Openness Theology

The following is a dictionary definition of openness theology from my entry in the Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2013). Openness Theology is the view that God’s relationship to the world is open and dynamic as he adapts his will to the free-will of humanity. Love is the most important attribute of God which is expressed by his commitment to mankind’s freedom. God’s love may be rejected but this is the risk he takes to preserve free-will. God is omniscient in that he exhaustively knows all that can be known, but this does not include the future acts of free creatures. The future is open, even for God. Human will cooperates with God’s will to guide history. God is not the ultimate explanation for everything that happens; human decisions and actions make an important contribution too. History is the combined result of what God and his creatures decide to do. Instead of perceiving the entire course of human history in one timeless moment, God comes to know events as they occur. God’s own intentions are subject to revision based on his creature’s actions. Opponents of open theology maintain that it contradicts classical definitions of God’s immutability, omniscience, omnipotence. Opponents also illustrate how predictive prophecy often found in Scripture negates open theology’s claim that God’s knowledge of the future does not exist. N.b. This is not my personal view but simply a dictionary definition of Openness Theology.