CREATION MADE FREE: OPEN THEOLOGY ENGAGING SCIENCE
By Thomas Jay Oord
Eugene, OR
Wipf and Stock
2009
$31.00.
Tom Oord should be no stranger to readers of Religious Studies Review. As Professor of Theology at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho, he collects and edits thirteen essays that address Open Theology’s budding interaction with the natural and human sciences, which is a heretofore-neglected area. No more is that the case. In contradistinction to classic, conventional, theology(ies), Open Theology has its basis in the theology of John Wesley, highlighting God’s love, and genuine contingency of the future. Probably the most important critique of classical theology, highlighted by this volume, concerns the doctrine of God: principally, it rethinks divine presence and activity in world processes. It rejects interventionism, offering instead a panentheistic analogy for God’s relation to the world. It affirms Peacocke’s insight that God is ‘in, with, and under’ all creative processes, accompanying the perpetually endowed creativity of the world in its advance into higher-levels of complexity. As such, God is necessarily going-before the creation, leading it, luring it, and persuading it. Also highlighted is the effect(s) of Darwin upon Evangelical Theology, noting that a general theory of evolution poses no threat to it. Space neglects me from addressing all the important insights from this title, as each chapter is a profitable read. One would do well in contemplating its entailments.
Bradford McCall
Regent University