Occasion of the Work & Background
When was the work originally written and who published it?
The literary works “Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views” is a theological treatise that is authored by Gregory A. Boyd, David Hunt, William Lane Craig, and Paul Helm. The text was published by the InterVarsity Press in the year 2001. The InterVarsity Press publication house is part of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship organization. It is committed to the publishing of religious scholarly works, texts and textbooks that are in touch with present and future subjects of contention in the religious arena.
What is the context of the work?
Controversial from its advent, the literary works “Divine Foreknowledge” was presented to the public at a time when religious debate on the openness of God and open-theism was almost dead within religious corridors. Additionally, the works triggered national and international debate in 2001 which opponents claiming that it absolved the role of God in human decision making.
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Why did the author write this work?
The work was written to voice a sound and informed opinion on the controversial subject of the openness of God. The theory of the openness of god suggests that the knowledge of God relies on external factors such as our decisions and is therefore not fixed.
What is the author’s background?
Gregory A. Boyd is a senior pastor and evangelist in addition to being a theologian and renowned author for his number 1 New York best-seller, “The Myth of a Christian Nation”. He is additionally a leading proponent of open theism.
David Hunt was a renowned proponent of the theory of Calvinism for which he wrote a book in the year 2002. David Hunt was an author and speaker deeply engrossed in ministry and theological work amid making more publications on religious openness.
William Lane Craig is a professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in California. He is a Christian apologist who has authored approximately thirty scholarly works on theology and philosophy. William is additionally a well-known proponent of natural theology and religion.
Paul Helm was a scholar and professor at Regent College where taught theology and philosophy. He was educated in BA and MA at Worcester College in Oxford and he brags of voluminous writings concerning history theology, apologetics, and philosophical theology among other subjects of concern.
Sources & Type of Work
What type of work is it?
The text by Paul Helm et al. is a theological treatise. Through critical analysis of the scripture in addition to meticulous discussions of the logical translation of the scripture, the authors successfully engage the audience through facts and evidences in the debate over the openness of God’s knowledge.
What parts of Scripture does the author use? What does the author mainly rely on: reason, Scripture, or experience?
The text is riddled with parts of the Scripture that are concerned with the ability and the promise of god to foretell future events and situations. For instance, Boyd easily picks out Isaiah 46:9-11 in which God declares knowledge of the end from the beginning.
The authors of the text mainly rely on reason which is evident in the style of analysis that the authors borrow. Additionally, the authors rely on the scripture to lay reference for instances when the all-knowing nature of God is stated or demonstrated.
What are the author’s presuppositions?
Where we came from: The authors are Christian and believe that humans were created by God from soil.
Who God is: God according to Christianity is the creator of all things that exist on earth and beyond and is all powerful, all seeing and all knowing.
Who we are: Human beings were created by God and were created to serve and praise God. Humans get tempted to commit sin, which them draw further from God and his goodness.
What’s wrong: Humans believe that power lies in the ability to be all knowing of the things that are bound to happen both in the near future and in the distant future. The text therefore elaborates on the ability of God to fulfill this defining characteristic.
What is authoritative: God is authoritative and through the scripture, he communicates with human beings who are his creation. Human beings are therefore expected to derive the code of behavior from the scripture.
Define Key Terms
Define words you don’t know.
Theism- belief in the existence of a supreme being
Libertarian- a person who expects to be subjected to free will
Phenomenological- concerning the subject of direct experience and recount of situation from the first person’s point of view.
Define words important to the author’s argument.
Freewill- this is the freedom accorded to human beings to free make decisions without the interference of divinity.
Foreknowledge- this is the ability of God to know the occurrence of future events before they occur, a concept deeply discussed in the works.
Thesis and Key Points
What is the work’s main thesis
The literary works suggests that even though God is indeed all knowing as is stated in the scriptures, the knowledge of God of the events that should happen in the future is limited to the actions and decisions of human beings.
What are the key points/arguments of the work?
The work argues that the knowledge of god of the future is dependent on the decisions we make and course of action we take.
Additionally, the works argue that God is control of the future to the extent to which he has decided to settle matters.
The works additionally suggest that despite the power God has, his main intention is not to control the future.
The text suggests that God has left part of the future undetermined by events that occurred in the past or the present, therefore emphasizing on the open nature of God’s all-knowing characteristic.
Reactions
Note questions and critiques of the work.
Throughout the works, the authors fail to mention how the theory of openness fails to demystify the inability of human beings to fathom events that occur in the future.
Additionally, while Gregory Boyd elaborately muses and expounds on the subject of open-theism in easily comprehensible language and sentence construction the other authors fail to demonstrate such an effort. Instead, the text by the three authors is written in complex language and draws from complex evidential sources.
What is your view of the work? Do you agree or disagree, and why?
I agree with the notions that have been proposed by the authors concerning the openness of the all-knowing nature of God. The works logically derive conclusions from the scriptures and appeal to reason as to why the all-knowing nature of God is open to human actions and decisions.
How well does the author’s view accord with Scripture?
Through the various references made to the scriptures regarding the all-knowing virtue of God, the view of the authors begs for application of reasoning in the translation of the scripture. The views of the authors are therefore overwhelmingly drawn from the scriptures.
What are the implications of this work for Christianity, society, for you?
The publication of this works and subsequent release for purchase raised a whole new debate on the subject of the theory of openness. Additionally, the works exposed a new realm to Christians and religious scholars especially given the logic and evidences provided to justify the conclusion that was reached.
