{"id":4617,"date":"2018-02-28T08:31:47","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T15:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/blog\/archives\/"},"modified":"2018-02-28T10:18:12","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T17:18:12","slug":"god-control-wind-waves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/blog\/archives\/god-control-wind-waves","title":{"rendered":"Does God Control the Wind and Waves?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent International<\/em> Journal of Systematic Theology<\/em> article, Kevin Vanhoozer offered a dialogue between John Webster\u2019s views of love and my own. In one section, he wonders if my view of God\u2019s uncontrolling love accounts for miracles, including the biblical claim that \u201ceven the wind and waves obey\u201d Jesus. I think it does.<\/p>\n

Vanhoozer offers insights in his essay, but he also asks questions and offers criticisms of my work. My lengthy response is coming out soon in a book. Because some have read the recently published journal article and wondered about my response, I\u2019m willing to send my full response now as an email attachment to those asking for it. Just contact me.<\/p>\n

Nature Miracles<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Vanhoozer asks about how my views of what I call \u201cspecial divine action\u201d account for what many biblical scholars call \u201cnature miracles.\u201d Before I address his specific case, let me note that the majority of miracles mentioned in the Bible or that occur today pertain to healings, exorcisms, and personal transformation. These miracles involve persons or organisms rather than inanimate objects.<\/p>\n

My proposal that God acts miraculously through uncontrolling love accounts well for the person and organism miracles we find in the Bible and witness today. These miracles either explicitly mention creaturely cooperation, or we can easily imagine such cooperation playing a role.<\/p>\n

Inanimate Objects\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

My proposal requires more work when explaining nature miracles. Nature miracles involve inanimate objects, and I don\u2019t think inanimate objects have the capacity for intentional responses. To account for God\u2019s uncontrolling love in nature miracles, therefore, I explore quantum and chaos theories in The Uncontrolling Love of God<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Vanhoozer correctly summarizes my view that prominent theories in physics could explain the creaturely component in the Red Sea miracle. Such theories compliment my view that when doing nature miracles, God acts in relation to inanimate creation without controlling it. When the conditions are right among inanimate objects, God\u2019s action produces miracles.<\/p>\n

God Controls the Wind and Waves?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After summarizing my view of nature miracles, however, Vanhoozer says, \u201cOord fails to deal with the episode where Jesus works a miracle that elicits the astonished response, \u2018Who is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?\u2019 (Mark 4:41).\u201d Vanhoozer is right that I had yet to address this biblical statement.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the straightforward reading of this exclamation in Mark leads one to regard the wind and sea anthropomorphically. The language of the text suggests that wind and sea act like personal entities capable of choosing to \u201cobey\u201d Jesus (or perhaps not). If wind and sea are capable of obedient responses, my view that miracles require creation to cooperate with God fits this story well.<\/p>\n

Creatures Can Disobey God\u2019s Commands<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Many Christians have read into the biblical text, however, the idea that both animate and inanimate creatures can do no other than obey God. All creation must <\/em>obey God\u2019s commands.<\/p>\n

I think differently. Uncontrolling love can be disobeyed, as we know so well from our own experiences. I often asked my daughters to obey me, for instance, but they refused. Saying someone obeyed God need not be construed to mean the person had no choice. Such construal would make biblical references to human disobedience unintelligible.<\/p>\n

If we move against a straightforward reading of the text and instead think of wind and sea as inanimate objects, however, we\u2019ll need theories in physics to account for God\u2019s powerful but uncontrolling activity. As I admit above, accounting for miracles among inanimate systems is more difficult. But I think it\u2019s possible, as I also explain in The Uncontrolling Love of God<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Nothing in the Bible Requires<\/em> Us to Believe God Controls<\/strong><\/h3>\n

But there\u2019s a more important biblical point: nothing in Scripture explicitly <\/em>says God\u2019s miraculous activity involves control over others, even over inanimate creation.<\/p>\n

Christians have typically read the biblical miracle stories through perspectives shaped by metaphysical assumptions about divine power not explicitly supported by the text. They come to the Bible thinking God can control, despite there being no unambiguous biblical claim for such control.<\/p>\n

I know of nothing in the Bible that explicitly says God entirely controlled creatures or inanimate creation.<\/p>\n

Did God Control Pharaoh?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The text most often cited as describing God controlling others \u2013 what is philosophically called unilaterally determinative divine power, metaphysical coercion, or a sufficient cause \u2013 refers to God hardening Pharaoh\u2019s heart. Did God entirely control Pharaoh?<\/p>\n

The biblical passages do NOT explicitly say God controlled Pharaoh. \u201cHardened\u201d is not the same as \u201ctook away free will.\u201d In fact, some biblical passages say Pharaoh hardened his own heart.<\/p>\n

Biblical translators have apparently assumed that God controls when choosing words like \u201chardened\u201d to describe God\u2019s activity in relation to Pharaoh. But other English words are also viable translations, and these do not have the connotations of coercion that \u201chardening\u201d can have.<\/p>\n

On these issues, see the work of various Old Testament scholars, including Terence Fretheim, Exodus: Interpretation <\/em>(Philadelphia: Westminster\/John Knox, 2010). Many such scholars say we should interpret the story as NOT requiring us to think God controlled Pharaoh. For more on this, see my essay, “Does the Bible Say God Controls?”<\/a><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In future blog essays, I\u2019ll show that other important Christian ideas \u2013 such as God creating the universe and raising Jesus from the dead \u2013 do not require us to think God can control others. But for this essay, let me repeat my main point: God can act miraculously without controlling inanimate creation, such as wind and waves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent International Journal of Systematic Theology article, Kevin Vanhoozer offered a dialogue between John Webster\u2019s views of love and my own. In one section, he wonders if my view of God\u2019s uncontrolling love accounts for miracles, including the biblical claim that \u201ceven the wind and waves obey\u201d Jesus. I think it does. Vanhoozer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15,37,426,5324,6106,6107,6108],"yst_prominent_words":[5388,6105,6103,6102,6101,6099,6098,6097,6096,6095,1070,5323,5318,4944,4677,4373,1909,1152,1151,1080],"class_list":["post-4617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open_and_relational_theology","tag-thomasjayoord","tag-miracles","tag-uncontrolling-love","tag-pharaoh","tag-nature-miracles","tag-pharoah","tag-kevin-vanhoozer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4617"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}