Moving The Hand Of God: An Evaluation Of The Practical Implications Of Open Theism On Prayer Life
Some years ago, a minor theological commotion was stirred up when a Malaysian songwriter penned a catchy tune, which proved to be popular among local churches. The lyrics of the chorus went something like this:
Some church leaders felt that it may inappropriately portray God as a puppet on strings, whose hands are manipulated by our requests. Others believed that it conveys a personal God who genuinely responds to our petitions and prayer requests.
These discussions are reliving the age-old question of how the all-knowing, all-powerful and unchanging God could be affected by our human actions[1]. Also, if God infallibly knows what will happen in the future anyway, why do we bother doing anything at all? Like it or not, our conscious or unconscious mental portraits of God have far-reaching implications on the Christian life. It is another way of saying that theology has profound pay-offs in our praxis. Therefore, it is not surprising to note both the heightened concern and excitement that followed in wake of a new model of God called “open theism”. Among other things, it proposed a portrait of God as genuinely relational and responsive to our free choices in such a way that He does not have complete knowledge of future events. The present paper will discuss its practical implications on the spiritual discipline of prayer.
Some years ago, a minor theological commotion was stirred up when a Malaysian songwriter penned a catchy tune, which proved to be popular among local churches. The lyrics of the chorus went something like this:
“Every time I pray, I move the hand of God,
My prayer does the things my hands cannot do”
Some church leaders felt that it may inappropriately portray God as a puppet on strings, whose hands are manipulated by our requests. Others believed that it conveys a personal God who genuinely responds to our petitions and prayer requests. These discussions are reliving the age-old question of how the all-knowing, all-powerful and unchanging God could be affected by our human actions[1]. Also, if God infallibly knows what will happen in the future anyway, why do we bother doing anything at all? Like it or not, our conscious or unconscious mental portraits of God have far-reaching implications on the Christian life. It is another way of saying that theology has profound pay-offs in our praxis. Therefore, it is not surprising to note both the heightened concern and excitement that followed in wake of a new model of God called “open theism”. Among other things, it proposed a portrait of God as genuinely relational and responsive to our free choices in such a way that He does not have complete knowledge of future events. The present paper will discuss its practical implications on the spiritual discipline of prayer.
Comments
Thank you for your overview of "open theism" and its implication with prayer. It is a relevant topic as "open theism" espouse a God that is so relational that he is easily manipulated.
Surely, that will be an insult to one of the attributes of God which is omniscience.
One question I have at the back of my mind is "what do the people who developed open theism hope to achieve by it?" Is it deconstructing for the sake of deconstructing? Is it to legitimise our current culture of absolute human autonomy? This is one question I would like an answer to.
Thanks again for the posts.
shalom
Chunking the essay and posting it inversely looks great
yes, I wanna take open theists' face value claims seriously - that they are really trying to be more faithful to Scripture, and rid it of alien 'Greek' influences. And yes, the model does have many appeals before i checked the price tag.
yet, looking at the different 'incarnations' of Clark Pinnock (as example) led many to believe tat instead of starting w scripture, and ask how we may apply it creatively... the process is ask wat culture is like, and then wonder how scripture may 'creatively' fit in.
Given our cultural and spiritual environment that values human autonomy, suspicion of authority, emphasis of relationship over doctrine, freedom of choice, man as the measure of all things, where the only heresy left is the notion that heresies exist....
...wouldn't it be a great idea to have a God who sends no one to hell, whose mercy is so wide He saves people even without the gospel, who doesn't tell you wat to do without consulting wat you want first, whose Word is open to any interpretation we find useful and whose love trumps absolute the bounds of truth? That's wat the "market" wants today, ar..
Keropok, thanks! I thot it might make things more readable compared to one lengthy post hehe...
Will forward it to my friends!
This is a really interesting post. It has got me thinking. I'm not really good at commenting about theological stuff, but I like reading them. Thanks for sharing! :)
God bless,
Addy aka Journalynne
Thanks so much for writing in, to know that someone actually likes reading these stuffs is very gratifying...
hehehe.. theology somehow is not usually linked with fun. But it could be.
Dropped by at your blog and looks like we have some mutual friends from PKV!
http://theagora.blogspot.com/2006/11/if-god-knows-future-why-pray.html