Roger E. Olson > Quotes

“Surely we can only come to understand each other's beliefs by means of direct encounter and open, honest discussion. In the meantime, many free churches invite all believers in Jesus Christ to the Table for the sake of true spiritual unity that transcends intellectual differences of interpretation. Withholding sacramental sharing on the basis of disagreement about the nature of the Lord's Supper seems odd to us. What two people think exactly alike about the act? We are not offended by Catholics' closed Communion, but we find it odd and exclusive. It places intellectual understanding above fellowship among disciples of Jesus Christ.”
― Roger E. Olson

“Before you disagree make sure you understand. In other words, we must make sure that we can describe another's theological position as he would describe it before we criticize or condemn. Another guiding principle should be 'Do not impute to others beliefs you regard as logically entailed by their beliefs but that they explicitly deny'.”
― Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities

“No truth is more pervasive in Scripture and Christian tradition than this one—that real freedom is found in obedience and servanthood. And yet no truth is more incongruent with modern culture. Here we stand before a stark either-or: the gospel message of true freedom versus the culture's ideal of self-creation, autonomy, and living "my way.”
― Roger Olson

“Who would believe that a teacher who withholds the information students need to pass a course merely permitted them to fail? What if that teacher said, "I didn't cause them to fail; they did it on their own"? Would anyone accept that explanation or would they accuse the teacher of not merely permitting the students to fail, but actually causing them to fail? And what if the teacher argued that he actually planned and rendered the students' failure certain for a good reason—to uphold academic standards and show what a great teacher he is by demonstrating how necessary his information is for students to pass? Would not these admissions only deepen everyone's conviction that the teacher is morally and professionally wrong?”
― Roger E. Olson, Against Calvinism: Rescuing God's Reputation from Radical Reformed Theology

“If God is love (1 John 4:7) but intended Christ’s atoning death to be the propitiation for only certain people so only they have any chance of being saved, then 'love' has no intelligible meaning when referring to God. All Christians agree that God is love. But believers in limited atonement must interpret God’s love as somehow compatible with God unconditionally selecting some people to eternal torment in hell when He could save them (because election to salvation and thus salvation itself is unconditional).”
― Roger E. Olson

“Someone has said that no theology is worth believing that cannot be preached standing in front of the gates of Auschwitz. I, for one, could not stand at those gates and preach a version of God’s sovereignty that makes the extermination of six million Jews, including many children, a part of the will and plan of God such that God foreordained and rendered it certain.18 I want young Calvinists (and others) to know and at least come to terms with the inevitable and unavoidable consequences of what this radical form of Reformed theology teaches. And I want to give their friends and relatives and Spiritual mentors ammunition to use in undermining their sometimes overconfidence in the solidity of their belief system.”
― Roger E. Olson, Against Calvinism: Rescuing God's Reputation from Radical Reformed Theology

“An irenic approach to expounding Christian beliefs is one that attempts always to understand opposing viewpoints before disagreeing, and when it is necessary to disagree does so respectfully and in love. An irenic approach to doctrine seeks common ground and values unity within diversity and diversity within unity. An irenic approach does not imply relativism or disregard for truth, but it does seek to live by the motto “in essentials unity,”
― Roger E. Olson, The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity & Diversity

“Non-Calvinists take God’s permissive will more seriously than Calvinists and explain biblical stories such as Joseph and his brothers (gen. 50) and the crucifixion of Jesus in that way—God foresaw and permitted sinful people to do things because he saw the good that he would bring out of them.49 But God by no means foreordained or rendered them certain.”
― Roger E. Olson, Against Calvinism: Rescuing God's Reputation from Radical Reformed Theology

“If God’s love is absolutely different from the highest and best notions of love as we derive them from Scripture itself (especially from Jesus Christ), then the term is simply meaningless when attached to God. One might as well say “God is creech-creech”—a meaningless assertion.”
― Roger E. Olson, Against Calvinism: Rescuing God's Reputation from Radical Reformed Theology

“Scripture is our norming norm and tradition is our normed norm and that in a doctrinal controversy Scripture alone has absolute veto power while The Great Tradition (orthodox doctrine) has a vote but not a veto.”
― Roger E. Olson

“If God’s love is absolutely different from the highest and best notions of love as we derive them from Scripture itself (especially from Jesus Christ), then the term is simply meaningless when attached to God. One might as well say “God is creech-creech”—a meaningless assertion. As I hope to demonstrate, some Calvinists agree with me about the analogy between God’s goodness and love and our highest and best ideas of goodness and love. Paul Helm, for example, rejects any idea that God’s goodness and love is totally qualitatively different from ours (as ours is derived from Scripture, of course). Yet, I will argue, even those who agree with me cannot adequately explain how their account of God’s sovereignty, especially in relation to sin, evil, and reprobation, is consistent with goodness or love.”
― Roger E. Olson, Against Calvinism: Rescuing God's Reputation from Radical Reformed Theology

