God Can’t Intro
My new book, God Can’t: How to Believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils will be released in January!
God’s Essence-Experience Binate
Many thoughtful believers wonder how best to talk both about God’s steadfast stability and relational flexibility. Unfortunately, even some of the best thinkers end up sacrificing one to affirm the other. Unchangingly Perfect For much of history, trained theologians in the Abrahamic faiths have sacrificed God’s relational flexibility in their desire to emphasize God’s stability. […]
Creatio Ex Nihilo and Creation Care
A growing number of Christians see the need to care for creation. But most of these Christians affirm the ancient idea that God created the universe out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo). Does care for creation fit well with creatio ex nihilo? I don’t think so… I’ve been writing a book chapter for a new […]
God’s Love is Relational in Three Forms
The theo-logic of God’s love says divine love is relationally full-orbed rather than one-dimensional. Three forms of love — agape, eros, and philia — demonstrate this theo-logic. And the Bible gives witness to them. AGAPE God expresses the agape form of love by responding to sin with forgiveness and healing. Those are activities that assume God relates with […]
25 Tips for Using Social Media from Theologians, Philosophers, Bible Scholars, and Religious Leaders
Social media is changing contemporary culture. And its changing scholarship in religion and philosophy. Some of the leading voices in these fields are using social media and technology in interesting ways. I recently asked more than 90 theologians, philosophers, biblical scholars, and religious leaders to write essays on social media. The result is a 460-page […]
The Theo-Logic of Love (and why Aquinas and Anselm are wrong)
In contrast to Aquinas and Anselm, I think God’s love involves more than outgoing benevolence. God’s love also involves incoming empathy, receiving, and sometimes suffering.
What Does “God is Relational” Mean?
If you read many theology books, you’ve likely come across many theologians who say God is relational. But it’s not always clear what being “relational” means. I believe God is relational, and here’s what I mean… In the past, theologians used various words as or near synonyms with “relational.” The most common was “passible.” And […]
Why I Reject Creation from Nothing
Few people wake up one morning and say, “Today, I will renounce the idea God created our universe from nothing.” I suspect that most people have not even heard of the idea, which is expressed by the Latin words creatio ex nihilo. And those who have heard of creation from nothing probably have no reason to question […]
9 Reasons We Have Genuine but Limited Freedom
An essay I wrote has just been published. I argue humans and God have genuine but limited freedom. The new book is What’s with Free Will? Ethics and Religion after Neuroscience, edited by James Walters and Philip Clayton. The book responds to some neuroscientists who claim human free will is an illusion. These neuroscientists base […]
Overcoming Misunderstandings of My Creation Theory
My new theory of initial creation denies that God creates out of nothing. It says God always and lovingly creates out of that which God previously created. God is ever Creator. But I recognize that my alternative view is open to misunderstandings. So I want to address the most common. Upon first hearing my view […]