A Theology of God’s Openness: Clark Pinnock

On January 13, 2005, Believing Minds, a radio journal exploring the academic disciplines in pursuit of informed discipleship, interviewed Clark H. Pinnock, Professor of Christian Interpretation at McMaster Divinity College in Ontario, Canada, about Openness Theology.  Dr. Pinnock was interviewed by John S. Tanner, professor of English and Academic Vice President at Brigham Young University and host of Believing Minds.  Professor Tanner specializes in the work of John Milton and is the author of “Anxiety in Eden: A Kierkegaardian Reading of Paradise Lost” published by Oxford University Press (1992). As a result, Professor Tanner is well suited to discussing the intersection between religion and literature.

Listen to the program (audio). (Total run time: 00:28:22).  If you are new to Openness Theology this is a concise introduction to the basic ideas.  Tanner does a great job inquiring into Pinnock’s thought.  Even if you are familiar with Openness thinking, it’s great to hear Dr. Pinnock elucidate his views.

When asked to explain the term Openness, Dr. Pinnock stated:

We picked up the term openness because it wasn’t in use in theology, and also because it expressed for us God’s openness to his creation, that God has a dynamic creation which he interacts with and God hears our prayers and responds to our needs.  So, it was a theology of God’s interactivity with human beings. So it’s not unique to us, but it seems to be something that people are really wanting to know about and are finding to be true in their own experience of life.

The Most Moved Mover

Clark Pinnock is perhaps most well-known for his contribution to the book “The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God” (Intervarsity Press, 1994) co-authored with Richard Rice, William Hasker and John Sanders.

Pinnock more recently authored “Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God’s Openness” (Baker Academic, 2001).  Those familiar with philosophy recognize that Pinnock’s title is a play on Aristotle’s description of God as the “Unmoved Mover.”  Pinnock believes that the God of the bible is not the God of Aristotle.

Most Moved Mover was reviewed by David Paulsen and Matthew G. Fisher.  See Paulsen and Fisher, “A New Evangelical Vision of God: Openness and Mormon Thought” FARMS Review of Books 15, no. 2 (2003): 415-42.  According to Paulsen, Pinnock

offers an “open” view of God that emphasizes his profound passibility and his genuine interpersonal relationships with other moral agents. The “open” God enters into authentic give-and-take relationships with human beings and leaves the future partly undetermined, allowing human beings to have an active role as agents within the unfolding of his purposes. (416).

Paulsen, writing in a Latter-day Saint publication, notes:

Pinnock’s work should warrant the attention of a Latter-day Saint audience for at least three reasons. First, many aspects of openness theology resonate with Latter-day Saint understandings of God. . . . Latter-day Saints may find that careful contemplation of Pinnock’s theological and philosophical reflections may reinforce some of their own convictions. . . . Second, Pinnock has opened the door for Latter-day Saints and openness thinkers to engage in cooperative work. . . .Third, the openness movement is gaining significant attention throughout the contemporary religious landscape. (416-417).

For more information, Dr. Pinnock’s interview with Homelitics Online is available here, titled “Does Prayer Change Things?  Yes, if you’re an Open Theist.”  Indeed, one of the attractive features of openness theology, according to Pinnock, is that it reflects how people actually understand God in their daily worship.

Believing Minds as Model for Interreligious Dialogue

As an aside, I want to highlight the mission of Believing Minds as I find it a great example of interfaith dialogue. The following is a brief portion from Believing Minds Statement of Purpose:

The First Commandment sanctions the mind as a means of worship.  It implies that devotion is incomplete unless the mind is integrated with heart, might, and strength.  At the same time, it obligates believers to engage the disciplines as disciples.  Love of God claims precedence as the first and highest love.  As such, it orders and subordinates all other loves.

The Second Commandment calls believers to love their neighbors as themselves.  This implies an obligation to understand neighbors-their culture, history, language, science, and so forth.  It also implies a responsibility to care about neighborhoods, for these shape the soul for good and ill.  Neighbor-love thus requires thoughtful engagement with the world, including serious reflection on the academic disciplines, which serve as the repository of worldly wisdom.

Many of our guests are drawn from distinguished campus visitors.  Most are not Latter-day Saints; few address uniquely LDS topics.  Rather, we seek guests who can help our listeners seek wisdom “out of the best books“; guests whose own work illuminates timely and timeless topics, which we explore in light of LDS conviction.