“Plantinga explained, the scientific search for truth assumes nature is not all there is. If nature is all there is, then truth itself is a chimera and our human faculties for discovering and knowing it are unreliable.”
― Roger E. Olson, The Essentials of Christian Thought: Seeing Reality through the Biblical Story

“That is, for Arminius, inclusion in the covenant of grace is not determined solely by God but by the free response of the human person to God’s initiative in Christ and through the Holy Spirit.”
― Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities

“Traditional Arminian theology says that in and through the cross of Christ the sin of Adam inherited by all was forgiven (Romans 5) so that people are only condemnable for their own sins. The cross completely removes every obstacle to every human being’s salvation except their own resistance to God’s freely offered grace, which is given to all in some measure but especially through the preaching of the Word.”
― Roger E. Olson, Against Calvinism: Rescuing God's Reputation from Radical Reformed Theology

“A basic presupposition of this book is that the Bible does contain an implicit metaphysical vision of ultimate reality—the reality that is most important, final, highest, and behind everyday appearances. That vision of reality has been called various things such as “biblical theism” and “biblical personalism.” Perhaps “biblical personal theism” or “biblical theistic personalism” would be good terms for it.”
― Roger E. Olson, The Essentials of Christian Thought: Seeing Reality through the Biblical Story

“Taken to their logical conclusion, that even hell and all who will suffer there eternally are foreordained by God, God is thereby rendered morally ambiguous at best and a moral monster at worst.”
― Roger E. Olson, Against Calvinism: Rescuing God's Reputation from Radical Reformed Theology

“In his second oration Arminius concurs: “In this act of the mind and the will,—in seeing a present God, in loving him, and therefore in the enjoyment of him,—the salvation of man and his perfect happiness consist.”
― Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities

“«La humanidad está equivocada, completamente equivocada, ante Dios, y, por tanto, todo lo que se hace está equivocado. Es en este sentido que el pecado real es siempre una expresión del pecado original.»”
― Roger E. Olson, Teología Arminiana: Mitos y realidades

“It is not uncommon to hear Arminians describe themselves as “moderately Reformed” in order to ingratiate themselves to the movers and shakers of the evangelical movement.”
― Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities

“Arminianism teaches that all humans are born morally and spiritual depraved, and helpless to do anything good or worthy in God’s sight without a special infusion of God’s grace to overcome the affects of original sin.”
― Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities

“Finally, Clement laid down a principle of Christian leadership and discipleship: “Therefore it is right for us, having studied so many and such great examples, to bow the neck and, adopting the attitude of obedience, to submit to those who are the leaders of our souls, so that by ceasing from this futile dissension we may attain the goal that is truly set before us, free from all blame.”4”
― Roger E. Olson, The Story of Christian Theology

“no theology is worth believing that cannot be preached standing in front of the gates of Auschwitz.”
― Roger E. Olson, Against Calvinism: Rescuing God's Reputation from Radical Reformed Theology

“The continental divide between Calvinism and Arminianism, then, lies with different perspectives about God’s identity in revelation. Divine determinism creates problems in God’s character and in the God-human relationship that Arminians simply cannot live with. Because of their controlling vision of God as good, they are unable to affirm unconditional reprobation (which inexorably follows from unconditional election) because it makes God morally ambiguous at best.21 Denying divine determinism in salvation leads to Arminianism.”
― Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities

“which regards that divine-human relationship as governed by two covenants: one based on works and the other based on grace.”
― Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities

“The acids of modernity brought about by modern philosophy were just as corrosive for traditional religion as were the ones created by the new sciences.”
― Roger E. Olson, The Journey of Modern Theology: From Reconstruction to Deconstruction

“Knowledge has come to be defined as what can be proven by secular evidence and arguments.”
― Roger E. Olson, The Journey of Modern Theology: From Reconstruction to Deconstruction

“Ritschl taught that when Christians affirm the divinity of Jesus Christ, they mean that Jesus Christ has the value of God for them. Jesus was the inaugurator of the kingdom of God, which is God’s highest good. Because Jesus’ life was unequaled in devotion to the kingdom of God, he has the value of God. God realized his highest good in the man”
― Roger E. Olson, Against Liberal Theology: Putting the Brakes on Progressive Christianity

“Wesley noted that “to say, ‘This man is an Arminian,’ has the same effect on many hearers, as to say ‘This is a mad dog.’ ”11”
― Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities

“The point is that if Christianity is compatible with anything and everything it is nothing.”
― Roger E. Olson, The Essentials of Christian Thought: Seeing Reality through the Biblical Story

“simplicity without oversimplification.”
― Roger E. Olson, The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity & Diversity