Open Theism

Elements in Religion and Monotheism

by Alan R. Rhoda

This Element shows Open theism as a monotheist model of God according to which the future is objectively open-ended, not just from the finite perspective of creation, but from God's perspective as well. This Element has three main sections. The first carefully defines open theism, distinguishes its major variants, compares it to other monotheistic models, and summarizes its history. The second develops biblical and philosophical arguments for open theism against its main rivals, emphasizing a novel philosophical argument that a causally open future must also be ontically, alethically, epistemically, and providentially open as well. The third responds to common objections against open theism related to perfect being theology, the ethics of risk-taking, biblical prophecy, and theological tradition.

76 pages, Paperback

Published March 21, 2024

Reviews

[Carson Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a well-argued book given its truncated size relative to the subject matter at hand. I can’t claim to understand some of the meatier philosophical arguments in its interior because they are so dense to meet the page limits as to be mostly impenetrable to someone with no formal training in logic. However, the periphery is much more comprehensible, so the general argument of the book is easily followed. One particular merit is that Rhoda steel-mans counterarguments and competing models such that, at times, it was difficult to see how he would wiggle out from the various charges. One fun thing about these models of divine providence/foreknowledge is that the premises of the arguments take you through discussions of contentious (and cool!) ideas about simplicity, time, determinacy, ethics, personhood, etc. Many will find that to be a major turnoff, but I see it as a welcome intellectual adventure through only roughly sketched metaphysical territory where unknowns abound. At any rate, I’m still finding openness theories to edge out competing views. At this point I think determinism of any flavor has good reason to be rejected, middle knowledge positions either lack grounding or collapse into “determinism with extra steps,” and timeless/simple foreknowledge views suffer modal collapse and have untenable philosophies of time. But then again, what do I know about anything :)

[Nathan Bozeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rhoda gave what I find to be a near irrefutable philosophical case for open theism. Before reading this book, I was quite convinced of open theism but still open (pun intended) to other views. I believe myself to be quite settled on the matter now. Now I want to read Pinnock and Sanders on the issue to get more of the theological implications of being an open theist. Excellent book. He also gave 6 Biblical arguments for preferring open theism to other views of divine foreknowledge. For such a short book, it is PACKED with information.

[Daniel Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of reading this before publication. I'll just share here what I shared with Alan Rhoda:

"I just finished your Element "Open Theism." The first word that comes to mind is: BEAUTIFUL.

That's not a word commonly used to describe an academic work, but I think yours qualifies. The architecture of the book works so well at showing the precise points of disagreement between these various perspectives, while also showing the conceptual tradeoffs one makes at each disjunct—it really is beautiful."

I will be chatting with Alan Rhoda about it on my Surprising God podcast soon. I highly recommend this book!