This is a statement of purpose I can heartily affirm.  Listen to more interviews at Believing Minds.

Explaining a Calvinist Worldview to a Latter-day Saint

The idea that human beings have free will plays a critical role in Latter-day Saint thought.  The importance of free will pervades the Grand Council narrative and Latter-day Saint beliefs concerning grace and salvation. Free will, or Agency, typically informs LDS philosopher’s views on God’s omniscience and foreknowledge. In my experience, the counter-cult movement tends to be heavily populated with Calvinists, and one puzzling irony is that Calvinists who interact with Mormons on a regular basis hold a radically different understanding of human free will.

While some Latter-day Saints reject such a notion on moral grounds, I’ve been frustrated with the notion because I’ve experienced it as a barrier to interreligious dialogue.  I address this issue in What is Bad Apologetics?, an actual exchange rendered into a Socratic dialogue.  In this dialogue, the Socratic inquiry into the nature of apologetics is terminated because the interlocutor holds the view that whether a person employs “good” apologetics or “bad” apologetics is ultimately determined by divine fiat and therefore an apologist is not responsible for his or her actions.

Seeing as how one’s view of human free will greatly influences the calibration of one’s theology, I believe it is important for Evangelicals to attempt to discuss this view with Mormons.  I’ve passionately advocated such a position in the past, but I suspect it has had little effect.

It is with this background that I’ve eagerly followed the recent exchange between Geoff Johnston and Aaron Shafovaloff.  This is not the first time Geoff and Aaron have explored the topic of free will.  On July 18, 2007, Geoff authored “The advantages of bad theology” and discussion between Geoff and Aaron culminated in an three part podcast (audio) (July 20, 2007, running time 2.5 hours).  This discussion covered a larger range of topics other than Calvinism.  (Personally, I found the 2007 podcast a better exchange and recommend this one as having more explanatory value).

Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy Announces Mormon Chapter

The Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy (FID) is pleased to announce the formation of its Mormon Chapter, with Utah Valley University professor Brian D. Birch as the chapter director. Birch is director of UVU’s Religious Studies program and is an associate professor of philosophy who specializes in religious pluralism, comparative theology, and the ethical dimensions of interreligious dialogue. He also has strong credentials in Mormon studies, serving as editor of the Society of Mormon Philosophy and Theology’s journal, Element, as well as being on the board of directors for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and the steering committee of the Mormon Studies Consultation in the American Academy of Religion. He is also currently completing a book, Mormonism and Christian Thought, which is slated for publication by Oxford University Press in 2010.

“Brian Birch knows how to respect those who disagree with him,” says Randall Paul, president of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy. “His interest in other religions makes him a great listener. He is a natural interreligious diplomat, a believing Latter-day Saint interested in finding and clarifying truth from all sources.”

Birch adds: “I’m delighted to be part of the Foundation and to contribute to constructive interreligious dialogue. Latter-day Saints have been the object of increasing interest and scrutiny of late. This chapter will create opportunities for candid and engaging discussions and the opportunity for both sides to learn from the other.”

Birch will work to attract religiously bi-lingual members of the Mormon Chapter of FID to develop dialogue programs with particular religious groups that want to engage more deeply with Mormonism.

Read More from April 2009 Press Release at Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy

Peter Kreeft on Christianity in the Lord of the Rings

Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College and King’s College, presented “Christianity in the Lord of the Rings: Apologetics in Tolkien’s Classic” at the 2004 National Conference on Apologetics held November 3, 2004.  Listen to the mp3 here (total run time 1:04:11).  Dr. Kreeft has published several books including “The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind The Lord of the Rings,” “Summa of the Summa” and “Socrates Meets Jesus.”

Using Tokein’s personal writings and correspondance with readers, Dr. Kreeft provides great illumination and insight into Tokien’s Middle Earth.  For more audio lectures see Dr. Kreeft’s website.

Stephen Robinson and the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy

Recently various posts have raised the notion of inerrancy.  I believe it is important to clarify a mistake that has the possibility of being perpetuated in ensuing dialogue between Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals. [1] I refer to a mistake in How Wide the Divide (Intervarsity Press, 1997) that has created quite a bit of confusion.  Whenever Stephen E. Robinson is referring to the “Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy” [2] he is actually referring to a one sentence statement by Paul D. Feinberg.

