna Young, and Travis Young. They were all fantastic! I also offer a huge word of appreciation to Chris Baker for posting every essay on the Center for Open and Relational Theology website (c4ort.com). That’s a lot of work!

Below are the essays in the two books in (roughly) alphabetical order. Each has a hyperlink that takes those who click to the essay online. If you notice an essay that should be included, send me a note about it.

Thanks again to every essayist for helping me explore amipotence!

AMIPOTENCE ESSAYS

“Amipotence with Added Anarchy” by Graham Adams

“I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” by Monica Alhbin

“The Ontological Idolatry of Love” by Jason Alvis

“An Empowering Not Overpowering Spirit” by Dave Andrews

“Man, Bear, or Amipotent God?” by Janel Apps Ramsey

“Hell and Amipotence” by David Anzalone

“Amipotence Confined” by Charles Atkins

“Night of the Living Words” by Charles Bakker

“The Panarchist Politics of Amipotence” by Matthew Baker

“A Womanist Liberative Response to Amipotence” by Karen Baker-Fletcher

“Amipotence as a Solution to the Problem of Divine Hiddenness” by Chad Bahl

“Practicing Amipotence” by Chris Baker

“Is an Amipotent God Preferable to Freewill Theism?” by David Basinger

“Trinity, Time, and an Unfolding Future” by Allan R. Bevere

“Even God Can’t Have It All” by Donna Bowman

“Silent, Still and Sweet Attraction” by Michael Brierley

“The Prevenience of Amipotence” by Brandon Brown

“Why Can’t God Do More” by John H. Buchanan

“Love: The Name of the Universe” by T.D. Burnette

“Love Without Qualification” by Anna-Case-Winters

“God and Kidney Stones” by Clifford Chalmers Cain

“Amipotence: The Ghost Buster of Harmful Doctrines” by Michael Camp

“The Measureless Game” by Jason Clark

“The Power of Love” by Kelly James Clark

“Amipotence Vs. Omnipotence” by John B. Cobb, Jr.

“Omnipotence, Amipotence, or Just the Steadfast Love of God?” by Robert D. Cornwall

“The Explanatory Failure of Amipotence” by Robin A. Collins

“The Palindrome of ‘Bolton’ Would Be ‘Notlob!’“ by Simon Cross

“Stolen Sovereignty: Abuse and the Denial of Agency” by Nathan Croy

“Amipotence Overcomes Two Problems with Omnipotence” by John E. Culp

“Your Church is Dying” by Ulrick Refsager Dam

“The Parable of Amipotent Love” by Paul Dazet

“Amipotence in the Gospel of Mark” by Russ Dean

“The Universe of God’s Dynamic Love” by Ilia Delio

“Drive-By Baskets of Christmas Cheer” by Teri Ditslear

“Who’s in Charge?” by Martha Elias Downey

“Perfect Passivity” by Daniel A. Dombrowski

“From Amipotence to All-Encompassing Mercy” by Adis Duderija

“God Can’t Be All-Powerful and All-Loving!” by Mike Edwards

“The Politics of Amipotence” by Bruce G. Epperly

“If Love is Power, ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’“ by David Fitch

“The Interwoven Fabric of Christian Faith” by David Fergusson

“The Supremacist Soteriology of Divine Omnipotence” by Alex Forrester

“The Still Birth of Amipotence” by Gabriel Gordon

“Theology, Pediatrics, and Everyday Life” by Chris Hanson

“Amipotence in the Wesleyan Tradition” by Steve Harper

“Amipotence Versus the Psalms” by William Hasker

“All Loving Death Practices” by Beth Hayward

“Power, Control, and our Failure to Love the Earth” by Aimee Allison Hein

“Amipotence and Animal Rights” by E.A. Drew Hensley

“Amipotence and the Hope of Redemption” by Wm. Curtis Holtzen

“Justice Seeking Amipotence” by Nancy R. Howell

“God Doesn’t Barge In” by Sarah K. Howley

“The God in the Burning Bush Is Not Omnipotent” by Matt Huffman

“The Force and Form of Love and God’s Cosmic Body” by Darren Iammarino

“The Power of Abiding Love That Will Not Let Us Go” by Charissa Jaeger-Sanders

“God Isn’t Waiting for Your Cry for Help” by Jeremy Jernigan

“If Not for the Grace of Nature, There Go I” by Mark Gregory Karris

“Suffering and the Amipotent God” by Catherine Keller

“Neuro-Relational Spirituality and Religious Power Games” by Shaleen Kendrick

“Amipotence and the Nature of Agency“ by Simon Kittle

“Why It Matters that Love is First” by Sarah Heaner Lancaster

“What’s Love Got to Do With It?” by Anson Laytner

“Is the Amipotent God the World-Soul?” by Joanna Leidenhag

“An Apology for Qualified Omnipotence” by Christopher Lilley

“We Must Rethink the Cross“ by Jason Liesendahl

“God’s Power and the Therapy Room” by Steven A. Luff

“How Are We Influenced by God’s Love?” by Brian Claude Macallan

“An Open and Relational Eschatology” by Lon Marshall

“Only by Love Unfeigned” by Patrick Q. Mason

“Amipotence Versus Amorepotence, Oord Versus McCall” by Bradford McCall

“Practicing the Presence of Amipotence” by Jay McDaniel

“The Meaning of God is to Love and Be Loved” by James McLachlan

“The Loving God Incapable of Love” by Ryan Patrick McLaughlin

“Jewish Insights on God’s Power and Love” by John C. Merkle

“Did the Spiritual but Not Religious Leave Because of Omnipotence?” by Linda Mercadante

