An evangelical discourse on God’s foreknowledge in relation to moral evil
Date
2019
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AFRICAJOURNALS
Abstract
Within the long tradition of Christian reflection on the problem of evil, different approaches to
justify God are developed. More specifically, this article focuses on the school of thought
within evangelical theology known as “Open Theism” of which Gregory Boyd is one of the
main exponents. Open theism is concerned with how God experiences the world. It asks and
attempts to answer questions such as, “What does God know?” and “When does God know
it?” The questions that open theists raise are not so much about how God knows the future,
but if God knows it at all. To absolve God from the responsibility of suffering induced by
human beings, Open Theist portrays God as taking risks by allowing human freedom since
God cannot know the future actions of free moral agents. This article will examine the position
adopted by Gregory Boyd2 on the theodicy problem as it relates to God’s foreknowledge. In
this article, I shall ask whether Boyd’s approach may be regarded as a fruitful extrapolation
of an understanding of divine foreknowledge within the evangelical tradition in relation to
human suffering.
Description
CITATION: Harold, G. 2019. An evangelical discourse on God’s foreknowledge in relation to moral evil. Pharos Journal of Theology, 100:1-15.
The original publication is available at https://www.pharosjot.com
The original publication is available at https://www.pharosjot.com
Keywords
Evangelicalism, Theodicy, Open theism
Citation
Harold, G. 2019. An evangelical discourse on God’s foreknowledge in relation to moral evil. Pharos Journal of Theology, 100:1-15