I’m currently writing a book that rejects the doctrine of divine omnipotence. I’ll suggest a replacement I call divine amipotence – the power of love. I introduced the writing project in this previous blog essay. One chapter in my book addresses God’s power described in what Christians call the Old and New Testaments. I’ll argue […]

I’m writing a new book. My tentative title is “The Death of Omnipotence… and Birth of Amipotence.” As the title suggests, I’ll argue that God is not omnipotent. But instead of simply saying, “God can’t do…,” I’m also proposing a view of divine power I think is more biblically supported, philosophically coherent, and experientially justified. […]

In a number of books and articles, I’ve argued for the reality of creaturely freedom. Our freedom is always limited, however, by various forces, factors, actors, and agents in our bodies and outside. Despite these limitations, there are at least nine good reasons to think we have genuine freedom. Not everyone affirms the reality of […]

I’m excited to announce a new book project! Along with co-editors Annie DeRolf, Christy Gunter, John Loppnow, and Lon Marshall, I’m inviting therapists, psychologists, and counselors to write essays on their work in relation to uncontrolling love. What is Uncontrolling Love? The “uncontrolling love” label is found in several books, including The Uncontrolling Love of […]

In various publications and recently in Pluriform Love, I define love. My definition says love acts intentionally, in relational response to God and others, to promote overall well-being. Perhaps the most common alternative to my definition says love is desire. We find theologians and philosophers from the past and present defining love as desire. In […]

Most Christian theologies restrict divine love. According to many, God only expresses agape. According to others, God only expresses eros. Some theologies may say God expresses hesed but cannot affirm divine ahavah. Other theologians mix and match love, depending on their philosophical and theological assumptions. In my new book, Pluriform Love, I argue that God […]

I’ve written a book that ties together many of my primary thoughts about God and love. It’s called Pluriform Love: An Open and Relational Theology of Well-Being. The preface of Pluriform Love gives the background story to its writing. And it provides a taste of some of the book’s primary ideas. I thought I’d share […]

Philosophy always plays a role in Christian theology. This isn’t a bad thing; philosophy isn’t inherently evil. We’re all philosophers, in the general sense of thinking about things, and all theologies have philosophical assumptions. In fact, every statement about love – scholarly or not – incorporates philosophy, at least in the broad sense. Some philosophies […]

An adequate Christian theology of love offers a plausible solution to the problem of evil. Rather than appealing to mystery, it offers answers to the issue most atheists say prevents them from believing God exists.[1] Those answers also help theists make sense of God’s love in light of personal, systemic, and nonhuman evils. In my […]

In my forthcoming book, Pluriform Love, I propose a new theological category: Essential Hesed. In this essay, I offer an excerpt from the book. Much precedes this and much comes after. But I offer this as a taste of what Essential Hesed says… God’s Steadfast Love Is God’s covenantal, loyal, and steadfast love for creation […]