Posts under "Open and Relational Theology"

Five Kinds of Biblical Inspiration

October 28th, 2024 / 10 Comments

It’s common for Christians to claim God inspired the authors who wrote the Bible. If God inspired the biblical authors, goes the thinking, then the Bible is inspired by God. Steven Hause recently asked me about biblical inspiration. In my response, I claimed that biblical authors get some ideas about God right, but other biblical […]

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Imitating God

September 2nd, 2024 / 1 Comment

An essay I wrote on imitating God has just been published. My essay is in an academic book called Exemplars, Imitation, and Character Formation (Routledge). Eric Yang is the book’s editor, and contributors examine the relevance of exemplars and the practice of imitation in character formation. My arguments use Ephesians 5:1,2a as a springboard. This […]

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Basics of Open & Relational Theology

May 8th, 2024 / 1 Comment

In our book God After Deconstruction, Tripp Fuller and I explore the good reasons people deconstruct and offer an open and relational theological response. We think this theology makes better sense than traditional theologies, and we believe it’s better than atheism. To conclude God After Deconstruction, we offer an overview of this theological perspective to […]

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Is the World Eternal? Does it Predate God?

September 29th, 2023 / 6 Comments

For more than a decade, I’ve argued that theists should reject the idea God creates something from nothing (creatio ex nihilo). I often explain why and offer an alternative view of God’s creating: creatio ex creatione sempiternalis in amore. You can find my arguments in the recently published T&T Clark Handbook on Suffering and the […]

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Three Bold Moves

September 5th, 2023 / No Comments

I recently gave a talk in Oxford at the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion. My lecture, “Three Bold Moves to Make Sense of God’s Love,” was well attended and well received. I thank my fellow session presenters Lina Langby and Philip Goff for the great interaction and the session chair, Fiona Ellis. Below […]

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