Feinberg’s statement is not part of the Chicago Statement. It is not a sentence from the Summary Statement, the nineteen Articles of Affirmation and Denial, or the accompanying Exposition. None of these portions were the topic of substantial discussion in the book, if discussed at all. Indeed, as several reviewers of HWD have pointed out, many of the actual articles of the Chicago Statement directly contradict Robinson’s own views on, for example, revelation, an open canon and the role of prophets. [3] In fact, every time Robinson seems to be quoting from the Chicago Statement, he is in fact quoting Feinberg. The phrases “when all facts are known,” “in their original autographs,” and “properly interpreted” are not quotations from the Chicago Statement, but from Feinberg, even though Robinson mistakenly attributes them to the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. (pp. 56, 89).

Alvin Plantinga: Free Will and the Problem of Evil

One of the most important topics in religious conversations is the nature of human freedom.  On July 26, 2008 , Justin Brierley of Premier Christian Radio interviewed Alvin Plantinga, John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame as part the American Masters of Christian Thinking series. Listen to the interview at the Unbelievable website (mp3 here). The interview begins at audio marker 16:20.

If you’ve never read Alvin Plantinga, or are less familiar with the problem of evil and notions of free will, I highly recommend listening to this interview. In fact, because Plantinga focuses heavily on the concept of free will, I believe Evangelicals and Latter-day Saints would find the interview particularly relevant since this topic tends to linger in the background of many discussions between Evangelicals and Latter-day Saints.

LDS-Evangelical Dialogue With A British Accent

Each week Christian Premier Radio in London broadcasts Unbelievable with Justin Brierley. Unbelievable brings together people from different belief systems, typically a Christian participant and a non-Christian participant, to discuss matters relevant to the Christian faith.

On February 28, 2009, Unbelievable made available on their online archives a show they did in 2006 with Baptist Pastor Greg Johnson of Standing Together and Dr. Robert Millet of Brigham Young University.

Listen online begins at audio marker 17:20-1:20:33.

Download the MP3 from the Unbelievable Podcast Archive.

Abraham Lincoln and Blogging

Words are the prime currency of online communities. We shape these communities largely through postings and comments and more comments.  Here, adventurous adherents of faith communities sometimes wander far from home and often find themselves in unknown territories, confronted with different viewpoints-at times intriguing and at other times hostile. Sometimes this friction is educational and it’s good to be confronted with new ideas. Yet many times it is easy to let our emotions get the best of us when we perceive that our very existence, identity, and way of life is being unfairly attacked and caricatured by anonymous individuals who show no interest in “getting the facts straight.” It’s at these times that blank comment box becomes quite tempting. We envision filling it up with zingers and great one-liners. “Submit Comment” is just one click away.

Brief Announcement

I want to thank all those who have make comments and shared their perspectives on this blog over the past year.  As always, I’ve enjoyed the discussions and I also appreciate the new individuals I’ve been able to contact this year.

I want to let readers know that I’m currently working on some other projects at the moment, which has left me with precious little time left to write.  (I can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last post!)  Hopefully, when things settle down I’ll be able to start posting more regularly.  There is still much to discuss!

I still read and will respond to comments, and I add posts I find interesting to my Shared Google  Reader accessible from my sidebar.

Harvard undergraduate explains her Mormon faith

On September 23, 2008, five Harvard undergraduates were interviewed by journalist for the Washington Post, Sally Quinn, about their religious convictions (video). Students represented Islam, Mormonism, Judaism, Presbyterianism and Buddhism.   Before an audience of approximately 50 students, faculty and chaplains of diverse religions at Beren Hall at Harvard Hillel, these five students were asked to reveal their ’spiritual biographies.’  The panel discussion was titled “Engaging Religious Difference: Personal Quests for Purpose” and was part of day long series of events on “Faith Live on the Harvard Campus: Personal Quest, Public Conversation, and Global Citizenship.”

Notably, Rachel Esplin (left in photo), an undergraduate studying East Asian Studies, and president of the Latter-day Saint Students Association, was asked to explain her background growing up in Idaho, and how coming to Harvard has impacted her religious views and convictions.  I was extremely impressed at her ability to articulate her beliefs to others in universal terms and yet in a passionate manner.