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June 20, 2007

Back to the Future: Open Theology report, part 2

Tom Flint and William Hasker debate whether God knows the future.

Debates rarely shed fresh light on their subject, but they are nevertheless diverting. Last night's debate between Tom Flint and William Hasker ("Does God Know the Future?") was no exception to this rule. Flint earned high marks for coming to a setting in which almost everyone in attendance disagreed with him--and keeping his equilibrium and his sense of humor. Hasker delivered the best line of the night, which came near the very end of the question period. Flint had objected that God as depicted by open theists might end up with a world in which the uncoerced choices of his creatures reached a sort of critical mass of darkness and despair. Hasker's riposte was to wonder if what Flint had in mind was a world almost in as bad shape as the world really is. Round two of the Melee at ENC will take place next Tuesday night when Karen Winslow and Randall Tan debate the same question from the perspective of biblical studies rather than philosophy. Meanwhile, in the ongoing seminar, Philip Clayton will speak later this morning on "Where It All Begins: Cosmology, Creation, and Open Theism."

Comments

Thanks for your reports, John. The conference sounds fascinating.

I hope that we'll read more in B&C on the compatibility between the theory of evolution and open theism (that's what, I'm guessing, Philip Clayton would speak about). In the meantime, I could already imagine some hopeful connections as I read the critique of M. Behe's The Edge of Evolution in The New Republic (http://www.powells.com/review/2007_06_14).

Agnieszka

Interesting thoughts.. Why do we have to base our theology (or judge authenticity) on mention of reference in specific ancient creeds? That seems potentially and unfortunately limiting..

I've written a couple papers on Open Theism, exploring it from the Old Testament perspective, as well as the New Testament perspective. Perhaps a conduit for further discussion?

Check out the papers at my blog:

Open Theism In The Old Testament: http://atspangler.net/?p=88

Open Theism In The New Testament: http://atspangler.net/?p=91