Episodes
Tuesday Nov 24, 2020
Richard Rice - The Future of Open Theism
Tuesday Nov 24, 2020
Tuesday Nov 24, 2020
Episode: The upstart theological movement called open theism is coming of age. It's time to reassess its possibilities, promises, and perils. One of the founders of open theism, Richard Rice, speaks with co-host Matt Bates about varieties of open theism, vexed models concerning God and time, and his own spiritual journey in the face of the intense controversies surrounding open theism within evangelicalism.
The Book: Richard Rice, The Future of Open Theism: From Antecedents to Opportunities (IVP Academic, 2020). Open theism has reached its adolescence. How did it get here? And where does it go from here? Since IVP's publication of The Openness of God in 1994, evangelical theology has grappled with the alternative vision of the doctrine of God that open theism offers. Responding to critics who claim that it proposes a truncated version of God that fails to account for Scripture and denies many of the traditional attributes of God, open theism's proponents contend that its view of God is not only biblically warranted but also more accurate―with a portrayal of God that emphasizes divine love for humanity and responsiveness to human free will. No matter what one's assessment, open theism inarguably has made a significant impact on recent theological discourse. Now, twenty-five years later, Richard Rice recounts in this volume the history of open theism from its antecedents and early developments to its more recent and varied expressions. He then considers different directions that open theism might continue to develop in relation to several primary doctrines of the Christian faith. (Publisher’s description).
Guest: Richard Rice received an MDiv degree from Andrews University in 1969, and an MA and PhD in Christian theology from the University of Chicago in 1972 and 1974, respectively. Rice is a Professor of Religion at Loma Linda University in the areas of Theology and Philosophy of Religion. Rice is the sole author numerous books, including God's Foreknowledge and Man’s Free Will; The Reign of God: An Introduction to Christian Theology from a Seventh-day Adventist Perspective; and Search for Meaning: Contemporary Responses to the Problem of Pain. He also co-authored, along with Clark Pinnock, John Sanders, William Hasker, and David Basinger, the book that for practical purposes launched open theism into the mainstream of theological conversation, The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God.
OnScript's Review: All Christians have implicit or explicit models regarding how God engages the world. As classical theologians consider the widest categories—God's relationship to time, providence, and human free will—open theism has proven to be a disruptive but necessary conversation partner. Richard Rice masterfully maps the past and present landscape of open theism while adding his own powerful and creative voice. --Matthew W. Bates, author of The Birth of the Trinity, for OnScript
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Kevin Grasso - Christ-Faith in Paul's Letters
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Episode: The debate as to whether the phrase πίστiς Χριστοῦ should be translated as "faith in Christ" (objective genitive) or the faithfulness of the Christ (subjective genitive) seems interminable. In an important new journal article, Kevin Grasso claims to have entirely disproven the viability of the objective genitive as traditionally understood. Meanwhile, he claims that a third-way solution ("Christ-faith" is better evidenced grammatically, while it also makes good theological sense of aspects of the subjective interpretation.
The Article: Kevin Grasso, “A Linguistic Analysis of πίστiς Χριστοῦ: The Case for the Third View,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 43 (2020), 108-44. Published Abstract: "This study seeks to demonstrate that the Pauline phrase πίστις Χριστοῦ is best understood grammatically as the ‘Christ-faith’ in accordance with the so-called ‘third view’, where ‘faith’ is taken to mean a system or set of beliefs, and ‘Christ’ qualifies what the system is about. I argue that the grammar disallows the meaning ‘faith in Christ’ where Christ is the object of one’s ‘trust’, since objective genitives can only mean ‘belief of something (to be true)’, as is shown by an analysis of the data in the NT and in Harrisville 1994; 2006. Additionally, the subjective genitive rendering often fails to make sense within the literary context and faces its own grammatical difficulties. Drawing on work from theoretical linguistics in lexical semantics and syntax, I show that the third view meaning, translated as the ‘Christ-faith’, is the most likely rendering given the context of each of the passages, the Greek case system and the meaning of the noun πίστις as used in the NT and other Koine Greek writings."
Guest: Kevin Grasso is the founder of Biblingo, a software program to teach the biblical languages, and a PhD student at Hebrew University in the Hebrew language department as well as an MA student in the comparative religion department. He did his MA in linguistics with a focus in Bible translation from Dallas International University. He studies theoretical linguistics, particularly syntax and semantics, as well as contemporaneous literature with the Scriptures. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Rachel and his son Emmett, and in his spare time, he enjoys playing basketball, hiking, hanging out with friends, Bible study, and occasionally attempting to play the violin.
OnScript's Review: Grasso's article makes a bold and potentially momentous claim: the traditional translation, "faith in Christ" as an objective genitive for pistis Christou, is grammatically disallowed. That is, the verb-noun-argument patterning evidenced for the pist* root shows that there is considerable evidence against and no grammatical evidence in favor of this translation, making it all but impossible. Although he may have offered a knock-out blow to the objective genitive, I don't find Grasso's evidence against the subjective decisive, for it does not take seriously enough how Paul establishes a pistis-lexicon and syntax earlier in his letters that places guiderails around how to take subsequent pistis Christou phrases. For example, the entire holistic ek pisteōs eis pistin structure ("by fidelity for fidelity") in Rom 1:17 needs to be taken more fully into account by Grasso given its relationship to dia pisteōs Iēsou Christou (through the fidelity of Jesus the Christ) and eis pantas tous pisteuontas (for all performing the fidelity action) in Rom 3:22. That is, Paul appears to separate the king's initial agency (by or through the Christ's fidelity) and its subsequent "for us" purpose (in order to cultivate human fidelity). [For further discussion, see Bates, "The External-Relational Shift in Faith (Pistis) in New Testament Research" CBR 18 (2020): 176-202, or, in a less technical fashion, Gospel Allegiance, p. 73-82]. Meanwhile Grasso musters evidence from reception history in favor of the third view that those favoring the subjective genitive will need to weigh. Regardless of questions about the subjective genitive versus the third way, Grasso's innovative demonstration that the objective genitive (as traditionally understood) is grammatically disallowed has seismic potential. --Matthew W. Bates, author of Salvation by Allegiance Alone, for OnScript
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Don Payne - Already Sanctified
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Episode: Conversations on sanctification can often leave Christians feeling spiritually inadequate and discouraged about their lack of spiritual growth and maturity, but Don J. Payne insists that this arises from a faulty view of sanctification. Instead, Scripture's view of sanctification, which involves being fitted for the presence of God and the purposes of God, should be understood as the sure foundation for the Christian life. Listen as theologian Don J. Payne joins Erin for a congenial and collegial interdisciplinary conversation on his newest book: Already Sanctified (Baker, 2020).
Guest: Dr. Don J. Payne is currently the Associate Professor of Theology and Christian Formation at Denver Seminary, where he has served in various faculty roles since 1998. Prior to earning his PhD in Systematic Theology from the University of Manchester, Don served a number of years in pastoral ministry in various churches in Tennessee and Colorado. In addition to Already Sanctified, he has published Surviving the Unthinkable (Resource Publications, 2015), and The Theology of the Christian Life in J. I. Packer's Thought (Paternoster, 2015). A proud West Texan from the Permian Basin region, Don has a penchant for hunting, fixing his truck, and Wolf Brand Chili.
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