“If God Learned to Love, Then God Can Teach Us How” by Tim Miller

“No Quick Fix” by Shannon Davy Mimbs

“Divine Cancer and Amipotent Community” by Ryan Miller

“S/He Who Cares About Every Tear!” by Saida Mirsadri

“Islamic Process Panentheism Offers a Deeper Perspective on Divine Action” by Jared Morningstar

“Amipo-verdant: Love is Green” by Craig Morton

“Omnipotence Has No Qualifications” by R.T. Mullins

“Like God” by Eleanor O’Donnell

“Sourdough Focaccia: A Case Study of Love” by Tori E. Owens

“Amipotence in Hindu Monotheism” by Swami Padmanabha

“Love is Greater than an Omnipotent ‘God’“ by Sheri Pallas

“Amipotence (Perhaps)” by Joshua G. Patterson

“Minimalist Creation ex Nihilo and the God Who is Surprised” by Joe Pettit

“Hope in Love” by Elizabeth Enns Petters

“Do Our Bacteria Love Us?” by John F. Pohl

“The Decline of Omnipotence in Pop Culture” by Nick Polk

“Must Omnipotence Die So that Amipotence May Live?” by Austin Pounds

“Amipotentiality and the Sacrament of Service” by B. Keith Putt

“A Divine Marriage” by Sharon L. Baker Putt

“The Miraculous Nature of Our World” by Andre Rabe

“Living Out Amipotence” by Vikki Randall

“Who is God to Me?” by Mike Rans

“Divine Malpraxis” by Elijah Razo

“Resisting the Authoritarian Lure” by Marcel Redling

“A Call for an Amipotent Pentecostal-Charismatic Revival” by Joshua D. Reichard

“Exaggerated Rumors of Omnipotence’s Death” by Alan R. Rhoda

“A Beautiful Hope“ by Michael M. Rose

“Omnipotence Justifies Leadership Abuse” by Tom Rundel

“Can Empowering Love Heal Trauma?” by Helene Russell

“The Determined Divine” by Niq Ruud

“Tovarche: Amipotence’s Doctrinal Domino Effect” by Shawn M. Ryan

“A Threefold Critique of Amipotence” by Manuel Schmid

“Four Fatal Flaws of Amipotence” by Wm. Andrew Schwartz

“A Theology Without an Expiration Date” by Josh Scott

“God Can’t Because God Cares” by Eric Sentell

“Amplifying Amipotence Through a Theopoetic Re-Reading of Creation” by Matthew David Segall

“The Risk of Love and its Existential Response to the Possibility of Self-Death” by Farhan Shah

“An Amipotent God is a Mad God” by Rose Sharon

“Smite Our Enemies, Loving God?” by Pete Shaw

“Logic, Definitions, and Why We Should Look Elsewhere” by J. Aaron Simmons

“The Foundational Love of God and Spiritual Direction” by Shelly A. Skinner

“Seventy Times Seventy Times Infinity” by Jeanyne B. Slettom

“The Metaphysics of Love” by Olav Bryant Smith

“From Power to Love: Reframing God Beyond the Childish Ego“ by Joe Smith

“Good Lord Willing” by Melissa Owens Stewart

“Conducting the Power of the Past” by John M. Sweeney

“An Amipotent God is Both the Poet and the Poetry” by Bill Tammeus

“Good Riddance, Omnipotence” by Libby Tedder Hugus

“Harm Reduction as an Exercise of Amipotence” by Brad Thibodeaux

“Amipotence and Atonement” by Nichole Torbitzky

“Love Encounters of the Fifth Kind” by Ian Todd

“A Preacher Kid’s Tale of Amipotence” by Johan Tredoux

“Is God a Hypocrite?” by Jason Tripp

“Where is God…?“ by Tracy L. Tucker

“Amipotence for Everyday Life” by Mark Umstot

“I Believe in God the Father Almighty” by Gijsbert van den Brink

“Catching Up with Charles Hartshorne” by Donald Wayne Viney

“Faith in a God that Does Not Kill” by Steve Watson

“A Middle Way Between Theodicy and Antitheodicy” by Mark Waters

“God’s Powerful Love Is in Us, Too“ by Jeff Wells

“Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! Divine Omniscience (Also) Has to Go!” by Clarence Graham White

“Amipotence and Sanctification“ by Angela Wilson

“The All-Nurturing, All-Sustaining God of Scripture” by Karen Strand Winslow

“Covenant Theology, Lament, & Amipotence” by William Yarchin

“What the World Needs Now… Amipotence” by Deanna M. Young

“It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)” by James Travis Young